[A-List] Turkish Speaker's snub to US ambassador

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tariq said:

> The recent snub by Turkish speaker of the parliament
> by refusing to attend a lunch by the US ambassador
> in Ankara is the freshest exertion to a freer policy
> by Turkey.

This may look that way to those who are following Turkey from
non-Turkish articles that appear in the international media but
this is just an appearance.

As the Dawn article you sent stated:

> Arinc said he had refused the offer because Pearson
> had failed to pay him a courtesy call when he was
> appointed as speaker last November.

If this is his true motive, then it is less than a principled
attitude. If Pearson had paid him the said courtesy, would he
accept the offer? What I gathered from several Turkish newspapers
from left to right is that he would.

The signals AKP sends on such matters have been very mixed from
day one. On the one hand, the AKP president Tayyip Erdogan calls
for "Attention to their cries for peace" and says "We don't want
blood and tears", on the other, his foreign minister Yakis says
"his government had instructed the Turkish military to draft a
plan providing for an American force that would be just large
enough to tie up Iraqi troops based in the northern part of the
country so a larger American force could attack Baghdad from the
south."

See:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/21/international/middleeast/21TURK
.html


As a Turkish saying goes:

"For such a diet, what kind of pickled cabbages are these?"

AKP may be Islamist but they are hardly there for the benefit of
the oppressed and dispossessed. Although they received most of
their votes from the working class, they represent and cater to
another section of the bourgeoisie, namely, the Anatolian
bourgeoisie, or the so-called "Anatolian Tigers" of the smaller
cities in Anatolia, who get ignored by the other mainstream
parties that cater to the Istanbul bourgeoisie. They have been
ardent servants of the IMF from day one, bowed to the US even
more than Ecevit, the former prime minister who had lost his
ability of good judgment due to old age, and have no hope and
intention to keep any of the promises they made to their voters.
Theirs is a neo-liberal agenda with Islamist leanings: interest
is bad, profits are good, especially if they are earned using
flexible labor in the global markets. That is all.

We have a very good name for such people. We call them "double
faced". They have several masks to put on depending on the
audience.

Anyway!

Best,
Sabri