Right after returning from his journey to the United States and Europe, the President of the Turkish-American Business Association and Vice-President of the Turgut Özal Foundation Zeynel Abidin Erdem analyzed theevents in the Middle East and Libya, the plans made on global tables concerning Turkey’s future,the direction Turkish-American relationships are headed and the European Union’s probable break down forTAKVİM readers.
Zeynel Abidin Erdem, talked about what is going on behind the scenes of the events in Libya and presented information about developments: "Libya has an important place in Turkey’s history. Kaddafi is finished. It seems that he might have three alternatives. Muslim countries, and specifically Turkey, could convince him to leave. Otherwise he would be killed during resulting conflicts or beaten by internal dynamics, arrested and stand trial. Deep America wants a repeat movie of ‘;Operation Provide Comfort”.The U.N.must not be deceived by these games. NATO and the United States must absolutely refrain from organizing a military operation. The matter should be resolved with human aid and peace forces. The UN should form a peace force consisting of soldiers from Muslim countries, in particular from Turkey”.
GLOBAL TABLES
In the light of special information he gained from his international contacts, the President of the Turkish-American Business Association Erdem talked about the way Turkey's future is viewed: "Turkey is a regional actor. It is in close contact with global actors. Global tables don’t like the success of others and they make plans for their failure. But the arguments they use to prevent Turkey’s future global position are running thin. Their chance to use the Alevi matter or the coup card is lost. They have only one card left, the PKK card. What we have to do is to immediately eliminate our Kurdish citizens’ concerns about the future via democratic interventions. We have to act fast to ensure that the PKK, used as a sub-contractor, is excluded from the Kurdish problem. They are getting ready to use this card during, as well as after, the elections”.
THE EU IS COLLAPSING
Zeynel Abidin Erdem, who said that French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit conducted in an ugly manner far from the customary statal discipline had been critized and condemned by the Turkish people, said: “The EU is already collapsing. The support given to the EU has gone down from 78 percent to 28 percent. EU’s boss EU is playing games, so we have to play counter-games.
It is obvious that they are not going to approve Turkey’s membership. Another fact is that the European Union is going toward a collapse. What's important for us is human rights, freedom and democracy. We are walking in that direction. We don't need the EU but they are going to need us; however when that time comes the EU will be fallen to pieces and we will see a Europe divided in three segments and Turkey will have become a global actor".
FUTURE WITH AMERICA
Zeynel Abidin Erdem analyzed potential developments concerning Turkish-American relationships and the new world order: "We all know what the United Kingdom did to destroy the Ottoman Empire and about the games played by Tzarist Russia and France. We should never forget who occupied Turkey and how we determined out own fate with the War of Independence. And we should certainly never forget into how many nations was the Ottoman Empire divided and how borders were drawn in the Middle East and the Balkans. It wouldn’t be a mistake to think that Europe is holding a grudge and seeking revenge for those days.
On the other hand, we don’t have any bad history with America. There will be many who will try to disrupt Turkish-American relations and Turkey should adopt a strategic stand against those. Our position as regional power and our relationships with global actors should be assessed in terms of Turkey’s geo-strategic position; we are not alone in the world and the problems born by playing big games are something else. We have to maintain our partnership balance with America. There will be various different dynamics at play in the USA, the president and his team will adopt different stances, but in the future the balance of Turkish-American relations will ensure the solution of many issues concerning the Middle East and the Near East". Zeynel Abidin Erdem answered our question "How is Israel going to affect Turkish-American relations?". “The USA can protect Israel, they can arrange their policies accordingly. This doesn’t really concern Turkey. In the new world order America won’t disrupt its relationship with Turkey because of Israel. Today Turkey is doing all that is necessary against Israel".
Prime Minster Erdoğan has a very positive attitude. Israel is the one who is in a jam. Israel is condemned to be alone because of its actions. Turkey and Israel are two separate countries. The logical thing to do is to know the games played by Israel and act accordingly. Today, the policies adopted by Turkey are being followed in America with the utmost attention. They are not happy about Israel’s current administration either. Turkey cannot take part in the new world order by looking at Israel, but by being the world’s tenth biggest economy and with its geo-strategic position. But we have to take back the PKK card from the global tables".