Anecdotes from recent history... 'Let's give Gaddafi an honorary doctorate in philosophy'

Yaşar Yakış was the first Foreign Minister of the AKP. He passed away last week at the age of 86.

I had met him 6 years before he took charge of the Foreign Ministry in 2002.

He was Turkey's Ambassador to Cairo.

It was said that he was the only diplomat in the community who knew Arabic.

He was an extremely colorful personality and was from the Black Sea region. He did not hide the fact that he was Laz. Moreover, his Laz language skills were quite good.

In short, he was a unique individual.

The second half of the 90s were turbulent years for Turkey.

In the general elections held after the resignation of the short-lived coalition government formed between the DYP and ANAP, the Welfare Party (Refah Partisi) had come in first; Erbakan had formed a coalition with Çiller and taken the Prime Minister's seat on June 28, 1996.

He wanted to consolidate the success he achieved in domestic politics with the support he would receive from Islamic countries.

As soon as he took office, he first visited Iran, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and within a month, he had set out on an African tour.

I was one of the journalists covering that trip.

Our first stop was Egypt!

The plane carrying the Turkish delegation had landed at Cairo airport towards midnight.

However, even though the plane was carrying the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, the Turkish Flag had not been hoisted on the flagpole at the airport. 

No official welcoming ceremony had been organized either.

It might be very hard to believe today, but the Prime Ministry correspondents of that time, who were very sensitive about such matters, quickly set out to write the news of a “scandal in Cairo”.

We didn't know if there was a scandal yet, but when it came to attacking Erbakan, our illustrious press saw this situation as an opportunity.

Hosni Mubarak, known for his harsh stance against the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan), was in power in Egypt, and it was known that Erbakan would bring this issue to the agenda in his meeting with him. A few days before the visit, the Welfare Party members had leaked to the press that “The Professor (Hoca) will ask for the release of some imprisoned Brotherhood members.”

Our enterprising journalists immediately established the equation: Hosni Mubarak had not allowed an official welcoming ceremony at the airport, nor had he allowed the Turkish Flag to be hoisted, in order to react to Erbakan.

It was a very touching situation that stirred national feelings.

How could Erbakan allow Turkey's honor to be trampled upon, why didn't he cancel the trip “that very minute” and return to Ankara, and so on...

But it didn't sit right with me.

I didn't think it was that simple.

Official visits at the Prime Ministerial and Presidential level are planned down to the finest detail well in advance, all possibilities are taken into account to ensure no negative developments occur, and the program is made accordingly.

I went straight to Yaşar Yakış.

“Mr. Ambassador,” I said, “What is this issue? Why didn't the Egyptians hold an official welcoming ceremony at the airport, why wasn't our flag hoisted?”

With a bit of surprise, he said, “The flag is not hoisted and an official ceremony is not held after sunset; that's why. It is the simplest protocol rule. It was already planned this way. The official ceremony will be held tomorrow at the Presidential Palace.”

I wrote my news in this vein.

But the next day, all hell broke loose.

In the morning, the Welfare Party members who came down to the breakfast hall of the hotel where the journalists were staying with the Turkish delegation were practically fuming. Some of our enterprising journalists had taken cover to avoid being scolded, while others were doing everything they could, so to speak, to make amends with the Professor's staff.

What was interesting for me was the attitude of Akşam Newspaper, where I was working at the time.

How could we have missed such a scandal right in front of our eyes!

I tried to explain at length over the phone that this was not a scandal, but they wouldn't listen.

What did they mean, had the entire noble Turkish press—Hürriyet, Milliyet, Cumhuriyet, Sabah—written it wrong, and only we had written the truth? They had entered into a completely meaningless attempt to hold me accountable.

I was annoyed. With that anger, I went to Yaşar Yakış again and explained the situation as it was.

He said to me, “Now interview me. I will explain what happened and what didn't with all the details. You will also send a photo of yourself with me. This way, they will learn it from an official source.”

It made sense to me. We talked for 15 minutes before the meetings started, and we took a photo as he said.

I sent the interview and the photos to Istanbul without delay.

They didn't make a sound for a day or two. Afterwards, they published my article with the headline “Here is the behind-the-scenes of the scandal.” Despite Yaşar Yakış's extremely clear statements, our people still didn't believe there was no scandal.

The management of Akşam Newspaper could never overcome the feeling of inferiority they felt in the face of newspapers like Hürriyet, Milliyet, Cumhuriyet, and Sabah, for heaven's sake!

On the last day of the contacts in Egypt, as we were preparing to leave for Libya, I saw Yaşar Yakış at the hotel entrance.

When I went to him to thank him, he said, “Wait, let me give you a piece of news.”

“I have conveyed it to the Prime Minister in writing. Gaddafi has been a bit offended and angry with us lately. We need to win him over. Before the meetings are held, let the Ambassador inform him that we will give him an honorary doctorate. He loves such things very much. This way, we won't encounter any surprises.”

The rest is history...

We don't know if our Ambassador to Tripoli put such an offer on the table before the meeting with Erbakan, and if he did, what Gaddafi's response was.

But one way or another, the real scandal erupted in the Bedouin tent in Sirte.

In the middle of the night, in the middle of the desert, looking Erbakan straight in the eye, he blurted out, “Kurds also have the right to be independent under the Middle Eastern sun.”

He had struck us where we were most sensitive and had hurt all of Turkey. Yet, the Turkish people felt great gratitude towards him for his support during the Cyprus Peace Operation.

So, why did Gaddafi do such a thing?

Years later, in an interview I conducted with Yaşar Yakış in 2022, I asked him this.

“Actually, he was uncomfortable with Erbakan's Brotherhood (Ikhwan) leanings,” he said. He stated that Gaddafi thought imperialist powers would use the Brotherhood in some way to get their hands on the Middle East.

According to Yaşar Yakış, Gaddafi had brought this to the attention of Turkish officials many times.

His end came with the Arab Spring, which was a project to bring the Brotherhood to power in the Middle East and North Africa. Clearly, he was aware of the danger. But the people of our country could never digest the fact that he had hit us over the Kurdish issue.

As a twist of fate, let us end our article by noting that just six years after the tent scandal, Yaşar Yakış would become the first Foreign Minister of a political Islamist government that did not hide that it was the Turkish branch of the Brotherhood.