This is what the government's ambassador looks like!

Who are we talking about?

Certainly not the career diplomats who have spent their lives in the corridors of the Foreign Ministry, who have worked day and night to defend the supreme interests of the country, who have carried the flag to places even God has forgotten, who have shielded the country with their minds and chests against the diplomatic jackals of the world, and who have been exhausted throughout their professional lives by dragging their children from here to there like kittens!

Even though the political Islamists—that is, those who hold power in the country today—try to belittle them as "monşer" (fancy/elitist) due to their own insecurities that they cannot seem to overcome, until yesterday, the country's best-trained civil servants came from the Foreign Ministry.

Let us give them their due!

Those we are talking about are the ones who, after finding favor with the powers that be, were parachuted into the rank of ambassador or ambassador's spouse without any regard for their education, knowledge, skills, or experience!

Are they all bad? Of course not.

Let us say that among them, there are those who do their jobs very well despite not having gone through the rigorous training of the Foreign Ministry.

But it is a fact that the majority are a spectacle.

For example, Ahmet Kavas, who was sent to Chad at the time because he was close to Ahmet Davutoğlu, made a post on social media saying "Al-Qaeda and terrorism are not the same thing" while trying to criticize France, and tensions flared on the Ankara-Paris line.

Sooner or later, if the tide turns, one of the most important chapters for those who will write about the AKP's foreign policy will undoubtedly be these fake diplomats.

Let us put on our reading glasses.

There are nearly 160 diplomatic mission chiefs serving abroad. Almost one-sixth of them have been appointed from the outside.

Pages could be written about each of them, but Egemen Bağış has a special place among them.

With the English he learned on the streets of New York, he was the black box of Tayyip's foreign affairs for many years. He served as his interpreter in the most critical contacts and was a witness to the most intimate conversations. But at the same time, he enabled him to conduct back-channel diplomacy through his connections.

Egemen Bağış was very skilled at marketing himself politically.

As soon as he became a deputy, he changed his classic political Islamist typology and adopted the style of his Western counterparts.

He also had good relations with the press corps.

And that is exactly why he ended up in trouble.

During the December 17-25 period, he exposed himself when he fell into a trap of sincerity set by Metehan Demir. He had to quickly descend the ladder he had climbed in politics due to the loose talk he made, saying, "I toss out one verse every Friday, go to Google, search for 'brotherhood in the Quran,' 'ingratitude in the Quran,' or whatever, and they all come up. Pick one from there and toss it out."

But despite this "Bakara-makara" scandal, Tayyip did not crumple him up and throw him away like Cüneyd Zapsu.

Yet, there should have been no explanation for tolerating these words while claiming to conduct politics based on Islamic sensitivities.

After he escaped the Supreme Court (Yüce Divan), he was left to fallow.

Relying on the fact that the people of our country have a short memory, he was rewarded for the sake of old times. In 2019, he was sent to Prague, one of the most beautiful capitals of Europe, as an Ambassador.

On October 25, Tayyip dismissed him and replaced him with Metin Feyzioğlu, one of the Palace sycophants.

Now let us ask, what did Egemen Bağış do for the supreme interests of the country during his five-year tenure in Prague?

A former EU Minister and Chief Negotiator should have been a warrior-like Ambassador in a mid-sized EU member country who could lead his counterparts to water and bring them back thirsty.

But politically, he didn't make a peep.

What about economically?

For example, did Czech capital invest more in Turkey during this period?

Or was there an explosion in Turkey's exports to this country?

We have not heard of any significant investment coming to Turkey. Even if we could not attract investment, perhaps our exports could have increased thanks to Egemen Bağış.

We immediately found the official data and looked at the numbers.

Indeed, the trade volume had exploded between 2019-2024 and reached nearly six billion dollars.

That is why, a day or two before Tayyip signed the decree, the Czech Chamber of Commerce awarded Egemen Bağış the "Mercury Medal" for his contributions to the development of bilateral trade.

This was the highest honor of the Czech Chamber of Commerce.

The country's leading news channel, NTV, must have thought, "We cannot be proud enough," and even produced a news story that polished and glorified Egemen Bağış.

He also shared this news on social media and showed off nicely.

However, it did not take us long to realize that things were not as they seemed. When we looked at the official data, we grasped the truth of the matter. As always, Egemen Bağış was marketing himself with a clever perception operation.

How so?

Although the Foreign Ministry has hidden the figures after 2021, the figures based on the Trademap data of the Ministry of Trade's General Directorate of International Agreements and the European Union were more than enough to show us the truth.

It was the trade volume that exploded, but this explosion was not in Turkey's favor, but to its detriment.

In 2019, that is, when Egemen Bağış went to Czechia, our imports were 1 billion 225 million 337 thousand dollars more than our exports.

In other words, we had a serious trade deficit.

Under normal circumstances, it could have been expected that our exports would increase and a reasonable balance would be reached in trade volume over the past five years.

On one side, a Turkey with a population of 85-90 million, and on the other, a Czechia with a population of 11 million...

But that is not what happened.

By 2023, our trade deficit had increased by exactly 660 million dollars, rising to 1 billion 885 million dollars.

If we compare it this way, we have put an extra 66 dollars into the pocket of every Czech citizen last year. While the people of our country are condemned to live at the hunger threshold, we are happy to be the ones to increase the prosperity of others again!

Of course, the Chamber of Commerce of those people did not award that medal for nothing. Even their own citizens do not serve their own country so well.

What is truly remarkable is his attempt to feed this to the people of our country as a success. Unfortunately, since no one is curious about the truth of the matter, Egemen Bağış is returning to the country with a fake success story.

Let us end our article by saying that we cannot be proud enough of him.