The heavy price of reading history backwards

Those responsible for the heavy price Turkey is paying for reading history backwards never take responsibility. Forget self-criticism or correcting mistakes; they will once again place the cost of their political blindness and strategic madness on the shoulders of the nation. Just look at the state the country has been brought to by an approach that turns its back on current reality and remains a prisoner of a schizophrenic dream world and imaginary constructs.

We are witnessing exactly what happens when an approach that is incompatible with the founding codes of the Republic seizes power. A Turkey isolated in the region and the world due to a "fantasy politics" that has replaced realpolitik is the bitter reality of our day. History will undoubtedly note not only those who applauded but also those who watched without reaction as the beams and columns of the state/regime architecture—which was based on modernity, the nation-state, a unitary structure, and secularism by the leaders of the liberation and founding who learned lessons from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, which had fallen into a semi-colonial state—were destroyed one by one!

While the Ukraine-Russia war continues at full speed to our north, will we be able to remain outside the fire that is spreading from Gaza across the region to our south and is almost at our doorstep? If we were living in the "Old Turkey" that the current political power belittles and caricatures, we could easily answer this question with a yes. The stance of the Old Turkey, which stood firm with the main dynamics of the regime structured on October 29, 1923, was known by the outside world, especially its neighbors. Because the Old Turkey was a country that inspired confidence in everyone with its serious state tradition, its meticulous implementation of the foreign policy determined by its founding leader Atatürk, and its peaceful stance.

The Old Turkey was a state that meticulously implemented Atatürk's three mandates/testaments that formed the roadmap of Turkish Foreign Policy. For those curious about the founding leader's testament, which remains valid today and is gathered under three headings, let us note them briefly:

1 Do not act as a tail to imperialist states

2 Do not spoil your relations with the USSR (Russia)

3 Keep your distance from the Arab world. Do not get involved in the internal conflicts of the Arabs

We are experiencing the bitter consequences of the liquidation of the qualified diplomats of the Turkish Foreign Service by an approach that prioritizes loyalty over merit and lives in a fantasy world instead of the real world. The assumption that the "Neo-Ottoman" brothers, who are unaware of the anti-Ottoman sentiment in the Arab world, are longingly waiting for their return to the field is entirely a dream. Turkey, which has been made a laughingstock by this pathetic obliviousness, is the striking reality of our day!

Boasting not based on power, detachment from reality, schizophrenic obsession, and all kinds of illusions cause harm in an individual sense if they are personal. However, the unrealistic, beyond-fantasy obsessions of those who govern the country and their actions in this direction not only destroy state institutionalism but also leave the country facing great dangers.

This is exactly the bitter reality that Turkey is experiencing. Turkey must urgently return to state institutionalism and the state wisdom that embodies the accumulation of the past, instead of the inconsistent, unrealistic, and erratic behavior that does not align with the country's interests and is determined by individual obsessions. Otherwise, it may be too late tomorrow.