on Davos forum spat: some personal thoughts

FromJavid Huseynov [javid@azeris.com]

on Davos forum spat: some personal thoughts

I think the position taken by Turkey in this conflict was strategically right. Although the implementation of strategy wasn’t worked out well in terms of PR, it’s actually beneficial for Israel. Why?

Turkey is truly becoming a leader of the Muslim world, and instead of being an alien bystander, once more taking in hands the moral authority once held by Ottomans. It’s a well calculated policy, and Turkey is already influencing not only the politics but also the hearts and minds of all Muslims (sufficient to say that entire MidEast lives watching Turkish soap operas and television nowadays). Being the leading major secular democratic Muslim nation, NATO member with EU aspirations, Turkey has an excellent chance to become a respected Muslim superpower and a party to deal with in all matters pertaining to Islamic world… and it already is now.

Shimon Perez, being a brilliant veteran politician and a Nobel Peace prize winner knows this very well, which is why he called Erdogan further to say he was sorry about what happened. Because it is in Israel’s and US best interest to work with democratic secular Turkey on all Muslim issues, instead of doing so with a divided, mostly corrupt and radical Arab statehoods. It’s better for Israel to have Turkey as a representative of Islamic world than irrational Ahmadinejad who threatens to erase Israel. And this position taken by Turkey will actually seriously weaken Iran’s influence in the Muslim Middle East but such policy requires getting the hearts of Muslim folk first, which is precisely what Turkey is doing.

But, Erdogan was not the right person to deliver this Turkish message. His behavior was unprofessional, his speech delivered in Turkish instead of English was far weaker and irritating than that of Shimon Perez. This shows that Erdogan is an excellent strategist but a horrible diplomat. Doing so in perpetration by an Armenian-American host was not appropriate. I am not sure who arranged for David Ignatius to be the host of this panel, and perhaps, Erdogan was unaware of it, but a positive side is that even as a host of a major global forum, a person of diaspora Armenian descent was unable to hold off his biases and let Erdogan finish his talk.

Regards,
Javid