May 22, 2013: Parliament

We spent two days in Ankara visiting Parliament, the Foreign Ministry, and the headquarters of various Political Parties.

The first person we met on Wednesday was Dr. Mesut Ozcan, who is a member of a think tank in the Foreign Ministry. On the issue of Turkey/Israel relations, Dr. Ozcan stated that though no money can replace the lives of Turkish citizens that were lost, Turkey and Israel have national interests.  We discussed the idea that, especially regarding Syria, it might make sense for Turkey and Israel to come together.  

Probably the most exciting meeting of the day, though, was with the US Ambassador to Turkey.  The optimism that came from him regarding the Turkish people was stunning, and I thoroughly enjoyed how frank he was with us about the issues.  A theme that we encountered throughout the day (and our entire visit) was the ongoing peace process between the Turks and the Kurds.  One thing that Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr. emphasized (as well as many others) is just how fragile it is.  Although many people are very optimistic about the peace, it is important to recognize just how much is hanging in the balance.   

The first Parliamentarian we met on Wednesday was Mr. Volkan Bozkir, who is the chair of Committee on Foreign Affairs.  He has upwards of 22,000 followers on twitter (we got tweeted!) and said that he handles his own twitter account because it is something so serious, you can’t leave it to anybody else, a rarity from politicians in the US.  In the interview session, Professor Martin stated that “The eyes of the world are on this region,” and I couldn’t agree more.  Part of this, as Mr. Bozkir explained to us, is that the Middle East was expecting an “earthquake” but not for all of the “earthquakes” to happen at the same time.  Furthermore, Syria had some very different variables, including Bashar al-Assad’s backing by Russia, and the fact that they have no oil, discouraging other powers from exerting their influence. 

If you're up to it, you can find this on twitter!

Haluk Ozdalga is a member of parliament and the vice chair of the EU commission.  He is also a member of the AKP (the ruling party in Turkey).  Interestingly enough, he just published an article where he expressed his concern that the presidential system proposed by Prime Minister Erdogan is not suitable for Turkey. 

Finally, our last meeting of the way was with the Minister of Finance (which would be like meeting the Secretary of Treasury in the U.S. – WOW).  He went over a lot of things with us about how Turkey plans to continue their growth, especially with a continuously growing population.  What I found interesting, though, was the social and political mobility the Minister has achieved.  He came from a very poor town where only his father worked (on a farm) and he was one of 9 children.  In the US we might call that the American Dream.