Not many ask for Turkey’s leadership

I was in the southeastern province of Gaziantep after being invited to the “Abant Meetings” by Zirve University. The topic was developments in the Middle East and, indeed, expectations from Turkey.

My reason for being there was to learn new things, as important figures from Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia were invited. There were very interesting observers among the Arab speakers, from those who have observed the incidents at Tahrir Square, to those who approach the subject from an academic perspective. Likewise, experts from the United Kingdom, the United States and other Western countries also participated. There were also writers like me and interested academics searching for new angles. It was not Turks talking Turks among Turks.

I want to share two of my observations:

- There is no consensus on how much of this is a “spring” and how much of it is a “autumn,” or whether the developments should be called “reforms,” an “uprising” or a “rebellion,” or even where the incidents are heading. Nobody has a healthy view. Minds are confused. Each speech starts with “Unless we want to fortune tell over coffee,” but ends with, “We will wait and see.”

- The only point that is known and that everybody agrees is there is no turning back from this direction and all the countries in this region will sooner or later democratize.

When the topic was Turkey, we saw how empty the discourse within the Turkish media is, as they say: “We will be the leader of the region. They all take Turkey as a model. We have ignited the fire of democracy. The Arabs are admiring us because of our economic successes and television series.”

Arab experts neither accept Turkey’s leadership nor its role as a model. Rather than asking for a big brother or exported models, they are asking for a sharing of experiences. There were some of us who already knew this but others needed to hear it one on one.