Yesterday I read a column at Trakya Net Haber which made me really sad. I was not sad because of its content, the article was full of baseless claims with the hope of creating an illusion of a big conspiracy theory against Turkey. Frankly, the author did not write anything that is worth reading or even thinking about for 2 minutes. However, that column reminded me of our, Turkish people’s, tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. When you ask people on the street, most of them think the majority of the world is out there to get us. As a matter of fact, about 10-12 years ago I was one of those people. This may seem like an insignificant thing, however, I think at the aggregate level this tendency creates a lot of problems for Turkey.

When people are willing to believe in claims not based on any sort of fact or information but solely on artifacts, they are also willing to elect politicians who claims to protect people’s interest from these “evil powers”. In fact, all of these problems can easily be solved if we only put some effort into learning about the reality. Once a person starts reading about political history, understanding international relations, at least at a very simple level, becomes quite easy. The one thing we need to do is:

- Stop thinking that there is one giant conspiracy against Turkey, and western powers have nothing better to do but to sit and think about how to take Turkey down. Instead start realizing that international relations is a purely self-interested area where every country is simply trying to protect its own interest. Sometimes there are positive sum games where all the participants can benefit from a common agreement. Some other times there are zero-sum games, meaning one country’s gain is the other one’s lost.

If we can accept this simple platform, try to learn the rules and the players of the game instead of refusing to understand the game at all, we can move so much further and faster.

My hope for 2010 and beyond is an increasing desire to learn the truth and not let ourselves be used by manipulative agendas. We, as Turks, do not need to be afraid that the world is out there to get us. Turkey is an incredible country with enormous potential and we can deal with REAL problems at the international level without falling prey to conspiracy theories.

This is in response to Washington Post Article on 03/07/2008:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030703528.html

The effort to label PKK as freedom fighters continues. In 2008, when US is still deciding whether it is ready for an African-American president, they are forgetting that Turkey had many Kurdish presidents, prime ministers and ministers. How can they still argue that Kurds in Turkey have no political rights?

Turkey lost over 40,000 people because of PKK. US casualties caused by Al-Qaida is less than ten percent of this figure. How can you justify the cause of PKK when you take such a hard stance against Al-Qaida?

In Washington D.C., there are many think-tanks and media organizations that are part of this concerted effort. We will never give up and continue to fight them in every opportunity. We will always be loyal to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the forefathers of our country.

Turkish nation will never sit at the table and negotiate with terrorists. If it means more war, so be it.

I posted the blog below on Washington Post in response to an article on that newspaper titled “Turkey Bombs, the U.S. Applauds,” which criticizes Turkish operations in N.Iraq:

It is important to remember that Turkey has been calling on the US, the Iraqi government as well as the regional Kurdish authority in Northern Iraq to take stance against PKK terrorists numerous times. The regional Kurdish authority in Northern Iraq has repeatedly said that it has no control over the camps in mountains where PKK terrorists are hiding and launching attacks to kill Turkish civilians and military forces. If Iraq is the sovereign country as it is argued by the author, how could it say that it has no control over its own borders, which has been repeatedly stated by Barzani and Talabani? It is absurd to think that a country (Turkey) should not take such situation into its own hands and protect its people. All the stakeholders should stop using PKK as a gambling chip and treat it no different from any other terrorist organization in the world. Turkish people will never forget or forgive anybody who makes up excuses and chooses inaction against the PKK terrorists.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2007/12/turkey_bombs_iraq_and_the_us_a.html

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