It has always been difficult to distinguish between friend and foe when international politics come into play. Ertugrul Ozkok looks at the 'body language' of world community of nations when Turkiye celebrated 75th anniversary of Turkish Republic in 1988:
I asked for the list of foreign guests joining the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of Turkish Republic.
The list I received from Ministry of Foreign Affairs was very interesting to say the least.
If one uses the level of representations from various countries as indication of the importance they place on our Republic's 75th year anniversary, some striking conclusions are unavoidable.
Let's have a look at the countries represented at presidential level: Albania, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Israel, Kazakistan, Kirgizistan, Cyprus Turkish Republic, Comor, Hungary, Moldovia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan.
Second group contains the next level representatives in protocol, presidents of parliaments: Belarussia, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, India, Romania.
Then come the Prime ministers: Bosnia Herzegovina and Ukraine.
El Salvador sent the vice president.
Czech Republic and Croatia sent their vice Prime ministers.
England is represented by Prince Andrew and Jordan by Prince Ra'd Ibn Zaid.
17 other countries were represented at ministerial level. Among these, USA that had to send a representative to attend the signing ceremony of a petroleum pipeline agreement, Minister for Energy, Bill Richardson.
Russia sent the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Igor Ivanov. Bangladesh, Slovenia and Qatar have been represented by their foreign affairs ministers.
China was represented by their justice minister, Nigeria by minister of defence, Spain by environment minister, Indonesia, Netherlands, Egypt and Malaysia by their state ministers, Iraq by Petroleum minister, Macedonia and Mozambique by economy ministers, Senegal by culture minister, Guinea by communications minister, Vatican by immigration minister.
WEST'S SHAME
As we go down the list, you start wondering about our Western Friends, where are they?
Germany sent Federal Assembly vice president Hans Ulrich Klose but the problem is Klose lost this title two days before he arrived in Ankara.
Shame on Germany.
Italy and Belgium sent their ex-presidents; Marc Eykens and Emilio Colombo.
France sent Economic and Social Council President Jean Mattioli.
Austria, Switzerland, Lithuania, Cuba and Thailand were represented at vice minister level.
Greece, Argentina, Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway and Portugal represented by their advisers to foreign affairs.
Denmark and Finland represented at the lower level of vice adviser to foreign affairs.
The following countries have decided not to send special representatives but rather send their ambassadors in Ankara: Australia, Brazil, Algeria, Morocco, Philippines, south Africa, Canada, Kuwait, Libya, Mexico, Oman, Slovakia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Chile, Venezuela, Yugoslavia.
BRAVO COMOR
Then there are those countries that do not have embassies in Ankara. These countries sent their
ambassadors from other countries to attend the ceremonies:
Bahrain, Ireland, Costa Rica, Laos, Nepal, Peru, Rwanda, Singapore, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda,
Vietnam.
Then there are those which were represented at presidential adviser level: Iran, Mongolia and Poland.
It is not surprising to see Saudi Arabia being represented by their ambassador and Iran by presidential adviser. We do not expect either country to celebrate our republic's 75th anniversary with any enthusiasm. Both of them see our republic's success as a threat to their own(oppressive - Editor) regimes.
The most puzzling side of this whole representation scandal was the Western countries. These countries are supposed to be our allies and partners in numerous platforms. They could not even match the courtesy of the President of distant Pacific Island of Comor, Taki Abdulkerim.
I have never subscribed to conspiracy theories but this situation made me think twice.
INDIGESTION
Obviously some of our Western "Allies" are still unable to digest our successful Republic and our
diplomatic victory at Lausanne.
This picture has been useful in helping us see their true colours. We have 'again' reinforced our judgement as to who is our friend and who is our foe. We do not really care whether they attend or not, our Republic is going to flourish whether they want it or not.