Mr. Joe Biden, the great defender of democracy, is holding his second Summit for Democracy, which is scheduled from March 28 to March 30, and, according to the Foreign Policy magazine, “involved a hodgepodge of in-person and virtual events in Washington." Mr. Biden has four partners this time: Costa Rica, South Korea, the Netherlands, and Zambia, with 20 of his “most senior administration officials” will host representatives from 120 countries.
Türkiye, Hungary and Azerbaijan could not make it to the list again. But eight countries not invited to the White House’s inaugural summit in 2021 are being invited this time: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Gambia, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Lichtenstein, Mauritania, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Last time, Politico’s online site published the invitee list and labeled Türkiye as being “marginalized by the Biden administration.” They had also scolded the Administration for spending taxpayers’ money on an event that would not save democracy and offered its own 18 ideas to fix the issue. Unfortunately, the NeoCons at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon did not give a hoot of their valuable ideas (“Reset relations with Putin” was one of them!), so Politico did not publish the list of invitees this year. You can access last year’s list here.
Instead, ForeignPolicy.com, published by The Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company), is telling us that “Türkiye and Hungary, two troublesome U.S. allies,” have been “snubbed” by the Biden administration.
I do not know which is worse: Being marginalized or being snubbed. However, since the behavior that goes by these names amounts to the same thing as far as Türkiye is concerned, I will thank Mr. Biden again. Last time I thanked him for marginalizing Türkiye; this time, I thanked him.
I am not very much concerned about the intention of the President. A senior administration official, who spoke to The Associated Press (AP) on condition of anonymity, said that “The President will look to make the case that the events of last year have assured that the democratic government grounded in the rule of law and the will of the governed remains – despite its frequent messiness – the best system to promote prosperity and peace.”
Three out of five U.S. citizens would not say “The people!” when asked, “Who rules the U.S.” but that is not the point. I had given the indices showing how deep-rooted the democratic system has become in the U.S. in my “thank you” note to the President.
So, I won’t retake your time; and delve directly into the reasons for further thanking Mr. Biden.
Suppose Mr. President kindly asks for the list of Türkiye’s new military and non-military industrial exports. In that case, he will see that since they let Türkiye be Türkiye instead of making it beg for more crumbs from their table, he will see how happy the people are here.
He might continue to gather “the U.S. and like-minded allies to show the world that democracies are a better vehicle for societies than autocracies.” Türkiye has a world-class democracy and a good economic, cultural, and industrial development vehicle. Instead of being dragged along by the U.S. and its like-minded partners in Europe, Türkiye is prospering. Instead of elms from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and their ilk, Türkiye stands on its own two feet.
We see how the democracy exported to Afghanistan and Iraq worked; the kind of salvation slowly approaching Syria.
Being snubbed by Mr. Biden is a blessing in disguise. So, thanks again, Mr. Biden. But we need not your education.
