Many politicians have passed through the Türkiye political stage. Some left a mark at the level of proficiency. We often refer to former Presidents and Prime Ministers Süleyman Demirel, Turgut Özal and Adnan Menderes affirmatively when we discuss political history.
The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and its chairpeople are also frequently referred to. However, such leaders are usually resembled, especially with anti-democracy and oppression issues.
I want to mention Kamran Inan, who was active in Turkish politics before and after Sept. 12, 1980, a military coup. The late politician was a tribal leader from a southeastern province and a sheikh in his region. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following a world-class international education.
Inan was a very long-term member of Parliament, served as a permanent representative of Türkiye to the U.N. in Geneva for years, acted as the chairperson of the foreign affairs committee of the Turkish Parliament, and served as Energy and Natural Resources Minister, and Minister of State several years in the governments headed by Demirel and Özal.
Besides being Western-minded, like many Turkish diplomats, Inan not only embraced the core values of his nation but also possessed a deep awareness of Türkiye's immense potential.
Inan has written a book on Türkiye's understanding and global positioning of its potential with the title: "Türkiye that can say no." In the book, Inan expressed Türkiye has not been able to use its power, potential, and opportunities and that it has remained a country that has always been a loser, unable to assert its stance and defend its rights, especially in the face of the West for last 100 years and 150 years.
In the 1980s, during the days when Inan wrote a book and explained the Türkiye's power, potential and what can be done step by step, a challenging "Türkiye that can say no" seemed like an unrealistic dream.
There is a saying of Ibn Khaldun, which I frequently refer to in my articles: Just as water is like water, the future of a nation is like its past. The Türkiye Inan envisioned has now reached the position of a country that never resembles its late history, that is, robust, stable, challenging and aware of its situation.
There is a problem with some European states. They have difficulty comprehending that the international conjuncture has changed and that a multipolar, multi-faceted foreign policy perceptive has emerged. Chief among these states is Sweden. Swedish are acting as if they still have overseas colonies in Africa and the United States and as the master of the world. They sometimes need to look in the mirror.
When the Ukraine war broke out, the candidacy of two new countries' membership to NATO came to the agenda. Of these, Finland adapted quickly and cut its ties with terrorism. On the other hand, it is self-evident in every way that Sweden is trying to test and stall Türkiye.
I think that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will discuss this issue in the trilateral meeting he will hold with our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. And Türkiye expects its interlocutors to accept some conditions. In other words, Sweden will not get approval from Türkiye until it ceases to be a terror nest and gains a safe country position for itself and its allies.
And today, after the meeting held in Sweden, we can say that the "Türkiye that can say no" dream of Kamuran İnan is emerging step by step at the hands of President Erdoğan. Now we face a Türkiye aware of its power and a Turkish people looking for its future.
Türkiye did not come these days so effortlessly. In the last decade, Türkiye has knitted stitch by knot with Erdoğan's foreign policy and is slowly starting to bear fruits. It has coped with many challenges, including the Syrian civil war, the navy landing in the Mediterranean, the struggle for democracy in Libya, the support to Azerbaijan in the Armenia war, and its active neutrality in the Ukraine-Russia war, speaking with both sides.
Concurrently with the Egyptian-Turkish and the broken Middle East relations a few years ago, Türkiye is restoring all its ties from the Caucasus to the Middle East, from North Africa to the Balkans passionately, to the best of its capacity, as we entered the new year. I predict that the relations that Türkiye has established with its own hands will be much more enduring and more favorable than the alliance relations in the past.
