ASAM closure making think tanks think harder

The abrupt end of Turkey's pioneering think tank, the Eurasian Strategic Research Center, or ASAM, activities last month led to questions about how independent think tanks in Turkey really are, and how important they are in shaping public policy.

"Independence has no guarantee in Turkey. It entirely depends on personal relations," Professor Güven Sak, director of Economic Research Foundation of Turkey, or TEPAV, told Hürriyet Daily News on Friday.

ASAM was an influential think tank in the field of international relations, with retired generals and diplomats under one roof. But after its dominant financier, ?lker Group, withdrew its financial support, the institution ended operations. Vice president of ASAM, Çağrı Erhan, in his resignation from his post last week, said ASAM came under intense pressure as it resisted the pressure of interests groups and of political power. "Independence is an attitude, no law can guarantee it. People who fund think tanks' activities should feel they are contributing to Turkey's intellectual capacity," Sak said.

ASAM's end is linked to its president, retired ambassador Faruk Loğoğlu's meeting with former president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and staunchly secular retired chief prosecutor, Sabih Kanadoğlu, while the closure case on the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, was ongoing, reported daily Radikal last week.

It is unclear whether ASAM will resume its activities under a different name, but the way it ended its activities might have broader implications for think tanks in Turkey. "ASAM's closure might lead to the idea that even nationwide think tanks do not have much importance," said İhsan Bal, from the International Strategic Research Institution, or USAK. ASAM's fate is also a case in point for the necessity of diversifying financial resources. "There are methods to overcome a dependency on one financial source, but think tanks do not develop these capabilities. ASAM either could not or did not want to diversify its financial sources," said Taha ?zhan, coordinator of economic research at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, or SETA.

"Ideological limitations or lack of procedural knowledge limit think tanks' funding from the European Union, the World Bank and similar institutions, to which Turkey contributes financially," ?zhan said. "Dependence on one source is dangerous from the point of view of sustainability. It also prevents forging transnational networks," said Can Paker, director of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, or TESEV, whose sources are among the most diversified in Turkey.

'No one pays for knowledge'
Other than suffering from ideological reservations about access to foreign funding, a lack of demand for think tanks makes their lifespan ephemeral, experts agreed.

"Turkey is trying to become involved in solutions to conflicts in the Middle East and the Caucasus. Its most valuable fuel is think tanks," Bal said, criticizing the unfounded suspicion that think tanks are biased toward whatever institution funds them.

TESAV's Paker, however, said public opinion could be an influential factor in shaping policymakers' decisions. "I think we have a powerful impact. Politicians cannot ignore the public, but they can neglect individual think tanks."

"I think it depends on the need and the quality of the work. We must not think the work is not influential. But this is not currently a trend," Sak said.