Tolerating the age of ambiguity
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Haziran 29, 2009 00:00
Here’s a question with which to start the week: how much ambiguity can a society tolerate?
We are not sure. But let us offer some of the questions on our mind, context to explain why we pose this vague question in the first place.
Just what’s going to happen in the ambiguous debate over the four-page, "finish off the AKP" plan alleged to have emanated within the military? What about the by-product of this debate of the past two weeks, the call to begin the legal process whereby plotters of the 1980 coup might be prosecuted and the response of key plotter, former president and retired Gen. Kenan Evren to commit suicide if such events come to pass?
As if Turkey’s suspicion-arousing response to Iran’s suspicious election results was not enough to create further ambiguity over relations with the broader neighborhood, what’s Turkey’s plan for dealings with Israel, Syria, the truncated state of Georgia, the "roadmap" with Armenia, mercurial Russia, an ever-more-distant Greece, or Cyprus with its endless list of irksome problems?
The prime minister announces his plan to revitalize Turkey European Union bid on a trip to Brussels. Is anyone listening?
A senior U.S. diplomat makes the rounds of seemingly open-ended talks on ways Turkey might help in the region. How sturdy a shoulder will Turkey put to the wheel of America’s challenges in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan? Or should it?
Amid yet more reports of intelligence failures, just when will the full truth of the murder more than two years ago of journalist Hrant Dink come to light?
We see one-off signs of the occasional card being played in the regional energy game, a strategic merger here, a plan for investment in an Adana power plant there. But what does the full deck look like in a country through which something approaching 10 percent of the world’s energy will transit in a few years time? And Nabucco, the leading but troubled pipeline project to secure Caspian gas for Europeans? And Gazprom’s vague warnings not to turn the quest for diverse energy routes into a "fetish?" What to make of this?
We are eager to see what emerges from weekend talks on the island of Corfu between NATO and Russia. What would a truly intelligent European security architecture for Europe look like?
Clearing of minefields along the Syrian border? Tackling corruption? Responding to endemic violence against women? Juveniles on trial as adults? Defining incest in the law? Defining the status and rights of refugees in the country? Rewriting the much-abused "green card" system of health care for the poor? Constitutional reform as reality, not rhetoric? An actual decision on a deal with the IMF as "green shoots" in desperate world economy fade like a mirage?
So much ambiguity. So little leadership. Just a few thoughts as we start the week.
Just what’s going to happen in the ambiguous debate over the four-page, "finish off the AKP" plan alleged to have emanated within the military? What about the by-product of this debate of the past two weeks, the call to begin the legal process whereby plotters of the 1980 coup might be prosecuted and the response of key plotter, former president and retired Gen. Kenan Evren to commit suicide if such events come to pass?
As if Turkey’s suspicion-arousing response to Iran’s suspicious election results was not enough to create further ambiguity over relations with the broader neighborhood, what’s Turkey’s plan for dealings with Israel, Syria, the truncated state of Georgia, the "roadmap" with Armenia, mercurial Russia, an ever-more-distant Greece, or Cyprus with its endless list of irksome problems?
The prime minister announces his plan to revitalize Turkey European Union bid on a trip to Brussels. Is anyone listening?
A senior U.S. diplomat makes the rounds of seemingly open-ended talks on ways Turkey might help in the region. How sturdy a shoulder will Turkey put to the wheel of America’s challenges in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan? Or should it?
Amid yet more reports of intelligence failures, just when will the full truth of the murder more than two years ago of journalist Hrant Dink come to light?
We see one-off signs of the occasional card being played in the regional energy game, a strategic merger here, a plan for investment in an Adana power plant there. But what does the full deck look like in a country through which something approaching 10 percent of the world’s energy will transit in a few years time? And Nabucco, the leading but troubled pipeline project to secure Caspian gas for Europeans? And Gazprom’s vague warnings not to turn the quest for diverse energy routes into a "fetish?" What to make of this?
We are eager to see what emerges from weekend talks on the island of Corfu between NATO and Russia. What would a truly intelligent European security architecture for Europe look like?
Clearing of minefields along the Syrian border? Tackling corruption? Responding to endemic violence against women? Juveniles on trial as adults? Defining incest in the law? Defining the status and rights of refugees in the country? Rewriting the much-abused "green card" system of health care for the poor? Constitutional reform as reality, not rhetoric? An actual decision on a deal with the IMF as "green shoots" in desperate world economy fade like a mirage?
So much ambiguity. So little leadership. Just a few thoughts as we start the week.