Cold breeze inside Foreign Ministry

Actually, after long and meticulous interviews with candidates, he rejected them all. Then one day, a young diplomat came knocking on the door of the minister. A short while later he started working as the private secretary of Babacan. His deputy as well as his new advisor were said to have been appointed by a similar process.

I do not think there is a big problem so far. Everyone would like to work with their own team. Members of the top administration in the ministry, starting from the undersecretary down in echelons to the head of departments, everyone lobbies the personnel department to pick those with whom they would like to work with. Sometimes they get what they want and sometimes they will have to contend with the appointments of the personnel.

Obviously the choices in these cases are based on the fact that there is a personal acquaintance, the experience of working together previously. To give a different example; Gürcan Türkoğlu, who is the current advisor to President Abdullah Gül, also worked closely with him when he was the foreign minister. We all know that Gül has known Türkoğlu for a very long time. Did Babacan personally know the members of the team with which he will work day and night? Or did he get a reference from somewhere? That is unknown to me. What I know is that, the unease in the ministry bureaucracy is not limited to the fact that Babacan preferred to bring his close entourage people who perhaps share the same "life style and vision," with him.

Actually, the real cause of concern is about the delay on certain appointments. The top five posts at the ministry have been empty for months. The delay in appointments to foreign missions has reached a record time. Initially no one was able to provide a reason behind the delays. Now there is only one remark resonating in the ministry corridors, "Babacan does not trust the ministry’s bureaucracy. He is looking for names close to his own ideology." In other words, Babacan is criticized for endorsing the attitude of classifying every one, as "one of us, one of them," an understanding that reflects the general reflex of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

The recent controversy over the Turkish representative at the United Nations mission seems to have upset many in the ministry. Whereas, ambassadors serving in Wellington, Mexico, Yemen and Dublin were all called back due to the 65-year age limit, the same rule was not applied to the Turkish representative in New York, Baki İlkin, who turned 65 as of last month. Many believe that his appointment as the president’s advisor in order to bypass the age limitation is legally controversial. This has, furthermore, led to speculations that the government is also preparing the way to enable those outside of the ministry bureaucracy to be appointed as ambassadors. So far the ministry has been immune to cronyism. But now some openly voice the fear that the AKP mentality is trying to get hold of the ministry. There are rumors that the number of those going to prayer on Fridays has increased among the young bureaucrats, something unheard of before. While the ministry’s undersecretary is under heavy criticism for just watching and doing nothing, there is also serious anger toward Ambassador İlkin for having accepted a procedure which is a first in the ministry’s history.