The Sakıp Sabancı Lecture in Washington

In the memory of Sakıp Sabancı, the late uncle of Sabancı Holding CEO Güler Sabancı, an international lecture is being organized annually at the Brookings Institute in Washington.

Chancellor of Oxford and Newcastle Universities Lord Chris Patten was this year’s speaker.

I had a chance to listen to the former U.S. State Secretary Madeleine Albright, Assistant Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the Obama administration’s Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke, and former U.S. diplomat Nicholas Burns at Sakıp Sabancı lectures held previously with Sabancı University’s cooperation.

An important thing about these lectures is that Sabancı University students are able to follow them through teleconferencing and even to pose questions to the lecturers.

International conferences, as Güler Sabancı emphasizes, help students to better understand complex world issues.

Who can deny the roller-coaster world politics has experienced lately?


Politicians at Obama’s door

The best example of this turmoil is, without doubt, the high number of politicians knocking on Obama’s door in Washington.

Let’s see who were lined-up at the White House door during the days I was in Washington for the lecture:

Israeli President Shimon Peres; Afghani President Hamid Kharzai; Pakistani President Ali Asif Zardari; Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers; and Swedish Foreign Minister Carld Bildt.

I recall only as many. At the Brookings Institute I ran into Kharzai in the hallway. Needless to remind you that he is preparing for re-election, therefore desperately needs Washington’s support.

As Pakistan goes through difficult days, Zadari, known as "Mr. 10 percent" in his country, is almost in the same situation with Kharzai. Anyway, let’s go back to Patten’s speech titled "Transatlantic Partners: The Challenges of Multilateralism for Europe, Turkey and the United States".

Lord Patten served as the European commissioner for external relations and the final British governor of Hong Kong. He is one of the key intellectuals of the day.

Parts of Patten’s remarks about Turkey, which I underlined during his speech, were some kind of a warning for us:

"Turkey can make the [EU negotiation] process easier or more difficultÉ

Turkey clearly has to choose what kind of country it wants to be Ğ to move forward or go back.

I hope it will choose to continue along the road to becoming a more successful, more daring country building on the successes of recent yearsÉ"

Distinguished political scientist Professor Francis Fukuyama also says Turkey is at a crossroad, during a luncheon as the guest of Güler Sabancı following Patten’s lecture.

I wish our politicians were able to attend these stimulating Sakıp Sabancı lectures.

Forget about the past lecturers, listening to Patten only would’ve helped them to break infertile policies.