Ukraine has become the battleground for the war between the East and the West. Clashes between Russia and Europe, the showdown between the U.S. and Russia, are all taking place in Europe. This is the biggest breaking point, the deepest change of the last 70 years since World War II.
“War negotiations” are unfolding on Europe’s eastern border, within the West. This is the strongest indication that the Western order is falling apart, that the West is being restricted within its own borders, doomed to its own internal struggles.
Meanwhile, negotiations for peace, global diplomacy, geopolitical negotiations, and the new atmosphere that is shaping major power shifts, are all taking place in Turkey.
As the West is agonizing in fear, as the U.S. isolates Russia from the rest of the world, and as Russia threatens the West with nuclear disaster, Turkey has been the only place where these two worlds have been able to come together, look each other in the eye, and talk.
Negotiations in Turkey’s Mediterranean province of Antalya is a victory for the world. It is a victory even if it leads to no satisfactory outcome. Who knows, the next phase of this might be a summit between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This is a real possibility and must happen.
The likelihood of this instills hope. Ankara, which managed to bring Moscow and Kyiv together for the first time since the start of the war, is the center, the summit of global diplomacy. The importance of this negotiation table will be grasped when the course of the war reaches a fork in the road.
If you have failed to notice, these talks could not be set up in Europe, or the U.S. It could not be set up in China, India, or Japan. None of them were able to do this – none of them did this. The world’s central countries openly and clearly failed.
While world wars were being mentioned, while everyone was trying to take shelter somewhere, Turkey has been the only country that managed to strike balance between these two worlds.
This is because Turkey has something to say to both the East and the West. This is because Turkey is the only country that is able to present an idea, a stance, an authority against those who consider our region solely as a ground for wars, invasions, internal conflict, terrorism, sectarian conflict, and looting.
Turkey’s influence, its imperial mind, said something to the present and to the future without falling into the trap of valor, emotions, strict bias, Western influence, the media, and intoxication.
Have no doubt, Turkey’s stance, influence is spreading across countries, regions, and even continents. Turkey’s stance tells a great deal to every nation from Africa to the Middle East, from South Asia to Central Asia. This is a declaration of power.
Turkey is at the heart of both the East and the West. It has become the key to war, as well as the key to peace. It has become the symbol country for power shifts, new power formations, new rises. In this respect, Turkey can change the world’s axis.
Regardless of what happens in the Middle East, in Africa, in the Balkans, in the Caucasus, and in Central Asia, their point of connection is Turkey. This will continue for a long time to come. History has started to flow into its own basin, and there is no turning back from this: not in the short term, nor in the medium term.
This is beyond being simple “mediation.” It is not false optimism, or a pursuit to paint a positive self-image in the eyes of the world. It is not limited to taking advantage of the opportunity provided as a result of Turkey’s meeting with both Russia and Ukraine. It is also certainly not a “third-degree” role or duty tasked to Turkey.
During Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Turkey, he said, “Let us make a new start.” He said, “Turkey and Israel can and should cooperate in a way that will strikingly impact our region.” He arrived with an assertive proposal such as “making a striking impact.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev traveled to Turkey, so did Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Turkey’s axis is making changes.
Everybody running to Turkey, normalizing relations with Turkey, sending invites to Turkey should not be banalized in any way.
The “normalization with Middle East” started by Turkey is a joint regional project. This initiative, which will further continue in March with Saudi Arabia, may form an economic basin from Africa to the Middle East.
More importantly, it will relieve our region from the conflicts that have been ongoing for the last three decades, and prevent new wars from starting. Right at a time when the U.S. and Europe have turned within, this opportunity must be utilized.
It was only recently that the U.S. provoked the world against Iran, tried to break out war between the Arab world and Iran, attempted to conduct a coup in Venezuela, imposed on the people one of its own candidates, Juan Guaido, declaring that it does not recognize the country’s administration. However, the very same U.S. is now making oil deals with these two countries.
Why? Simply because it introduced an oil ban on Russia, it now needs to make up for this deficit. What happened to enmity, the bone of contention with the regime, the “truths” it promoted to the world? The U.S. forgot it all: It is displaying an unprecedented state of unscrupulousness, opportunism, and selfishness.
On the other hand, investing in Russia has turned into a racist hysteria. It has turned into isolation in every field of culture and art. Instead of standing against Ukraine’s invasion, instead of openly defending this country, it turned into the West’s quest to divide Russia and take over its resources.
For example, the dollar hegemony has always been America’s most effective weapon. It represents a sort of nuclear power. Yet, money was never before used as a weapon to this extent. Now, all countries are thinking that the U.S. will do the same things to them in the future. They think that this weapon should be taken from the U.S.
All countries from Latin America to China, from Russia to the Middle East, are aware that the Western financial system is exploitative, and are contemplating methods to get out of it.
The embargo on Russia revealed the danger awaiting the world. It gave rise to concerns for the future. This can thus destroy the Western order. This form of embargo can become a threat to the West.
The U.S., and particularly Europe, lost the war in Ukraine on the very day it started. The despicable racism that their politicians, media, and culture-art groups promoted boosted the world’s animosity.
More than two-thirds of the world felt deep hatred towards Western racism. This is Europe’s end, its demonization.
Those expressing their shock by saying, “Such wars are normal in the Middle East, in Africa, in Muslim countries. How can it happen in Europe,” revealed the most despicable state of the colonial mindset that has been ongoing for centuries.
The world will never accept this.
This is why the U.S. and Europe have become estranged from the world, and turned into a monument of hatred. Nobody will shed blood for the West’s defense. Every country, every region will focus on its own pursuits.
The Western world order has collapsed, and it can never again be re-established.
We need to focus on Turkey. We need to concern ourselves with how Turkey’s power surge impacts countries and continents. We need to negate the efforts of the operation mediums in our midst, the “internal invaders” commissioned to “stop Turkey.”
Also, there is no doubt that “Turkey is the 21st century’s surprise.” Soon, we won’t be the only ones stating this, the whole world will be saying it, too.
Even if the Ukraine invasion is stopped, even if the war ends, conflict will remain on Europe’s borders.
We need to consider the world’s emerging countries. We need to think out of the box; we need to free our minds. We need to turn our attention to the world of the brave, the determined, not to those who have regressed and have reached the end of their term.
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