From Munich to Baku, with Babacan 360 degrees in foreign politics

There is nothing at first glance. But if you are the foreign minister of Turkey, if your name is Ali Babacan and if you meet U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, U.S. National Security Chief Adviser Gen. James Jones and super diplomat in charge of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations Richard Holbrooke at the Munich Security Conference in the morning and then if you meet Azerbaijan President İlham Aliyev in the Azeri capital Baku to discuss Turkey-Armenia and Azerbaijan-Armenia relations in the afternoon, yes there is a relation.

Babacan is an extremely modest foreign minister who doesn’t show his qualities very often. If you look at the last half century of Turkey, you see Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil, Turan Güneş, İlter Türkmen, Mesut Yılmaz, Hikmet Çetin and finally Abdullah Gül in the foreign minister seat. And if you compare Babacan with any of them, he may not seem strong enough. But such comparison may also invite a misperception because Babacan, compared to his predecessors, is remarkably active.

He took a significant step in Turkey-Caucasus relations, Turkey-Armenia in particular, and that may raise him to the Turkish foreign policy pantheon among others.

Besides, most of the Turkish foreign ministers in the past did not have a chance to meet even half of the predecessors of the aforementioned names Babacan met in two days in Munich.

This perhaps could be explained by the profile of Turkey getting stronger in the changing world and its pro-active foreign policy. But we should give Babacan credit for his being a modest hard worker. We flew from Munich together and as soon as we landed in Ankara, he rushed to welcome Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin. After a few hours Babacan will fly again to spend the night in Luxemburg and then will come back Ankara to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mobarak who will pay an official visit to Turkish capital today. Babacan will head to Latvia afterwards and then to Moscow. He had to postpone a trip to Lithuania for 10 days due to this hectic diplomacy traffic. Such a dizzying schedule seems to become his way of life.

People who are chronically ill and an opponent of anything may critice him. I think I hear what they say "Constant trips here and there do not mean foreign policy." That’s correct, but as so many countries want to have contacts with Turkey and as their top officials are eager to visit Turkey, we couldn’t say that they are awarding a "country with no foreign policy".

In the near future, Turkey will be at the center of international politics and balances. We have had the hints in Munich. In the short-run, the Caucasus dimension of Turkish foreign policy may give birth to quite striking developments.

This is not originating from my impressions that I had with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammedyarov from whom we heard the course of the Azerbaijan-Armenia relations and the progress they make. This is the conclusion I have reached after learning about the content of Babacan’s meeting with his Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian, twice and with the Armenian President Serge Sarkisian once in Munich.

Let me make a confession here. Mammedyarov is such a straight forward, sincere man that he shared everything about the Azerbaijan-Armenian talks. He answered all of our questions without hesitationt, and without seeking shelter in the "state secret". We were able to squeeze a few words out of Babacan thanks to Mammedyarov. After realizing that we learned quite many things from his Azerbaijani counterpart, Babacan loosened up a bit.

Turkey-Armenia and Azerbaijan-Armenia relations are like two trains that will meet on the same cross at some point. There is progress and this is definitely not slow.

Babacan headed to the Baku Haydar Aliyev airport after meeting İlham Aliyev. We were three journalists on the plane visiting the area covered by Turkish foreign policy. "If you plan to write your memoirs in the future, where will you place the Caucasus among Turkey’s priorities in 2009?" I asked Babacan. He replied in a split second, "In the top five." Then he added, "But it could rise on the list in the next few months."

The first top-level contacts between Turkish diplomats and the Obama administration were held in Munich. At the dinner by the Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber, Biden was sitting on Stoiber’s right and Babacan was on Biden’s right. Estonian President was sitting on Babacan’s right. At the other side of the big round table, there were two more presidents, Hamid Kharzai of Afghanistan and Mikhael Saakashvili of Georgia.

Stoiber didn’t speak English so that helped! Because Biden then turned to his right and talked to Babacan for one and a half hours, especially about the latest developments in the Middle East and Iraq. Babacan in return gave Biden the details of the Turkey-Armenia and Azerbaijan-Armenia talks and the progress made in the Caucasus.

The Turkish foreign minister also met Henry Kissinger to talk about the global strategic issues with a focus on Turkish-American relations. Babacan talked with Gen. Jones about the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and the Iraq issue as he met Holbrooke for the Afghanistan-Pakistan issue.

I met with Jones at the entrance of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel. Jones was still wearing his military jacket with the emblem of the SACEUR, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. Jones doesn’t look like an ordinary general. I said: "I think you will have to visit Turkey as part of your new duty." "Certainly," he said, "I, as SACEUR, visited Turkey quite often because it’s a NATO country..."

In the meantime, let me remind you here that Babacan was in Kosovo last week. He met Macedonian Prime Minister Antonio Milososki and Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic in Munich to talk about the Balkans. Babacan came together with the European Union’s next term president Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt at the same panel.

If you are the Foreign Minister of Turkey, in an international meeting you have to make a 360 degree "panoramic tour" on foreign policy in 2009 regardless of the place. You don’t have to run after anyone. Everyone is coming to you.

And yes, they will do so.

The most important thing here is the attitude of the key country in the world, the United States. "All of the American officials I met said: ’We will hear you and consult with you’. And yes they did indeed. Right now, from Afghanistan to the Middle East there is not a crystal-clear U.S. policy. They will listen and consult," Babacan said, then smiled and added: "We’ll see for how long this consultation will continue."

"I hope they will not come four months later and say ’Now you listen’É," I said in return.

Joking aside, they cannot. The limits of a global power were strikingly revealed during the George W. Bush administration so very clearly that the new United States will have to look at most of the global issues in a 360 degree angle and so many American officials will have to visit Turkey.

But of course this is as long as they have addressees who know how to view the world from a 360-degree angleÉ