Sopot

The festival venue, which is an open air theater in a forest, is lovely. To barbecue meat and eat it there is also a new experience. But I can not imagine holding an open air music festival there even in summer. The inhabitants of Sopot say in the summer the sea can be as warm as 22 degrees Celsius, but it is certain that Sopot cannot be compared with the Mediterranean region. I have to tell you that a friend of mine who called me in Sopot was swimming in Antalya.

During the forum, we had more than 10 sessions to attend, in which 130 speakers delivered speeches. In the end I have to admit that our minds became hazy. During the summer Sopot is a summer holiday resort. But during the winter time they turn it into a congress center. Just as we were there Lech Walesa was celebrating his 25th anniversary of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Participants came here from more than 25 countries and voiced their willingness to see Turkey get full accession to the European Union as soon as possible. On the other hand, the EU is continuously speaking about criteria. But nobody is questioning why the last 10 countries, including Poland, could get full accession as none of them had fulfilled the EU criteria. Academics, politicians and opinion makers attending the sessions were fully convinced that Turkey is prepared to choose a new road for herself. They speak about mutual lack of will and confidence.

It is obvious that we are entering an era of new strategic thinking. Nobody has any doubt that Turkey is a very important and big country economically. Another issue is that Turkey is a key country for Europe’s energy security. Turkey is also a bridge between Europe and Russia and a spring board between the Caucasus and the rest of the world. A Turkey which has political and economical stability is very important for the region.

Everybody knows that Turkey both commercially and financially is one of the biggest partners of Europe. They know it and stress the fact, but do not do anything.

Almost all of the participants come from the new members of the EU. Participation from EU’s elites is almost nil. Participation resembles almost the EU- Turkish Joint Parliamentary Commission. In other words small representatives of small countries, which are not in the decision making processes are here. Everybody knows that the global economic and financial crisis is big, but Turkey has no opportunity to hold talks with the EU on economic issues. The reason is that all related chapters remain closed. Economic issues are related to political problems. The world is becoming apart, but they still insist that political matters are of utmost importance.

The EU is taking strong measures to overcome the crisis, banks are bailed out, the Lisbon process is almost forgotten, but nobody is willing to talk economic matters with us. "Go to the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, to solve your economic problems," they say. But the IMF does not have $100 billion to lend us. In addition to this there are the municipal elections to be held in March.

Whenever we found the time in between sessions we took walks around Sopot’s narrow streets. Everywhere you can see the traces of German architecture although Poles do not like the word German. They even call Danzig Gdansk. Nowadays, an American trend is very popular here. Sopot will soon turn into an American holiday village.

As we do not like eating in hotel restaurants we went into the restaurants and bars quarter in Sopot. There is an İstanbul Doner Place there. Of course we did not go there as we wanted to try the Polish cuisine. The one we chose was not so pretty and full of flies. Later we regretted not entering the döner restaurant. I was not the one who was complaining but members of the group who were Europeans.

TASAM and Wschodni are developing an idea to organize an economic forum this time most probably in the Ukraine. It is essential that they hold the forum just before the G-20 meeting in London as economy will surely put both Turkey an Europe in a fix very soon.

It was my first time in Poland. As we arrived in the country from the north we could not see Warsaw. Poles are very much interested in Turkey. Although we do not accept the fact that Turkey and Poland are similar countries in certain aspects it may be that we will have the opportunity to understand Poland more closely in the near future.