ISTANBUL – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was supposed to be a football player. Had his father not prevented him from taking this path, he could have been one of the best Turkish strikers. His natural charisma could have rewarded him well in a football TV show, blabbering with other elderly pundits in a better world. Well, in such a beautiful world, there would have been neither horrible fathers nor Nato – nor indeed Sweden’s sudden urge to be part of the alliance. All such troubles being present today, Erdoğan is now dribbling the giant political football of Turkish veto power in order to shoot at the Swedish goal. His supporters are absolutely devoted, his team intact, and the Swedes seem like they didn’t even hear the referee’s starting whistle. They are certainly not prepared for the tricks.
A day after Erdoğan suddenly announced that he would use Turkey’s veto power to stop Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to Nato, foreign ministers gathered in Berlin to begin negotiations. According to a Reuters report quoting an anonymous Nato diplomat, the meeting was scandalous. The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, raised his voice at his Swedish counterpart, Ann Linde, saying that he was irritated at her “feminist policy” and bothered by her “drama”. Since I come from Turkey, such manners from the government’s leading figures are not as surprising to me as they are to a European woman. Still, the interesting part of the whole saga was that the ministers at the meeting opted for silence in embarrassment, according to the Nato diplomat quoted. Let’s stop there and look deep into that silent moment in Berlin.
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