Dispatches from Turkey: Re-Entering the River

EDITOR’S NOTE: Our colleague Katchig Mouradian, the editor of our sister publication, The Armenian Weekly, is currently in Turkey as part of a visiting US delegation. His dispatches will provide an eyewitness perspective on some of the issues that concern us. This is part one of what promises to be an interesting series of dispatches.

Re-Entering the River: Dispatches from Turkey (Part I)

BY: KHATCHIG MOURADIAN

ANKARA—I am in Turkey again.

Let me rephrase that: I am in the Turkey of March 2010. Because, much like Heraclitus’s river, you can’t enter the same Turkey twice.

This is a country that is in constant change—change for the better and change for the worse, depending on when your toes touched the water.

And this makes commentary on Turkey quite difficult and challenging. No matter how many commentaries one reads, or how many times one enters the river, when making predictions about Turkish politics, you might as well flip a coin. It’s anybody’s guess.

There is one statement that can be made quite safely: Turkey is at a crossroads. No matter when you say it, you are probably right. Sometimes I imagine Turkey as a person sitting at a crossroads (with a lot of baggage), while everyone else is flipping coins…

But I digress.

I am a member of a nine-member delegation of U.S. commentators and analysts visiting Turkey at the invitation of TEPAV (Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey). The editor of the Armenian Reporter, Emil Sanamyan, is also part of the delegation. We are scheduled to meet Turkish leaders and politicians in Ankara and Istanbul, and make a trip to Kars/Ani.

Over the next week, I will be reporting and sharing my experiences with the readers of the Armenian Weekly and Asbarez newspapers. My writings will resemble blog posts; the longer and more detailed reports and interviews will be published upon my return.

Now I have to wrestle jetlag and try to recover from a full day up in the air and in airports.