İbrahim Varlı
During a joint press conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s remarks regarding the Central Asian Turkic States’ recognition of Southern Cyprus revealed some of the most striking expressions of the party-state regime: “As a principle, we prefer not to discuss family matters in public. Efforts to use this situation to assign a negative note to our government will not succeed. We will continue to address every issue within our family council.”
While the palace regime is dragging Turkey into one of the gravest foreign policy collapses in recent times, what is happening is, in fact, not surprising. These statements are the manifestation of a mentality that has transformed the country into a party-family state. Just as domestically, externally too, all steps are taken not in line with “national interests” but rather the interests of the one-man rule.
NOT FOR THE COUNTRY, BUT FOR THE ONE-MAN RULE
Prof. Dr. İlhan Uzgel criticised Fidan with the following words, stating that the entire capacity of the country is being used solely to sustain the Erdoğan regime: “Turkey’s foreign policy, the Cyprus issue is not your family matter. No state is your family friend. You are trying to hide your lack of policy and your unserious statements, which have nothing to do with diplomacy. Your Central Asia policy has collapsed. Your Cyprus policy has collapsed. Your Eastern Mediterranean policy has collapsed. That is the essence of the situation. Now you are just trying to save face.”
Turkish foreign policy has been stumbling for quite some time, because there is no framework or strategy that could be called a foreign policy. What exists is a tangle of relations maintained solely for the one-man’s personal gain.
The ties established with American imperialism, Western power centres, and global power hubs are also formed with this mentality. The fate of a country of 86 million people has been tied to the fortunes of a single man’s rule.
FAILURE ON EVERY FRONT
Retired ambassador Selim Kuneralp also noted that a failed foreign policy filled with defeats is being pursued, emphasising that what is happening is a reflection of the one-man regime. According to Kuneralp, “Wherever you look, there is a debacle everywhere. It is unclear what they want; there is no foreign policy line or goal. What we have is a policy conducted on a daily, momentary basis. These are the characteristic features of one-man regimes. It cannot be otherwise.” The gap between the palace regime’s rhetoric and actions in foreign policy is widening.
KINSHIP AND BLOOD TIES ARE NOT WORKING
Although Minister Fidan tries to camouflage the failure by calling it “a family matter,” the fact that the Turkic states are beginning to recognise Southern Cyprus instead of Northern Cyprus has once again demonstrated that a union based on kinship and blood ties is not possible in foreign policy.
Despite the efforts to create a certain perception, the failure cannot be concealed. In foreign policy, kinship and blood relations hold no weight.
Retired Ambassador Faruk Loğoğlu also emphasised that Fidan’s statement was meaningless and inappropriate. Stating that the recognition of Southern Cyprus by the “brotherly” Turkic republics counts as a negative mark against the government, Loğoğlu said that Fidan’s statement, which came days later, was “an attempt to gloss over the situation because he didn’t want to acknowledge or openly address it.”
THE COST OF RUNNING THE COUNTRY LIKE A JOINT-STOCK COMPANY
On 15 March 2015, during the Balıkesir Economy Awards ceremony, Tayyip Erdoğan declared, “Turkey should be governed the way a joint-stock company is managed.” With this motto, the foundation for the new regime was laid in every field, both domestically and internationally.
On 7 June 2018, during a TV programme, he again emphasised his desire for the country to be managed like a joint-stock company, saying, “If we run the state like a company, we will get results.”
In a country run like a corporation, where institutional reasoning and functioning are disregarded, the result has been deep chaos across all areas, from the economy to foreign policy.
Today’s economic crisis, and the devastation witnessed in every area from Cyprus to the Eastern Mediterranean, from the Middle East to relations with the EU, are the direct products of this “one-man logic.”
INITIATIVES TO REVIVE THE REGIME
While the government side tries to sweep failures and defeats under the carpet within the rhetoric of “family,” “kinship,” and “blood ties,” the opposition displays a tendency to view foreign policy as “above politics.”
The reactions from the main opposition to claims that Germany imposed restrictions on the sale of Eurofighter fighter jets to Turkey after the 19 March İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) operation are striking. The CHP intervened regarding the Eurofighter issue, justifying it with an “above politics” approach.
Speaking to Cumhuriyet’s Doğa Öztürk, one of the party’s foreign affairs officials, Yankı Bağcıoğlu, stated that a strong national defence industry is an indispensable element for national security and argued that the matter should be kept “outside of politics.”
Ekrem İmamoğlu, the İBB Mayor detained through a political operation, also reacted to the claims by appealing to the Berlin government: “Turkey is not just Erdoğan; governments are temporary. Reverse this decision,” he said, urging that the sale should not be blocked.
NEITHER A FAMILY MATTER NOR ABOVE POLITICS
Despite government circles’ efforts to polish Fidan’s image, despite Erdoğan’s personal relations with Trump and Putin, and despite the regime’s seesaw strategy swinging between the US and Russia, foreign policy continues to suffer defeats.
Drilling operations in the Eastern Mediterranean have been halted, Greece is making successive moves in the Aegean, Israel acts with impunity in Syria, Southern Cyprus is progressing towards NATO membership, and Turkey’s attempts to secure a place within Europe’s “security architecture” are faltering.
Even though Minister Fidan tries to gloss over the situation with remarks like “we do not discuss family matters outside,” and despite all the efforts to create a different perception, foreign policy is facing a major collapse on every front.
In short, foreign policy is neither a “family matter” nor “above politics.”
Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled Ülke bir ‘anonim şirket’ dış politika ‘aile meselesi’, published in BirGün newspaper on April 26, 2025.