Wisdom of 45+45 minutes

Those who try to characterize the Turkish head of state's 4-5-hour visit to Lviv as “mediation” before dawn are undoubtedly doing this with instructions. Because Mr. Erdoğan knows better than anyone that at the current stage of the war, which began with Russia's attack on Ukraine, there can be the talk of “mediation” neither by Turkey nor by any other country. Is it possible for Turkey, which has been a member of NATO for 70 years, to initiate “mediation” on its own, when about 50 countries, including the United States and NATO, from Japan to New Zealand, are taking a front against the aggressor? If they had looked at the program of the visit to Lviv, they would have seen that a 45-minute one-on-one meeting with the President of Ukraine, then a 45-minute tripartite meeting with the participation of the UN Secretary-General was planned. Let’s refer to the often repeated words of late theology professor Yaşar Nuri Öztürk, "Allah gave us mind and brain".

So, if Allah has given us mind and brain, in 45 minutes (taking into account that half of the time will be spent on translation - 25 minutes at best), the head of state of Turkey would say to the president of Ukraine, "I am your mediator, I have come with these proposals, accept them. As a mediator, I will meet with the head of state of Russia in a few days", is that so?

Or was everything ready in advance so that Mr. Erdoğan flew from Ankara to Poland, arrived in Lviv in 2.5 hours by land, and after drinking tea and coffee with Zelenskyy, the UN Secretary-General came to the room, he also drank a cup of coffee and everyone went home? It means that mediation is such an easy job.

I would like to remind you that we can show then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as an example so that he sweated for 10 hours behind closed doors when he went to Baghdad to offer mediation to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1998 and that Saddam did not accept the proposals...

The Turkish head of state's 3-4 hour trip to Lviv had several goals, the first of which was the intention to respond to the criticisms that have been rising from the West since March. Yes, when the Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Istanbul on March 29, the fact that Mr. Erdoğan showed a warm attitude towards the Russian delegation and wanted to portray Turkey as a “mediator” from the very beginning caused dissatisfaction in some capitals of the West, especially in Washington, and when the protests, voiced in low voices at the beginning of the case, have increased as the number of one-on-one and interdepartmental meetings and phone conversations between Putin and Erdogan has increased, the dose of criticism in protests from important media organizations and analysis centers has also increased. Mr. Erdoğan, who has gained great experience not only in Turkey's state governance but also in the field of international relations, decided to visit Lviv because he felt that these warnings made by the media and analysis centers could come from the states in a short period of time.

 The first goal of the visit was to deliver the message "We are meeting with Ukraine". Will a few hours' visit to Lviv prevent critical voices from the West? This will be determined by the state of relations with Russia in the near future. If the purpose of the several-hour visit to Lviv was not to convey the message to the West, "Look, we also went to Ukraine", then the process of deepening relations between Ankara and Kyiv will be under close observation (if, of course, there will be Ankara's moves for deepening relations).

Another purpose of the several-hour visit to Lviv is Ankara's intention to extract more concessions from Moscow, and there should be no doubt that Mr. Erdoğan will skillfully use this opportunity if he gets the chance.

However, there are still three questions that need to be asked and answered:

• Has anyone asked you to mediate? (we are not talking about Turkey in particular)
• How much power do you have to fulfill the terms of mediation?
• Are the most powerful actors of the current situation lean towards such mediation?

Since the beginning of the 2000s, when Turkey started to "mediate" on the initiative of Ahmet Davutoğlu to "solve" the Israeli-Palestinian problem, it aimed to integrate the Hamas organization into the system and reconcile with Israel. The result of the initiative is the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital. On May 1, 2009, Davutoğlu, who became the Minister of Foreign Affairs, declared that he would implement the “zero problems with neighbors” policy. Everyone saw the result of that policy...

It is our professional duty to closely monitor the “mediation” mission harvested by the partisan media.