Turkey is acting as a responsible member of the political globalization process.

The shares of the Arab Turkish Bank belonging to the Libyan government via the Libyan Foreign Bank have been handed over to Turkey's Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (SDIF.) In a way, Libya's assets have been entrusted to Turkey. Turkey thus has joined the "Kaddafi should go" coalition not just in its rhetoric, but also in action. How should one view this decision from the perspective of Turkey's economy? Why "Libya is not enough, we want Iran, too?" Let's take a look.

I'm inclined to see this development from within the context of the  June 24, 2011 statement of the OECD Financial Action Task Force (FATF). As you know, Turkey was blacklisted by the FATF on June 24 for failure to pursue money-laundering and terror financing. Let's start with this list business, if you will. The FATF was established in 1989. At that time, it was mostly working towards transparency to stop money-laundering and terror financing schemes on the global market. In 2000 it started publishing two lists. The first being "countries where caution was advised due to chronic problems," the second, "countries where it was risky to make transactions due to a lack of counter-measures." The lists became a highly visible and functional mechanism at the FATF's disposal. They are like the "doing business" surveys of the World Bank. According to FATF's June 24, 2011 press conference, North Korea and Iran were on the first list. The second list contained Bolivia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Cuba, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Syria and Turkey. This was Turkey's first appearance on the list. The times of sanctions on Libya and Iran have been unfortunate indeed.

I will draw some conclusions from all of this, if I may. First, Turkey is the only country on the above list that is a FATF founder and member. That makes the situation worse. It is one of 34 FATF members. Turkey is so central to political globalization that it finds itself part of any mechanism which safeguards that order. Now it is on the "non-cooperative countries or territories" list. The Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) in the ministry of finance was founded for this very reason in 1997. Turkey, plagued by terror financing, has been one of the countries to work for transparency in financial markets.

Second, to prevent money laundering means to have the mechanisms to pursue money launderers. There are two ways to gain ground in this endeavor: One must first have a registration and documentation system which allows for the surveillance of money launderers and terror financers. Then, one must be ready to use this information in international cooperation. This means that being on the list either means that a country does not have a transparent record-keeping system, or it does not want to cooperate with others and is protecting someone. With this in mind, please look at the above list of countries again. Turkey does not belong there.

Third, being on this list means being pushed off of the known map of the world, to be a pariah in the global village. All of those countries are political outcasts already. They are all on the edge of our world. Turkey is not like that. One cannot aim to be among the biggest economies in the world and abide being sidelined at the same time. At a time when uncontrolled growth fuelled by historic levels of deficit is making our country susceptible to outside shocks, it behooves us to be more predictable.

And sure enough, the developments in Libya have been positive so far. Our foreign minister, Prof. Ahmet Davutoğlu, did not go to Tripoli, but Benghazi. Turkey has closed its embassy in Tripoli temporarily. The Mavi Marmara is suffering technical difficulties. The financial precautions in alignment with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) have been taken. Turkey is acting as a responsible member of the political globalization process. This is progress. Now our eyes are on Iran and Syria.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 05.07.2011