It is not France but Turkey that is the natural extension of Europe's soft power in its region.

The Prime Minister of Turkey is making a successful official trip through North Africa nowadays. He is saying what is has to be said. He is showing in practice the role Turkey can play in the region. And the attention he is receiving signals that Turkey actually can play that role. In Cairo, the first stop of the trip, Mr. Erdoğan was welcomed with enthusiasm. I watched those moments on Turkish television with pride, as any other citizen of the Republic of Turkey. Only the Turkish channels had a live broadcast. Al Jazeera made no broadcast about the Cairo visit. I wondered what the Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) Association was broadcasting and took a look at TRT-Arabic channel. Guess what they were broadcasting.

Erdoğan's trip to the capitals of the Arab Spring had started. Meanwhile, TRT-Arabic, which I thought was a channel that had been established to tell about Turkey in Arabic, was broadcasting a canned program on "timber production." What the hell is this now! As you might remember, I recently told you about the complaints about TRT-Arabic of an Arab friend of mine who is a broadcaster. He said, "The streets are in chaos, everyone is confused. When you turn on TRT-Arabic in search of a salve, you find an eggplant ragout recipe in Arabic." Then, nothing has changed when it comes to the TRT. Let me derive a couple of conclusions.

First, the Arab world now wants to integrate into the world. They have been out of the step throughout the twenty-first century. We have entered a new period now. We are living in a world in which everyone is so connected to each other that one is aware of how the police treat their citizens in Germany and the US, and cannot stand to see that the police treat their citizens differently in Cairo, Diyarbakır or Istanbul. This is what Mr. Erdoğan stressed in Cairo. And he was right. This is the first point to state.

Second, Turkey is an example for the Arab world that seeks to integrate into the world, as it has integrated into the world economy before the latter. Egypt and Turkey are the remainders of the same empire. Turkey has integrated into the world while Egypt has not, yet. When the empire was about to collapse, everyone had the same desire for modernization in Cairo, Beirut and Istanbul. We accomplished the goal while they did not. We might be unaware of what we have accomplished; but they are not. What catches the eye in the Arab world are the lights of Istanbul that shine 24/7. The joy of life and the lifestyles in Turkey attracts the attention of the Arab world. Turkey is now more important for what it is rather than for where it is located. We might be missing this point; but Turkey is attractive in its region as it is a part of Europe. No matter to what degree Mr. Sarkozy is pissed off, it is not France but Turkey that is the natural extension of Europe's soft power in its region. This is the second point.

Third point: Why in the world can't TRT-Arabic skip the canned dish recipes or music shows to broadcast programs that tell what Istanbul is and how people live there? The lack of creative energy within the TRT is one reason, while, I guess, the major one is that only a few people know Arabic. If you are not acquainted with the Arab world, you cannot make influential broadcasts about them. Recently, a friend of mine who is a diplomat told me, "Note that we are speaking with them in Arabic; but you are speaking with them in English." This is the issue here. This is what is sad for Turkey: Arabic and Russian are the two languages spoken in the surrounding region. However, these are not thought successful in Turkey. You cannot learn about a country if you do not speak its language. It is our unpreparedness that is the only enemy of Turkey in the current period. The absence of reflection on TRT-Arabic's side signals Turkey's unpreparedness. It is time for Turkey to organize Arabic Olympic Games, Russian Olympic Games and even English Olympic Games. This is the key to becoming a regional power.

Have you seen the Americans or the British organizing English Olympic Games?

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 16.09.2011