Turning Türkiye: From the Sublime to the Absurd

Though Islamism defines Türkiye, it's a great trading nation whose elites aren't obsessed with an India-Pakistan binary. But nixing of a huge ship-building contract may have touched raw nerves

- M K BHADRAKUMAR

Honestly, I feel deeply pained to see marauding gangs of people stripping down the India-Türkiye relationship. My tryst with Türkiye began one evening in mid-1998 when Foreign Secretary K. Raghunath, an erudite mind in the pantheon of successful bureaucrats, told me he intended to propose to the prime minister my name as the next ambassador to Türkiye.

The secretary said Türkiye's 'pro-Pakistan' stance was annoying and I, as someone who had served at the Pakistan desk in South Block all through my career, might make a difference. Raghunath went on to reflect on Türkiye's glorious Ottoman history and astute statecraft through the ages to underscore that a pathway could be cut through the thicket full of weeds with dexterity and sensitivity.

I hit the ground running in Ankara. During the customary tête-à-tête after presentation of my letter of credentials, President Süleyman Demirel came straight to the Kashmir issue. I sensed the foxy veteran politician was testing me with a dollop of shock and awe. But I calmly iterated the official line and proceeded to speak about my brief to promote economic ties, hoping I'd catch the attention of Demirel, who had pursued a policy of economic growth in spite of civil violence and terrorism from extremist factions, inflation and a trade deficit. Demirel instinctively warmed up. And we ended up talking about our fondness for cashew nuts.

Lesson 1: It's the economy, stupid! One great thing about the Indian Foreign Service is that an ambassador is allowed a lot of latitude to navigate his way in the country of his accreditation. Some two months into my assignment, I sought a courtesy call on my Pakistani counterpart, a retired four-star general from Lahore—something none of my predecessors had cared to do, as he recollected later. At the end of a cordial conversation, we agreed that it made no sense to fight over Kashmir in the valleys and hills of Anatolia. He kept his word; so did I.