Prized for Peace, Punished for War

Is there anything that can be reversed to such a degree in a matter of three months?

Unfortunately, there is, and it did!

I will come back to the reasons later.

This is the story of that reversal. …

Until three months ago, the Woodrow Wilson Center, one of America’s most important think tanks, made it public that it was eagerly awaiting to give its annual prize for Community Service to Ahmet Davutoglu, the foreign minister of Turkey, for “his contributions in improving Turkey’s external credibility.”

The prize was given in the past to such respected personalities as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva; A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the president of India; American politicians Henry Kissinger and John McCain, architect Frank Gehry; and prominent journalists such as Barbara Walters.

Moreover, in March, the Wilson Center announced that it would grant its “Corporate Citizenship Award” to the Chairman of the Doğuş Group, Ferit Şahenk, for bringing “modern business practices and management styles to Turkey.”

Until today, no Turks had been nominated for such prestigious prizes.

But this year, two awards came to Turkey. …

In a ceremony held in Istanbul last night, Sahenk and Davutoglu did get the aforementioned prestigious awards.

They got the prizes. However, the situation in America was a mess.

The Public Service Award, which the Wilson Center had announced it would give to Ahmet Davutoglu three months ago and which was praised at the time by many American politicians, has since been undermined by Turkey’s stance regarding Israel and Iran during the same period, as these issues had brought Turkey face-to-face with America. This in turn brought the center’s director, Lee Hamilton, under fire.

It so happened that Gary Ackerman, member of the New York State House of Representatives, stressed the importance of cancelling the awarding of the prizes in an extremely harsh letter to Hamilton.

The monetary section of the prize, which bears the name of an intellectual American president who had contributed to world peace, comes from the United States Congress. This put the Wilson Center in an awkward position.

This is more so, since the center had nominated Davutoglu for the prize for his contributions to peace in the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East and for his diplomatic role in those events.

Indeed, in those days, many politicians in America and Europe had a real appreciation for Turkey’s shuttle role between Russia and Georgia, for its ability to bring unwavering Iraqi sides to the same discussion table, for its ability to bring the Serbs and the Boshnaks to the dialogue table and for Davutoglu’s role in and up to the signing of the protocols with longtime-enemy Armenia.

Yet it so happened that at the moment the prize was to be delivered on June 17, Turkey had created a big problem and almost went to war with America’s most trusted ally in the Middle East, Israel.

Also, in a very critical moment, and coming out of its “noncommittal” stance, Turkey even preferred Iran over America.

In the eyes of the Wilson Center, Davutoglu was, up to three months ago, a promising government functionary who was transforming his country into a pivotal peace broker in the area within the framework of “creative” and “constructive” suggestions.

This is why there was no opposition at the time for granting the center’s public service award to him.

But today Davutoglu, and his ruling AK Party’s image, is exactly the opposite in America.

Preferring friendship with Iran, and siding not with Abbas but his opponent, Hamas, against America’s 60-year-old ally, Israel; repeatedly putting Israel in the criminal’s seat; officially inviting Sudan’s criminal president to Turkey; accusing Netanyahu’s government of the heaviest crimes and taking no vengeance against Ahmadinejad, who has perplexed the West and America, makes Davutoglu and Turkey unacceptable.

So how was it that three months ago, America had no qualms in bestowing its Nobel Prize for peace, otherwise known as the Wilson Center’s Public Service Award, to Davutoglu, yet all hell broke loose and American congressmen vehemently opposed the bestowal of the prize on the very day it was to be presented?

Unfortunately, everything was reversed in three months.

Yesterday’s “Man of Peace” was suddenly declared a “Lord of War.”

It seems that a war penalty was mixed with the peace prize.

I will explain this more thoroughly tomorrow.