POLITICAL PROFILES

Şevket Süreyya Aydemir is one of the most important names in Turkish literature. Those who read his Enver Paşa, Tek Adam and İkinci Adam, each book a work of three volumes, not only get to know Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Ismet Inonu better, but acquire a higher understanding of the past one hundred fifty years of the country.

He was always a politician who cared about Turkey's relationship with Europe and the US. The problem was that he seemed to find it difficult to dial an appropriate tone when the West was clearly unfair to Turkey, and put immense pressures on the country. He sometimes found it difficult to strike a balance between not severing ties and loudly voicing Turkey's arguments. This was one of the reasons Erdogan started to put some distance between himself and Gul.

After the November 1 elections, maintaining relations with the "top" no longer seemed possible and maybe it was the best time for Davutoğlu to say "I have withdrawn from government office with dignity and on my own accord."Probably with his hopes renewed, the Teacher thought that he could continue to work with the Chief or simply those psychological factors made him believe so. He did not step aside that day either, but this time he could only stay in power for less than a year.

Turkey's spymaster does not have to "carry a dagger between his teeth". However, he needs to always bear in mind that his country has a 1,200 km border with Middle Eastern countries before he makes any moves. In other words, he needs to be aware that his regional counterparts have daggers clenched between their teeth.
Hakan Fidan is someone who knows it all too well.

This leader character or type is one of the prices we have had to pay for living in this geography. Kurdish-Turkish peace process was pointing to a bright and promising road map back in March 2013. But here we are, five years later with many lives lost and no hope for peace left, and one should not downplay the role of Öcalan and his character in this bleak picture today.

If he had managed to show courage for peace and deweaponization of the conflict and raise his voice, he could have become one of the catalyzers of the Turkish-Kurdish peace - if not at that moment, then in the long run. Even keeping silent in the face of Qandil's pressures would be a move that part of the public would understand, sustaining their hope for him. But Selahattin Demirtas even failed to do what Leyla Zana has done.