burak Akçapar Turkish ambassador, scholar and author
Sipping Turkish coffee and listening to Bach’s first violin concerto on the Eid weekend, I am cognizant that in international diplomacy, the tempo of the impending Septembers is hardly andante.
Septembers mark the beginning of a busy diplomatic calendar. Everyone has a mental cosmos and mine happens to be international affairs. So my ears fixed on Joshua Bell’s violin, I reflect on the theme of this year’s UN General Assembly: ‘Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet’. Wordy and mouthful, but quite successfully capturing the global quest of our times.
Because we humans are fragile, our follies are limitless and the institutions we build are imperfect. We continually suffer in the hands of the Mother Nature and each other. In crises, ultimately real people suffer when prevention fails and institutions flounder. Focus on such people, says the UN. Sometimes focussing on people starts by focussing on one person. Helping one is helping humanity. That is the logic behind accepting refugees.
Take Myanmar. Big names in the political analysis business are arguing that the military establishment in Myanmar is engineering the massive human tragedy unfolding in the Rakhine state in order to weaken the civilian government. Few would object that a crime against humanity is being perpetrated by the security forces and armed thugs who ethnically cleanse the country of the Rohingya people. Scores are dead and tens of thousands are trying to take refuge in Bangladesh.
We have seen this movie before. First, there is abundance of bad government that allows for rapid descent into unbounded cruelty. Secondly, no global or regional institution proves to be of much help. The UN Security Council did meet promptly to discuss the tragedy that befell the Rohingyas, but as usual has produced no result. Thirdly, the neighbours are left nearly alone in dealing with the massive influx of refugees. The number one per capita humanitarian donor and refugee host in the world is Turkey. Thus, understanding the dilemmas, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu offered to bear the costs in return for Bangladesh opening the doors to Rohingyas fleeing cruelty and death.
Help one if you cannot help them all. To me, this message comes across particularly strong in Turkey’s Oscar submission this year. At a time when a bewilderingly dangerous game of nuclear chess is played out in North Korea, Turkey chose Ayla, a true story drama of a Turkish soldier during the 1950 Korean War who risked his life to rescue and protect a near-frozen Korean young girl. The soldier took care of the girl, whom he called Ayla, until his return to Turkey. The girl called the Turkish soldier father and loved him profoundly. The soldier did try to take Ayla to Turkey, but his efforts fell victim to red tape as he was forced to entrust the girl to the care of an orphanage.
The two reunited in tears after six decades. I apologise if this summary contained spoilers, but the story is exactly what we needed to hear at a time when we apathetically watch news of wars, disasters, ethnic cleansing and other calamities as if these were another television show which did not put human lives at stake. There are tens of millions of refugees that await our attention, care and diplomacy. I don’t know if Ayla will win the best foreign-language film Oscar and the Academy can be rather erratic in its decisions. But it’s a good story that is timeless and well-told.Focusing on people is not incompatible with international relations. It is exactly what the international community ought to do if we are to advance rather than regress in humanity’s march towards a world in which everyone enjoys peace and decent life in a sustainable planet.Follow him on Twitter @akcapar