When I saw President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent reception at the Turkish House (Türkevi) as it is known in Turkish, located right across from the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, for a moment, I thought of the policies of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) when they were in power.
They stopped life in Türkiye. Leave the defense industry aside, there was barely industrialization or urbanization. I tried to visualize what it would look like if Türkiye were under CHP rule today.
I lived in Bursa in the 1980s as I was a student and had never seen the courthouse. While traveling from Ankara to Bursa, a retired police officer sat next to me, and he had to stop by the courthouse for a license transaction. He sought my help because he had to visit several other government offices, and it was half an hour before the end of working hours. So, together we rushed to the Governor's Office, the Police Department and a health institution beside the courthouse.
When I went to the courthouse, I was struck by the deplorable state of the building. The corridors were in disrepair, the surroundings unclean, and the old furniture. It was as if a ruin abandoned from the Middle Ages. Then, I thought about how to work under such unfavorable conditions and how justice would be served there.
In the years prior to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) assuming power, I encountered the same dilapidated view when we went to the Prime Ministry to visit a newly appointed minister. The Prime Ministry building of the Republic of Türkiye was in a state of disrepair, reflecting the condition of many institutions in Türkiye until the 1990s.
If Türkiye had been in the hands of the CHP mentality, most likely, no new buildings would have been built, and the costumes of civil servants would probably be in accordance with the decoration due to the lack of funds in old, neglected buildings.
President Erdoğan's speech at the U.N. is very critical, and many people will comment on it at length. But it is also noteworthy that the Turkish House serves diplomacy as a tower of glory.
Türkiye, which has completed its development and significant investments in the last 20 years, has reached the level of developed countries, without forgetting to erect the Turkish House in New York. When you exit the gate of the United Nations, you will see the Turkish House in very close proximity.
Because of the influence and charismatic leadership of Erdoğan worldwide, the guests would come again, and of course, they would like to have a table with President Erdoğan. It is likely that if the building had remained as it was, guests would have felt that they were encountering the standard of a Third World country.
However, the new Turkish House, befitting of Erdoğan's leadership, provides an image-enhancing service to Turkish diplomacy at the highest level.
With its exterior appearance, interior design, and patterns reflecting Turkish culture, the Turkish House has become a place worthy of the head-of-state of the Republic of Türkiye. President Erdoğan welcomed leaders from many countries to the Turkish House and discussed with them in a dignified manner as if he had hosted a second U.N. assembly.
Sometimes, when a country's image is enhanced, its prestige is enhanced, and if that prestige is nurtured by spatial improvement, it becomes more prestigious.
After the conquest of Istanbul, what surprised Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror the most in Istanbul was the size of the buildings. And he said, "So, to be an empire, you need big and magnificent buildings." When the Presidential Complex in Ankara was built and criticized as a palace, I referred to the words of Sultan Mehmed.
Erdoğan, who hosted all world leaders at the Turkish House, almost left no problematic area of the world untouched in his speech at the U.N. General Assembly. From oppressed geographies to geopolitical issues, from the grain corridor to the Ukraine-Russia war, he addressed every problem and issue.
