Do not insist, I won’t be foreign minister

Working for the Foreign Ministry is very prestigious and you get to travel a lot. And I am someone who speaks two foreign languages, is presentable, studied economics, and took some international relations classes.

I know that you might think I am cut out for the job and you may want me to take up the position, but with all due respect, I cannot. Please do not insist, as I won’t accept it. Well, firstly, I cannot quit the TV series whose script I’ve been writing. Secondly, the world is at its most complicated period in terms of diplomacy!

To begin with, I protest the fact that I got to see two cold wars during my lifetime, and I’m still at a quite young age.

You’ll say “be thankful for that” because living through a cold war is better than a hot war. You are right. But there is no guarantee it will not break out considering the current situation.

When you think that it is quite possible for the world’s most powerful two leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, to come to blows even over dinner on who was served first, as they are “gentlemen who make hot-tempered and sudden decisions” (look at how polite and diplomatic I am though, a foreign minister to the core!). These characters are somewhat rowdies. We cannot, as you know, say they are even-tempered people who measure twice, cut once. If the foreign countries’ leaders are not that important to them, they like pushing them around, both metaphorically and physically. And now, we are all facing an upper version of the cold war. But now, the leaders are crazier, more unpredictable, and spontaneous than before! If this was a computer game, I would probably not stop playing. But unfortunately, it is not a game; it is rather the real situation of our planet! It is because of this that I cannot stop watching news on TV channels.

At least, in the previous cold war, the sides were clearer, right? I guess it is because the former cold war had an order. We can almost hear each other saying, “Where are the good old cold wars!” Which country was on whose side was clear before; a couple of countries were trying to keep their impartial position, and that was it. Well, being a foreign minister was probably easier back then.

Now, on the other hand, we’re in total chaos. Commenters, political scientists, war theorists, and former soldiers are all on TV, morning, noon and night, trying to figure out who is on whose side, what is happening, and what will happen. All heated discussions, always, end with the phrases “Good luck to us, let there be peace and serenity.” But everyone knows how to say those things, my friends!

And on top of that, the place chosen as a battlefield is our neighbor country. Has anyone thought of what could happen here in Turkey if that place plunges into further mess, more people from there come here after fleeing the war? I hope people are making plans about what to do should this occur.

Let me talk frankly; our politics is for now relatively at a calm, even-tempered, and cautious state, without standing out among other countries and without having clear allies and foes. This is what I understand. I am not an expert to say whether or not this is normal.

But, I feel like, optimum solutions are trying to be found. But of course, as I said before, I am not a foreign minister. And the U.S. dollar and the euro, on the other hand, are not thinking like me.

What I want to say is that my generation is disgusted at everything we’ve been witnessing. Although it seems like we’re in a relatively privileged situation, the number of military coups, terrorist attacks, and cold wars in the fragmented country we’re living in has exhausted us.

I believe, however, that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.