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Türkiye as a Pillar of Stability in the Troubled Waters of the Current Era

English Pages, 8. 5. 2025

Dear Dr. Suver, Distinguished Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Many thanks for inviting me to the 28th Eurasian Economic Summit, for bringing me back to Turkey and for giving me the floor in this already traditional final session of the Marmara Forum.

Most of us who live in Europe don’t often have the opportunity to attend an authentic Euro-Asian or Asia-European Forum. We are, therefore, especially pleased to be here. Inter-regional and intercultural dialogue is essential, as we live in an era which is more and more characterized by monologues. We should not only speak, but listen as well.

Once again, many thanks to Dr. Suver and his collaborators for organizing such a dialog for so many years.

When preparing my today’s remarks, I hesitated about the title. Suddenly, the well-known popular song from the end of the 1960s “Bridge over Troubled Water” came to my mind. That was decades ago. We were much younger, more naïve, and much less experienced when the song was first played. The world seemed to be more simple, more understandable, more clearly divided and delineated. The bipolar world of that era was easier to interpret. It was also more stable than it is these days. The term troubled waters becomes even more appropriate now, at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century.

Much has happened since that time. Fundamental geopolitical changes came in 1989, resulting in the collapse of the Soviet Union and in the end the world of bipolarity. This was followed by two short decades of American hegemony with all its pluses and minuses, with all its advantages and disadvantages. Undoubtedly pluses for us in Central and Eastern Europe. We were, however, aware that this was not the case of the whole world. People like me have always criticized the irresponsible export of Western democracy to the South and the East of our planet, as well as the ill-conceived support for all kinds of colour revolutions there. This led to the destabilization of many developing countries, including some in the Middle East.

In recent years, we have been moving toward the world of multipolarity. We are not yet there. We are somewhere in-between. The hegemon of the previous era does not want to lose its extraordinary position, while the other big players still hesitate to openly oppose his position.

I have always benefited from my economic background. It may be helpful for all of us to recall the well-known economic argumentation. We are neither in the world of perfect competition of countries, nor in the world of monopolistic competition. We are in a peculiar oligopolistic configuration. Economic theory tells us convincingly that this is the most unstable market arrangement. The same is true for the field of international politics.

The gradually developing multipolarity inevitably leads to instability. In this respect, I see Türkiye as a relatively solid point in the troubled waters of today. I wish your country the continuation of an already long era of domestic stability, which is an important precondition for any meaningful activity in the international arena. The world, and especially the Middle East, needs it.

In the document sent to us, the organizers asked us to contribute to building a more human world. In the previous years, a similar document spoke about re-humanizing the world. To be honest, I don’t fully understand what it means to humanize the world. It is an empty phrase for me. It just looks nice.

With all our reservations, the world is human. It is inhabited by humans and this will last until a potential victory of artificial intelligence or until an occupation of our planet by invaders from the universe.

We did not come here to speculate in the style of a science fiction. Let’s stay grounded in our reality, in our troubled waters, with problems created by ourselves, not by some inhuman acteurs. Let’s stay on Earth. This is the only firm ground we have. We shouldn’t make unpolitical populist declaratory statements which are impossible to transform into practical steps and measures.

There is one man-made problem, which bothers me now more than anything else. Because it is man-made, it is in our capacity to solve it or to get rid of it. I see the main problem of today in the sudden acceptance of wars as a permissible and – even by decent people promoted – method for resolving disputes among countries. I am convinced this is indefensible and unacceptable. We should say it openly and loudly. Even a fragile peace, achieved by means of painful compromises, is better than war.

I don’t say this accidently or without purpose. We meet here in the days when many parts of the world, including my own country, the Czech Republic, are celebrating the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The expectations of the whole mankind were in 1945 very optimistic. Everyone assumed that – after such a disaster – peace would last forever. That didn’t materialize. The current wars in Ukraine, in Gaza and in other places of the world demonstrate that we, the humans, haven’t learnt the lessons given to us by this 80 years old tragic experience.

This proves that only individuals are – eventually – able to learn lessons. I don’t think larger entities, e.g. nations or states, are able to do it. Each coming generation has to learn the lessons of history anew.

This year’s meeting here, in Istanbul, has proved that we, coming from so many very different countries, are able to listen to each other and to find mutual understanding. When we return back home, we should report about the friendly atmosphere which prevailed here.

Václav Klaus, 28th Eurasian Economic Summit, Istanbul, May 8, 2025