Politics & Power Quote by Bulent Ecevit

Ecevit’s line is doing the quiet but muscular work of geopolitical storytelling: it stretches Turkey’s relationship with Afghanistan back to the early republic era, then wraps it in the moral prestige of Turkey’s own war of independence. By invoking “the beginnings of the ’20s, 1920s,” he’s not chasing pedantic chronology so much as planting a flag in a shared origin myth: two modern nations, both shaking off old empires, both trying to script sovereignty in a hostile neighborhood.

The stumble in delivery (“from the beginning of... the beginnings,” “when he we”) is revealing. It reads less like a rehearsed soundbite than an attempt to force a complicated diplomatic claim into a simple, resonant frame: Turkey didn’t just show up when Afghanistan became a Western “problem.” We were there early; our help is principled, not opportunistic. That subtext matters in a region where external involvement is routinely interpreted as occupation, extraction, or proxy warfare.

Ecevit also casts “helping” as a continuous posture rather than a specific policy, keeping the verb deliberately vague. Vagueness is useful: it lets humanitarian assistance, training missions, diplomatic support, and soft-power outreach all sit under one clean umbrella, while sidestepping the messy question of outcomes. Contextually, this kind of retrospective solidarity is a politician’s way of legitimizing present-day engagement by laundering it through history, turning strategy into kinship and interest into obligation. The rhetorical move isn’t to prove Turkey’s influence; it’s to claim Turkey’s moral standing.