Eser Şekercioğlu is a visiting scholar at the Center for Policy Studies at Sabanci University in Istanbul.

Public Engagement

Compared to the UK G20 Summit, the G8 Summit held in L’Aquila failed to engage the public opinion in Turkey in any considerable way. the most potent reason why Turkish public opinion was largely oblivious to the G8 Summit seems to be the increasingly worse news about the state of the economy. The modest interest on the G20 Summit was created in part by Prime Minister Erdogan’s publicizing and in part by the summit’s focus on managing the global crisis. Now, with neither an engaging focus on the economic crisis nor any special interest shown by the top echelons of the politicians, major media outlets chose not to run any detailed stories about the summit culminating in the lack of public interest. Perhaps the wider agenda set for the summit played a role in the low level of public engagement but it was not the main reason. A more concentrated agenda on the economic crisis would have engaged the Turkish public more and created a more engaged following. However, it is still curious that Turkish media and hence the public was not more interested and engaged than they were. Turkey was among the countries invited to participate in the last two days of the meetings and some of the major issues that were discussed – Iran’s nuclear policy and global economic crisis – were of particular relevance for Turkey.

Public Focus

A G8-G20 comparison worth analyzing have not emerged in the wake of the G20 meetings in Italy as far as the major media outlets and general public mind is concerned. Turkey was among the countries invited to the meeting, and Prime Minister Erdogan participated in the last day of meetings. However, despite involvement at a high level, news on the summit was limited in scope and failed to induce a public debate on the roles of the G20 and G8 in world leadership. This is somewhat surprising since the future role of the G8 and several formulae proposed to extend the framework to 13 or 14 countries was also among the major discussions that made their way through international media outlets. In Turkey, a couple of major newspapers mentioned the discussions about the role of the G8 but only superficially and no widely read and followed commentator picked up the issue. This is interesting because while Turkey is an active participant in the G20 framework, it is not part of the G8+5 formula which has been functioning since 2007. It appears as if Turkey’s invitation to the last day of the meetings was perceived as if Turkey was included in a sort of G8 + X format. One major newspaper even misquoted Silvio Berlusconi to mention his satisfaction of extending G8 to G8+6 to include major emerging powers, including Turkey. Of course, in reality, Egypt was the additional 6th country to participate on the second day of the meetings. In short, what appeared to be a good opportunity to compare G20 and G8 meetings with respect to Turkey’s involvement and implications for the interests of the country was largely ignored  

G8 Relevance

The main rationale behind the initiation of the G20 meetings was to create a group that included all major industrial and developing economies. That was perhaps a tacit acknowledgement of the limitations of the G8 summits which were increasingly seen as exclusive, elite, unapproachable and cities where the summit gathers have become the main venue of anti-globalization demonstrations. The G20 meetings were welcomed in Turkey partly because Turkey itself was a participant, but perhaps more importantly because the new grouping of countries seemed more inclusive bringing together leaders of both major developed and developing economies. In addition, the Turkish public has always been somewhat suspicious of all-exclusive western look of the G8 summits. So, the public mind in Turkey is relatively more positive towards more inclusive formulae. In addition to other factors (for example, the Prime Minister’s publicizing efforts and end of capitalism references made in various media outlets in the wake of the G20 meetings), this is why G20 meeting was positively perceived in Turkey. If properly informed, a similar warmer attitude towards an expanded  G8 might be expected, but there was not a progressive build up towards the summit as there were for the G20 meetings.

Global Leadership

Despite the crowded docket of the summit, the global economic crisis was inevitably one of the major subjects. However, all that has reflected in the Turkish media was Berlusconi’s declaration that the worst of the crisis is behind us. In the wake of the growth rate data for the first quarter  (-13.8 %, worst quarter since 1945) such optimistic messages with no concrete steps did not stir the Turkish public opinion. On top of the limited public engagement came Prime Minister Erdogan’s comments on the situation in China concerning the incidents in the Xinjiang region. Erdogan once again chose the setting of an international summit to make some incensed comments about a third party. In Davos during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, he almost engaged in a quarrel with the Israeli Prime Minister over Gaza, and from L’Aquila he harshly criticized Chinese authorities for their conduct in Xianjiang. In both cases, the main motive was domestic in nature, messages was intended for the Turkish public to perceive Tayyip Erdogan as a strong leader. While Erdogan maybe somehow increased his political capital at home, the summit failed to assure the Turkish public about how the crisis is being handled and fell short of creating an optimistic outlook for the coming months as the G20 meeting in London managed.