Great, Powerful And New Turkey?

German Der Spiegel has published a portion of the documents leaked by former National Security Agency (NSA) employee Edward Snowden that pertain to Turkey.
According to those documents, Turkey is under top-level scrutiny by the NSA. This disclosure, which came after revelations that Germany and the United Kingdom were wiretapping Turkey, would normally have given the ruling party a real shaking, urging top government officials to make statements and trigger diplomatic crises with the countries involved and lead to resignations. But this did not and does not happen in our country.
Will we forget about this? At his election rallies, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeatedly argued that his new enemy, called a "parallel state," had spied on him, his ministers and everyone else, and he labeled them traitors and spies. In the final analysis, he managed to create the public perception he desired.
But the fact that Germany, the UK and the United States have been spying on Turkey for many years is a new and striking disclosure. If these countries had been Turkey's "rivals," we wouldn't be bothered with it much, thinking it is the duty of intelligence agencies to wiretap rival countries. Even in that case, stepping into the intelligence web of rival countries would result in the resignation of certain officials. The friendly and allied ties between Turkey and the countries involved in the spying scandal make this scandal all the more worrying and thought-provoking.
What is even more striking is that Erdoğan and the ruling party have been significantly silent about this scandal.
They must have reasons for keeping silent in the face of this scandal, which could lead to a crisis in bilateral relations. One reason I can think of is that they might be feeling guilty about the things they have done and the relationships they have established. I don't know if there could be anything else to explain what is keeping Erdoğan from making his favorite counterattack, "You have wiretapped us all, but being allied countries, how can you justify this?"
If the first possibility that comes to mind were true, it would mean that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Erdoğan are now nothing but pawns of foreign powers. In this case, Erdoğan's loud and clear remark, "How can you dare wiretap the prime minister of this country?" as well as his emphasis on the word "independence" have become totally meaningless.
Erdoğan might have liked the self-assigned role of heroically fighting an imaginary "parallel state" enemy that has not been legally proven. But the UK, the US and Germany's wiretaps of Turkey at the highest level is a concrete and documented fact and Erdoğan's and government officials' failure to respond properly to this scandal clearly indicates that this role is extremely artificial.
I am of course not suggesting that Turkey should wage a diplomatic war against these countries. But if we define these countries as our "friends and allies," we must ask them why they have made Turkey the priority target of their intelligence activities. A ruling party that fails to ask this question can no longer claim to be ruling an "independent" country.
Apparently, the ruling party wants this topic to be dropped off the agenda as soon as possible. They think they can accelerate the process if they don't make any comments about it. For exactly the same reason, the opposition parties and civil society must keep discussing this matter and keep it on the agenda. We need to question the AKP's attitude and its consequences for the country. In the final analysis, this attitude is reducing Turkey's international prestige.
One is urged to ask, "Is this the great, powerful and new Turkey?" Certainly, this question should be tackled with respect to the countries that have taken Turkey under their surveillance.

CAFER SOLGUN (Cihan/Today's Zaman)