Obama tells Erdoğan to stick to his words

Diplomacy is the business of subtly transmitting your messages. It is always what lies between the lines that matters, not what appears on the surface and at first glance. This is also how the White House’s official readout of President Barack Obama’s phone conversation with Turkey’s newly elected president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday should be read.

According to the readout, Obama congratulated Prime Minister Erdoğan on his election as the 12th President of the Republic of Turkey and wished him well as he begins his term later this month.

Crucially, however, the readout added that “the President praised the Prime Minister’s speech on Sunday and noted that as Turkey’s first directly elected President, the Prime Minister has an historic opportunity to further move Turkey forward.”

This was a reference to Erdoğan’s so called “Balcony Speech,” which he delivered on Sunday night after his victory had become certain.

Putting aside his remarks smacking of triumphalism against his domestic rivals - and the Islamist rhetoric about how it is not just Turkey but also Baghdad, Islamabad, Beirut, Sarajevo, Damascus, Aleppo Ramallah, Gaza, Jerusalem and a host of other cities with Muslim populations that are the victors of Turkey’s first direct presidential elections - this is what Erdoğan said:

“Those who did not vote for us, those who do not like us are not the losers of these elections. Today they too have won. My brothers, I say let as all start a new period of social reconciliation today. I want us to leave old arguments in the old Turkey. I want us to leave tensions, the culture of confrontation and artificial problems in the old...