What has happened in the Turkish Foreign Ministry?

Last summer I attended a press conference at the Family and Social Affairs Ministry.

I sat between two journalists who were wearing headscarves. Looking at my name plate, one of them said: "You have the name of a secularist." 

For readers who don't know, my name is a very rare, unfamiliar one that comes from the Turkic tribes in Central Asia. It is not that I would be ashamed of being labeled a secularist, but this incident was the first time in my life someone has openly labeled me by looking at my name. 

Back in 2012, some people started warning me about changes in the Foreign Ministry's recruitment policy. "Look at the names of those who have passed the exam to enter the ministry. Compare them with past names and you will see an increase in Arabic-origin names, such as names that have become popular under the AKP [Justice and Development Party] rule, like Sümeyye or Berat." 

Back then, I refused to categorize people by looking at their names. But that has not stopped me from voicing criticism about the changes in recruitment policy. Indeed, one of the first articles I wrote was in 2008 about Gürcan Balık, who is among the recently dismissed ambassadors following the failed coup attempt of July 15. 

Ali Babacan, who was foreign minister at the time, had come up against decades-old ministerial traditions to pick his special secretary, who is like the black box of the minister. Instead of choosing a name from among three names suggested to him from the ministry's personnel department, he appointed Balık, a name not particularly well-known to the higher cadres of the ministry. Balık then became an advisor and kept this position with Babacan's successor, Ahmet Davutoğlu (who tried to clear his name yesterday by telling a...