57

THE PRESIDENTIAL COMPLEX, ANKARA, TURKEY

“Gentlemen, I present to you His Excellency, President Ahmet Mustafa.”

The protocol officer stood ramrod straight. Hamdi Yaşar immediately rose to his feet. He had arrived from Libya two hours ago, and he and his crew had spent much of that time setting up their cameras, lights, microphones, and the many cables snaking back to the satellite truck parked outside. Now, with less than two minutes to go, the enormous double doors to the ballroom opened, and in walked the twelfth elected leader of the modern Turkish state, surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards.

Now seventy, Ahmet Mustafa was a rather tall man with a long, gaunt face, thinning gray hair, a pencil-thin mustache, and large bags under his sad, cold eyes. Tonight, Yaşar noticed, he was wearing a charcoal-gray suit, a crisp white shirt, and a dark-maroon tie.

“Hamdi, my friend, what a pleasure to see you again.”

“Mr. President, it is my honor,” said Yaşar. “Thank you for speaking with Al-Sawt.”

“Why not? You know it is my favorite news network.”

“That is very kind, Your Excellency.”

“Give my regards to your managing director —he is a good man.”

“I will —thank you —but now, Your Excellency, we are a bit pressed for time.”

Mustafa took his seat as one of the crew attached a microphone to the lapel of his suit coat. Another fitted him with an IFB earpiece, allowing him to hear both the anchor and the director back in Qatar. A moment later, Yaşar asked for quiet and put on his headphones as a red light atop the main camera lit up.

“Good evening, everyone, and thank you for tuning in to Spotlight, the region’s number one most-watched evening newscast,” Yaşar heard the anchor say in Arabic. “Tonight, amid the continuing news out of London, we are honored to speak with Turkish president Ahmet Mustafa, live from the brand-new presidential complex in Ankara. Mr. President, thank you for joining us tonight.”

“Good to be with you,” Ahmet replied in flawless Arabic, though it was his third language after Turkish and English.

“To begin,” the anchor continued, “four senior American diplomats are dead in three separate attacks, along with scores of other casualties. What is your reaction to these terrorist attacks?”

“It is a shock to everyone, really,” the president replied. “I knew General Evans well, though not the others so much. And I must say, we had many disagreements on policy. As your viewers know, I strongly oppose President Clarke’s so-called peace plan. I oppose his administration’s utter disregard for the suffering of the Palestinian people, his insensitivity to the dreams and aspirations of the Muslim world, and his blind subservience to the Zionist cause, no matter how egregious Israel’s crimes. But that is a discussion for another time. This is a very sad day for the victims’ families and friends.”

Yaşar was at once intrigued and impressed with the Turkish leader. The man could somehow signal his devotion to the masses of Islamists around the world whom he considered his spiritual and ideological base while simultaneously sounding sympathetic to the American families who had lost loved ones in attacks he had helped fund. Yet all the while he was not actually denouncing such acts of terrorism much less calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Abu Nakba was right —the man possessed a rare gift that needed to be both cultivated and flattered.

“Less than an hour ago, Mr. President, a communiqué was issued from a new organization based in Athens, taking responsibility for the attacks,” said the anchor. “The group is calling itself Kairos. What can you tell us about this group, and will the government of Turkey invoke Article 5 against Kairos, given that two fellow NATO allies —the U.S. and the U.K. —were attacked today?”

“Well, let’s slow down there a bit —it is far too premature to be assigning blame or talking about invoking Article 5,” Mustafa said. “No one in our region wants another war. Let’s see how this all plays out and where the investigations lead.”

“And Kairos?”

“This is the first I’ve heard of such an organization,” Mustafa said. “It’s all very new to me —I really couldn’t say.”

“Fair enough. One last question, Mr. President.”

“Of course.”

“Would you care to comment more specifically on the new peace plan the White House is planning to unveil next month and on which these American diplomats were focused?”

“Well, to be clear, I have not yet seen or read the plan, nor been briefed on it directly by the Americans. But I was the first person that my great friend Palestinian Authority president Ismail Ziad called before he held his press conference the other night. He told me why he and his government had no choice but to oppose the plan, and I find myself agreeing with their decision. What President Clarke and his team are preparing to lay out to the world amounts to a declaration of war against the Palestinian people and their leaders and should be vigorously opposed by every Muslim nation and the entire world with every tool at our disposal and every fiber of our being.”