Iraq on the Way to Its New Constitution Ronald D. Rotunda N LATE MARCH, 2004, Bilkent University, English, although there were simultaneous a private university in Ankara, and the translators for those who felt more comfort- Turkish Foreign Policy Institute hosted able in Arabic. At one dinner, the Turkish a conference titled, “Iraq on the Way to Its Foreign Minister, along with others, spoke INew Constitution.” About half of the par- only in English. English is the lingua franca ticipants were from Iraq – including several of Europe, even in this Eurasian country. from Iraqi universities, a few members of the Turkish television provided live coverage. Constitutional Committee involved with The Conference and the views of some Iraq’s new draft constitution, and representa- of the Iraqi participants give us reason to tives of private, nongovernmental organiza- dampen optimism as to the future of Iraq tions from Iraq. Most of the rest were from and democracy in that troubled region of the Turkey, with a few British participants, one world. of whom lived among the Kurds of north- The Turkish Foreign Policy Institute has ern Iraq for four years, advising them how been in existence for many years, but Bilkent to build a government when the British-U.S. University, the other host, was founded only no-fly zone protected them. I was one of two recently, in 984. Its first students entered in American lawyers invited to participate. The 986. It has about 0,000 students and all other was Bruce Fein, a former Associate instruction is in English. The name is an ac- Deputy Attorney General in the Department ronym of “bilim kenti,” which is Turkish for of Justice and adjunct scholar and general “city of science and knowledge.” The name re- counsel with the Assembly of the Turkish flects what universities do: they are centers American Association. The conference par- that produce or create knowledge (the re- ticipants numbered about 25 in total. search), they preserve it (via the library), and The entire conference was conducted in they distribute it (by teaching the students). Ronald Rotunda made the trip described in this article while he was George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at the George Mason University School of Law. The views expressed here are his own. v8n1.indb 67 12/5/2004 8:47:50 PM Ronald D. Rotunda About 25% of the students at Bilkent are is the airport security. My baggage and I on scholarship. They pay no tuition and were searched once in New York. When I the University gives them a stipend to boot. arrived in Istanbul, I was searched two more Bilkent instituted, in the second year of in- times, although I had never left airport secu- struction, the practice of student evaluation rity. One guard in particular took me aside of courses and instructors, which was not a and patted me down, extensively, with his common practice in Turkey at the time. The hands. He was quite young, and when he faculty comes from 43 different countries. touched my private parts, I quickly moved English is the only language of instruction. back and was about to protest when he The founder, İhsan Doğramacı, is now stopped. I was glad that was over. president of the university’s board of trust- When I was in Istanbul over 20 years ago ees. He is a pediatrician married to a pedi- as a Fulbright Lecturer, the toilets in the air- atrician. He turned 89 a few days after the port were merely holes in the ground. The air- conference ended. He is very alert, active, port restrooms in Ankara gave you a choice and old enough to remember rule under the of what to use: there were American-style Ottoman Empire. I had dinner and lunch toilets and also some holes in the ground. with him, and he has interesting stories to Perhaps some people prefer the old way. tell of life in those times. He inherited mon- When I arrived at customs in Ankara, I ey, and he used it to found two universities. noticed the security police all over, as one He was born a Turk within the borders of would expect in the capital city of a coun- what is now modern-day Iraq. Professor try that has seen more than its share of ter- Ali Doğramacı, his son, is now the rector of rorist acts. There was also a prominent sign Bilkent University. Both have a natural inter- that declared, “no smoking,” in English and est in Iraq, the land of their ancestry. Turkish. That is remarkable for a land that is My travel to Ankara started with luxury. the Mecca of tobacco. Right next to the sign I was told that tickets would be waiting for was a security officer … smoking. me in the first class section, and there they Recall that I had a first-class flight from were. The Turkish Airlines’ ticket agent said New York. There were minor problems: the that he knew it was me when I walked up overhead light on my airline seat did not because he had been “warned.” work – the only seat in the plane with that When the flight attendants served our problem, so it was hard to read when the meals on the New York-to-Istanbul route, flight attendants turned out the lights. I de- they gave us real metal flatware except for cided, given the lack of light, to see a movie, the knife, which was plastic. It was a little but my stereo headphones only broadcast to reminder of how terrorists have changed my left ear. our lives. While we all had dull plastic but- Compare my travails with the journey of ter knives to cut the steak, we had real metal Iraqi conferees; they had to take a bus from forks, the tines of which were very pointy, Baghdad to the Turkish border, where they much more dangerous than a metal butter finally were able to catch a plane. They could knife. Oddly enough, on the Istanbul-to- not use the Baghdad airport, which is not Ankara leg of the journey, the flight atten- quite ready for prime-time because of the dants gave us metal knives as well as metal fear that SAM missiles will hit commercial forks. Go figure. jets. The Iraqis suffered no jet lag from their Another reminder of our post-9/ world 8-hour bus trip, but I would not have want- 68 8 G REEN B AG 2 D 67 v8n1.indb 68 12/5/2004 8:47:50 PM Iraq on the Way to Its New Constitution ed to trade places. ist are of very low wattage, because of the When I arrived in Ankara, I noticed that energy shortage. I could see the stars clearly; many of the houses and apartment build- I even saw, faintly, the Milky Way, which ings are modest. Some are in need of repair. one would never see in any large American Yet, all over, I saw satellite TV dishes. Some city because of light pollution. Even though places are unpretentious on the outside but Ankara has over .5 million people, there is have beautiful marble on the floors and walls less evening light there than in any a town of on the inside. One does not need to read the 00,000 people in the United States. guide books to know that Turkey is famous The energy shortage was also reflected for its marble. in the obligatory electricity conservation in My plane had left Washington, D.C. at my hotel room, which was set up so that the 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Eastern time, and I electricity would only work when I placed my arrived at my Ankara hotel about 5 p.m. on electronic key in a special holder. Whenever Sunday, Turkish time. Turkey is 7 hours I left the room, I had to take my key with me ahead of my body time and I did not sleep in order to secure readmittance, and, when I much on the plane, so I was tired, but I want- did that, the lights would then automatically ed to stay awake to make the adjustment to turn off. This mandatory conservation hit the new time zone. So, before the dinner my home when I left my laptop on and plugged first evening, I took a long walk (about 30 in so that it could recharge. Instead, when I minutes each way) to a well-known shopping returned I found that it had discharged be- center to search for postcards. The hotel did cause all the electric lines were dead. Several not appear to have the entrepreneurial spirit, times during my short trip the lights flick- for it offered no postcards. Oddly enough, ered and went off in the hotel, during the neither did this massive shopping center. conference, and in a private home. At the shopping center, I promptly saw I got lost walking back to the hotel from huge electric signs advertising Burger King, the shopping center. But the people were Toys “R” Us, and other American brands. quite friendly and the few I met gave me di- People in the United States often express rections. At one lonely stretch of the road, a fear about foreign competition. The xeno- truck stopped and the driver just wanted to phobes have not traveled abroad, and do not ask if I was all right. appreciate how ubiquitous are American We had a small, informal dinner my first products. In Turkey, like every other country, evening with a few of the participants.