Q Yours must be one of the newest foreign embassies in Ankara?
A Yes. After Latvia became independent in 1919 there were diplomatic relations between Latvia and Turkey but there were no embassies. President Vaira Vike-Freiberga opened the Embassy officially during her official visit last April, and late last year Turkey appointed its first resident ambassador to Riga.
I must add that many countries never recognised the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states, and in fact Turkey was one of them. This is something that we are very grateful for: it was important for us to know that there were friendly countries in the West who believed like us that Latvia could one day be independent again.
Q Are there any other historical precedents for relations between the two countries?
A One living memory of the Turks in Latvia is from the Ottoman-Russia war in the 19th century, when Turkish prisoners of war were transported to Latvia. There is a well-kept cemetery of Turkish soldiers in a town in Central Latvia called Cesis. There is also a village - which is actually on the way between Riga and my parents' home - called Turki, meaning "Turks" in Latvian. This name dates back to the same period.
Q What do Latvians know about Turkey and vice-versa?
A Turkey has been the number one travel destination for our holiday-makers for the past two years. Around 30,000 people a year visit Turkey from Latvia. Since March last year, our national airline Air Baltic has had direct flights to Istanbul and Turkish Airlines will also start operating to Riga soon. One of the largest residential real estate projects in Riga is being carried out by the Turkish company MESA.
In Turkey, I think we became much better known after our soccer team beat Turkey on aggregate for the ticket to the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal! We always seem to be paired together in sporting competitions. Latvian and Turkish women basketball teams met in the Women Eurobasket 2005 tournament in Ankara last September and in a fierce contest the Latvians won 81-78. One of our leading basketball players, Kaspars Kambala, plays for Fenerbahce. In 2003, the year when Turkey won the Eurovision Song Contest, the contest was staged in Riga.
Q What is the Embassy working on at the moment?
A On February 19-22, we are expecting a visit from the speaker of the Latvian Parliament, Ms Ingride Udre. We expect this will kick off some cooperation at the parliamentary level. Meanwhile, we are seeking to ease visa requirements. A draft agreement is under discussion and I am confident that we will be able to make travel easier for Latvian and Turkish citizens visiting their respective countries.
On the cultural and social side, there is a non-government organisation here in Turkey called TELLFA - the Turkish-Estonian-Latvian Lithuanian Friendship Association. We are trying to enable Turkish people to study Latvian in the University of Latvia. There are plans to hold Turkish days in Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn, and Latvian and Lithuanian and Estonian days here in Turkey.
A The slogan that we have adopted most of all is "the land that sings". It is no coincidence that we have won the Eurovision song contest. Latvian conductor Mr Mariss Jansons has just won a Grammy award for the best orchestral performance, conducting Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Latvian opera singer Ms. Elina Granca was also nominated for a Grammy this year for her part in a recording of Vivaldi’s ‘Bajazet’. We have a very rich folk culture. Besides music, there are artists of many kinds. In terms of nature, it's a very green country. In terms of people it is a multicultural, multi-religious society. Riga is an interesting Hansiatic, northern city with a very nice atmosphere: in the era between the two wars it used to be known as the “little Paris”.
A After the Soviet period, of course, we had to re-orient our economy from the East to the West. For the past 3-4 years it has been growing by about 10% per annum. The figures for 2005 are not yet known but in 2004 we were the fastest-growing economy in Europe. We have become more services-oriented. Riga is becoming a financial centre for the Baltics and a "crossroads" for trade in goods and energy resources between the Russian Federation and the West. We have the advantage of a very developed road, rail and pipeline infrastructure, and our ports are ice-free in winter.
We have a history of food-processing. Between the wars, we used to export cheese to the Netherlands! We are now cooperating with Turkish producers. In Soviet times we had a strong electronic goods industry. Many people in places like Turkey still have radio receivers produced in Riga. Now there are new companies and products – such as micro-wave transmitters.
Q How has EU membership changed Latvia?
It is fantastic that we are where we are now. History presented us with an opportunity and we made use of it. It has been difficult but it has been worth it.
A EU membership doesn't come free of charge. While the country altogether is clearly a winner, some groups have to pay a price. In our case, most of the political debate centred on agriculture and fisheries. The environment too is a very expensive chapter [of the acquis]. We have many transition periods. We have a saying in Latvia that "Riga is never built". In other words, nothing is ever completely finished.
We had to work hard to bring our administrative capacity up to the necessary level. This may be easier in the case of Turkey, but in Latvia, we had to tackle the same number of issues as the larger EU membership candidates with a much smaller bureaucracy.
Q What is the state of Latvia’s relations with Russia?
A Latvians have strong memories of the 50 years of forced cohabitation, when we were part of the same country, dominated by Russia against our will. Many in Russia have a different view of that period. Because of this common history, we have difficulty resolving some issues. We do not have a formal signed and ratified border agreement. Even so, relations have come a long way since 1993-1994 when we negotiated the Russian troop withdrawal. Economic ties are developing and as time goes by I think we will come to some common view of historical issues, or at least they will cease to be such an obstacle.
Q Have you had any problems over gas supply or pricing?
A No. Like all Russia’s neighbours, we are dependent on Russian natural gas. The recent dispute between Russia and Ukraine has sparked a debate in Latvia, as elsewhere, about the need to diversify supply. But our cooperation has been on a commercial basis and we have not had any shortage of supplies. In fact, the Russians have a stake in our domestic natural gas company, together with the German company Ruhrgas. In addition, we have a large underground storage capacity which is used by the Russians to store gas in the summer for use in the St Petersburg area in the winter.
Q What progress has been made on resolving the status of the Russian minority?
A Before World War II, Latvians made up more than 70% of the population. But by the last Soviet census, due to conscious Soviet policies, the figure was only slightly over 50%. Moreover, the language of interethnic communications, as they called it, was Russian. Latvian went out of use in certain areas. You could read Russian newspapers, watch Russian TV and use Russian at the workplace. So by 1991 we had some features of two communities existing in parallel. In response, we established Latvian as the state language and offered language courses to those who wanted to learn. Fifteen years back you would frequently enter a shop in Riga and start speaking in Latvian and the shopkeeper would say “Sorry, I don't understand. Could you speak Russian?” You cannot imagine this happening now.
People are free to speak whatever language they choose in their private life and in business. We don't regulate the private sphere. To give an example of the tolerant, multi-ethnic nature of our society, we have minority schools in nine languages. But in the same way as the state language is Turkish in Turkey, so the state language in Latvia is Latvian. We are a multicultural society but not a segregated society. There are no districts inhabited only by Russians, Ukrainians or Belarussians. There are no businesses that are just for, say, Latvians.
Q What about the citizenship aspect?
A Parliament decided that people who were citizens of Latvia in 1940 and their children would get citizenship automatically. For others we offered the opportunity to obtain citizenship through naturalisation. As a requirement, we introduced a simple Latvian history and language exam. Language is an important concrete element of social integration. How can you make people full-fledged members of the society if they don’t understand your language?
Many countries accept a certain number of immigrants, in an orderly fashion, which gives them time to develop policies to try to integrate them into their societies. In our case, substantial immigration occurred which was beyond our control. For the time being I would claim that we got it right. We have had no inter-ethnic violence whatsoever.
We now have less than 20% of non-citizens. Our membership in the EU has also been a major catalyst for increasing the number of applications for Latvian citizenship. On the other hand, those who do not apply for citizenship enjoy all the same rights except that they do not vote. For example, we offer the same consular protection and assistance here in Turkey both to these permanent residents and to our citizens.
A We would look at these countries as our closest allies and friends. We are all different, but our friendship goes back a long way. We were united in our struggle for independence and have shared the same foreign policy and security goals, including membership of the EU and NATO, which we all joined at the same time. From the early 1990s we established an institutional structure for Baltic cooperation, perhaps influenced a little by the Benelux model. There is a Baltic assembly which is a parliamentary forum of the three Baltic states and there is also a Baltic Council of Ministers and working groups in almost all of the areas of government. We had free trade in agricultural products among ourselves long before we joined the EU. Within the EU and NATO, I wouldn't say we operate as a bloc but we cooperate.
A We joined NATO just a few weeks before the EU. All along we had even greater public support for NATO membership than we had for EU membership. Between the two world wars we were neutral. We lost our independence in 1940 as a result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Nobody came to help us. So the main lesson we drew from this was that never again would we want to be left alone if anything went wrong. So there was really no doubt about joining NATO.
This doesn't mean that we see any country in the neighbourhood as a threat. Of course the world has changed a lot since 1940. But wherever the threats may come from, a small country cannot go it alone. No country in the world can really go it alone.
A First of all, we have lived under authoritarian rule ourselves, and knowing that the people of Iraq lived under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein - and of the atrocities which the regime had committed against the people - we thought maybe we should be among those who would do something about it. Secondly, we honestly thought at that time that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Thirdly, although it was not a NATO mission, it was led by the USA which is also our leading ally in NATO. Among allies the level of trust is different than simply among friendly countries. In a way we are repaying some debt to the international community for what it has helped us to achieve. This also helps to explain why we are in Afghanistan.
In terms of pure national interest and security policy, too, it's clear that the threats are now coming from the “Greater Middle East”, so we want to play our part in this region. Whatever the debates about the necessity of armed intervention in Iraq, the coalition will clearly have to stay there for some time to come to make sure that when the Iraqis are left alone they will be capable of keeping peace and order and ensuring the development of their country. And the same is true for Afghanistan.
We have slightly over 100 troops in Iraq. We are pulling our weight considering the size of our population. I must admit that society at large is not overenthusiastic about our involvement. We have lost one soldier in Iraq.
Q On a more personal note, how do you find living in Ankara?
A Ankara is a convenient place to live. Professionally it's very interesting: there is a very strong diplomatic corps here. Istanbul is an amazing city. But personally, I would prefer to live in Ankara and go to Istanbul for the weekend than vice-versa. Istanbul is four times the size of my country in terms of population and I have spent many hours in the traffic jam just waiting to cross the bridge. I try to travel around a lot. I am also taking my photography more seriously. There is a lot to be photographed here.
(DIPLOMAT - February 2006 - Ankara)