In the latest local elections
that took place this Sunday, March 30, 2014, the Turkish people awarded a
landslide victory (around 46%, with the main opposition trailing far behind at around
29%), and this for the third time, to the recently embattled Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (JDP) sending a
strong signal to the detractors of the man. The voter turnout was at a
near-record rate of about 90%.
How does he do it? How does
Erdogan pull off landslide victory after landslide victory?
Seen from the lens of many
prominent world media outlets, he seems to be an authoritative leader, not
unlike Putin. But is this evaluation just and fair? I will argue that when
judged from his actions on the ground and how dramatically and positively this
man has transformed the Turkish political, economic and democratic landscape,
one is compelled to make sense of his enviable and historic success.
Turkey before Erdogan was "Midnight
Express" Turkey, a godforsaken country. Turkey has seen dramatic
improvements in all spheres of life, under his government, and the majority of
the Turkish voters do clearly recognize that fact. Under his twelve-year rule
the Turkish GDP grew 3-4 fold. Turkey got transmuted from an economically fragile
country to become the world’s 17th largest economy, and with
ambitions and plans of making it to the top ten economies in the next decade or
so.
Erdogan paid off Turkey’s
debt to IMF and is offering credit to IMF itself. He pulled off significant
improvements in the roads, transportation, health-care, and education systems. Erdogan
has also done some noteworthy international humanitarian campaigns in countries
such as Somalia and Burma, not to mention Turkey’s critical embrace of Syrian
refugees.
Politically, Turkey was a
coup-d’état-addicted country. Under Erdogan, not only the latter became very
difficult, and risky to its dreamers, to do, but democracy got consolidated and
the ballot box gained its deserved and rightful stature.
Erdogan initiated
unprecedented reforms for the minorities in Turkey, prominently with the Kurds.
He entered into an historic ceasefire with the Kurdish separatists. He removed
the bans on the Kurdish language in education and broadcasting. Other minorities such as Greeks, Armenians and
Jews got their confiscated---confiscated that is, under the ‘Midnight-Express’
Turkey---properties back under Erdogan’s time in office.
What of the very large number
of jailed journalists and the recent graft-probe allegations and the ongoing
polarized atmosphere in Turkey? Turkey is going through a critical stage in its
transformation to become a full-fledged democracy, which hitherto has been
manipulated by the powerful but undemocratic clique of military-media-elites
coalition. One such remnant, a secretive religious cult with hundreds of
schools all over the world, has been fighting its last battle running up to
these latest elections. The last couple of years made it clear that parallel to
the above positive developments, an insidious and dangerous infiltration and
overtake of some Turkish government offices got transpired by this religious
organization called the Gulen Movement.
This organization, with a
strong presence in the judiciary and police force, has been blackmailing (through
mostly illegal wiretapping with a lot of editing and montaging) and jailing
anyone whom they see as inimical and/or not cooperating. The JDP shares some
blame in not noticing this pattern early on and until they themselves became
the target of this clandestine group, especially after Erdogan’s government’s
revelations of plans of closing the college prep schools, in which the Gulen
movement has invested heavily.
Although outmoded Turkish
laws still in effect carry part of the blame for the jailing of so many
journalists, quite a bit of them were jailed by this very cult, for example
writers Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık, the latter of
whom has recently testified in the European parliament on this very issue.
What about Erdogan’s recent
remarks on closing Twitter and Youtube? Contrary to what is portrayed in some
media, Erdogan is not closing Twitter or Youtube for the sake of cracking down
on freedoms, but rather it is a response to his government’s frustrations with these
social networking sites as there have been breach of some people’s privacies
and outright revelations of state secrets by some accounts (the latter
reportedly by the Gulen Movement). These companies had simply been negligent of
the Turkish government and courts’ requests to cooperate. The former does
cooperate with the authorities in the West in similar circumstances, for
instance like the cooperation of Twitter over a Florida man’s Twitter threats
to President Obama.
Erdogan is a well-respected
and popular figure not only in Turkey but in the larger Muslim world as well. He
does represent a legitimate and brighter hope for the future of the Islamic
world, countering the illicit extremist movements in the region. In fact, until
the unfortunate events of Gaza flotilla incident, Erdogan’s government had very
positive relations with Israel. Shimon Peres, for instance, gave a historic talk
in the Turkish Parliament, and there were many high-profile visits to Turkey by
Israeli figures such as the then Israeli Prime Minister Olmert. Turkey was even
mediating peace talks between Syria and Israel.
The point is that Erdogan can
be and is a rational partner for dialogue, and that with a strong endorsement
of his people. Indeed, there are signs that Turkish and Israeli governments are
making progress in dressing their recent political scar.
Erdogan’s success and his
good rapport with the majority of the Turkish people is simply because he is
doing the job he is supposed to. He is visibly improving the quality of the lives
of his people. He is extending prosperity and freedom to those who were left
out under the “Midnight Express” Turkey.
If the West is sincere in
improving its relations with the Muslim World, then it must respect the voices
of the peoples of the region---be it in Turkey, Egypt or anywhere else---and
support democratic forces and choices, and not undemocratic coalitions,
outside-the-ballot-box chicanery, and coups d’etat.
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