Turkey under civilian rule

COMMENT: Dynamic leadership: Turkey under civilian rule —Syed Kamran Hashmi

Under Erdogan’s leadership, the political government of Turkey has taken unprecedented action against the powerful Turkish army. It arrested many generals, admirals and other high-ranking army officers in 2010

“The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers” were his words while addressing a public rally before he was arrested and sentenced to prison for 10 months.

He was a young politician who had served his people remarkably well as the mayor of the country’s largest city. In just four years, he had built more than 50 bridges to tackle the traffic problem, established modern recycling plants to effectively handle the city’s garbage, paid off the two billion dollar loan of the city and invested another four billion in multiple municipal projects. His supporters adored him and even his critics admired him for his exceptional performance as the mayor of Istanbul. With approval from both sides — rivals and supporters — he emerged as the national leader of Turkey in 1998.

But there was a problem: he was an Islamist and was in direct conflict with the secular military elite of Turkey. That is why he was imprisoned in 1998 after his pro-Islamic speech and was barred from participating in the general elections. But his determination to bring reforms to Turkey did not dwindle and he founded a new political party in 2001. After just one year under his charismatic leadership, the newly founded Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi or AK Party) won a two-thirds majority in the general elections of Turkey.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in as the prime minister of the Republic of Turkey in 2003 only after the ban was removed on his participation. Since then, the Justice and Development Party has won the three consecutive general elections including the last one in 2011.Although it has lost some national assembly seats in the last nine years, its popularity has continued to rise in every successive election.

In 2002, at the beginning of his first tenure, Turkey had been in deep economic crisis for the last two decades with raging hyperinflation of up to 37 percent and a staggering International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of almost $ 25 billion. In a short period of time, Erdogan was miraculously able to put the genie of inflation back inside the bottle and contained it at six percent. There was a substantial drop of the IMF loan to six billion dollars as well in a few years along with the record high foreign exchange reserves of $ 90 billion.

The initial fears about him regarding the implementation of strict shariah laws by the international community were also eased by the democratic reforms taken by the AK Party that included empowering the European Court of Human Rights and reduction of the penalties for the members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — a nationalist organisation fighting for the formation of an independent or autonomous Kurdistan. In addition, the freedom of both the press and speech were ensured and encouraged by the civilian administration.

Under Erdogan’s leadership, the political government of Turkey has taken unprecedented action against the powerful Turkish army. It arrested many generals, admirals and other high-ranking army officers in 2010 for their alleged involvement in the Sledgehammer case — a coup plan to seize power in 2003. The trial of the army officers has brought political stability to the country and further legitimacy to civilian rule. The favourable rating of the Turkish army, therefore, has dropped from a soaring 90 percent in 2003 to 60 percent or in 2010.

On the international front, Turkey normalised its relationship with its old rival Greece; it also ended the competition for local dominance with Russia and significantly improved relations with Saudi Arabia. At the same time, for many years, it continued to maintain its close strategic military relationship and cordial economic ties with Israel.

After Turkey has put its own house in order on the economic, political and diplomatic fronts, only then has it embarked on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Accordingly, Erdogan publicly disapproved of the role of Israel in 2009 and criticised the Jewish state for killing people at the World Economic Forum and left the conference in protest when he was interrupted in the middle of his speech.

In May 2010, the relationship between the two countries deteriorated significantly when Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Flotilla conflict killed nine Turkish activists. Since then, Turkey has repeatedly demanded an apology from Israel and compensation for the families of the victims from its authorities but the Israeli administration has stubbornly refused to apologise on any forum.

The relationship between the two neighbouring countries has been further aggravated by the latest UN report that claimed that the Israeli Gaza blockade of the Mediterranean Sea was legitimate — an assertion opposed by The Turkish government. It also stated that the Israeli forces used excessive force on the Turkish ship while it was still in international waters and was far from the blockade zone.

Just a few days ago, in September 2011, the Israeli ambassador was expelled from Turkey and the government suspended all military ties with Israel in order to continue its protest on the issue of the massacre of Turkish citizens on the flotilla. Erdogan has also indicated his intentions to pursue this incident in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and has shown no signs of diplomatic regression from his original claim.

In these thorny circumstances, he also has initiated his visit to the Arab Spring nations including Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. He has kept the rhetoric against the atrocities of Israel very strong and it is anticipated that he will attract broad public support and be greeted in these countries as a champion for the rights of the Palestinians. This may pave the way for Turkey to play a pivotal role in regional stability and the resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict in the future, if he is able to attract strong international public support in these fragile nations.

The writer is a freelance columnist residing in the US. He can be reached at skhashmi@yahoo.com