2013.. A New Year & New Hopes for Turkey

Turkey has gone through an amazing year in 2012 in terms of abundance of unexpected events and situations that have changed so much in the way people look at many topics…

Turkey has experienced so many firsts in its history in the year 2012…

On the other hand the government of Turkey has displayed a truly successful performance in economy to deserve appraisals from international bodies and managed to survive the global crisis without noteworthy casualties on the contrary to countries such as Greece and Spain…

Talking about foreign politics though it would be hard to say Turkey has left behind a successful 2012.

Most eyes have seen some undesired results stemming from a badly handled foreign affairs administration after which the country has found itself in the middle of an unfriendly international environment and has drawn much criticism from neighboring countries such as Iraq, Syria, Iran and Russia, not to mention Greece and a few others which have almost always been sort of competition to Turkey.

It goes without saying current FM of Turkey has taken his place among the most criticized foreign ministers of the country ever.

In terms of local political affairs, AK Party led by PM ERDOGAN has gained more ground in Turkey thanks to the extraordinary leadership skills of the PM – and despite some blunders he has caused.

Most experts will say AK Party would comfortably be the winner of a new election, without any doubt which they deem is also due to the poor performance of opposition in the country.

However, the governing party has also received substantial criticism for failing to overcome the problem of terror originating from the Kurdish issue as it is called and not been able to manage to bring a solution to comfort the pro-Kurdish front who are willing to be granted democratic freedom (they say) in a country they have been living as citizens for many decades.

When one looks into the issue more deeply it is not that easy to see what they want is far more than an innocent democratic freedom and the ultimate goal is to be part of a newly established Kurdish State in the South of Turkey – and probably join the Iraqi Kurdish Administration in the North of Iraq on the way to creation of Great Kurdistan.

Thus we believe the government cannot be fully blamed for not being able to bring the conflict to an end which some deem is an easy/simple mission. Obviously Turkey is going to pay big prices to get over with this headache in the close future.

Another major source of criticism forwarded at the government is the unfair and unjust (as many call it) handling of the courts practiced in the cases where many ex-soldiers are being put on trial for charges of having attempted to overthrow legal government, as well as many journalists convicted for being part of such plots by contributing with their writings and all. The main reason for huge criticism here has been long detainment periods without being sentenced as well as unfair evaluation (actually ignoring) of solid evidence in favor of convicted parties.

One other major issue in 2012 was the presidential elections coming ahead in 2014 and the obvious willingness of the current PM to become the new head of the Republic with absolute power like in the USA, in other words to introduce Turkey with the system in countries such as France and USA.

In fact, a committee formed by parties has been working on the formation of a new “civil” (as they call it) institution and this issue is also being negotiated among parties but the odds are Turks would not like vote in favor of such a change towards a presidential system.

All in all, Turkey in spite of all the challenging problems it has gone through has left behind a successful 2012 and we are hopeful that 2013 will bring more democracy, wealth and success in foreign politics to a nation hungry for good things.

On this occasion we would like also like to extend our sincerest best wishes for the peoples of the whole world and hope New Year will bring more joy, tenderness, affection and sympathy to our hearts.

BUSINESS TURKEY TODAY