Modern Turkey.. Ruling Ak Parti & 2011 Deputy Elections

Ottoman Empire and Decline .. After hundreds of years of ruling in Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa the mighty Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War 1 and the country was invaded by allies – and “guest” invaders, Greeks.

It was not easy almost a legend for the Turks to deserve their independence after a war of almost despair.. No organized troops, no guns, no money.. and no food either..

Birth of a New Republic ..

But there was a man.. A man called Mustafa Kemal – thereafter called ATATÜRK (the father of Turks) – who would together with a core team of close friends from the army lead his fellow citizens into a legendary war of indepenedence to get back his occupied land from the enemy and establish a brand new republic .. the Republic of Turkey on a most precious area of the Middle east..

Reforms on the Way to Becoming A Modern Country

ATATÜRK undertook many reforms to ensure his country would reach the level of civilization prevailing in the leading countries of the world at the time. Turkey as it was called then had accomplished a miracle that was appreciated by the whole world..

He also introduced the principle of secularism, meaning the affairs of the state would be separated from religious affairs. The Ottoman Empire had a bitter experience in the past and he knew this was a must to catch up with the modern/western world and keep pace with them.

Secularism & Fundamentalism / Sharia

However, ATATÜRK  – no matter how determined he was – did not obviously manage to succeed in this respect as there are still many a citizens in Turkey who would like to bring SHARIA (religious law) back into the country and this has certainly been one of the main reasons for some  major political conflicts in Turkey, for decades.

The young Republic has all this time tried to protect its principles of foundation – and secularism in specific, in a hidden war between followers of modern Turkey and fundamentalists who would like to have sharia back in the country.

Pro-Islam Parties in Politics & Ak Parti

In fact Turkey has had some pro-islam parties, in the last decades in specific which have almost never enjoyed a vote over 15-20 percent.

It was only after the crowds were really fed up with imprudent, inefficient and crooked politicians ruling Turkey for many years though that they discarded those politicians and brought AKP (AK PARTI, Justice and Development Party) a brand new rightist and pro-islam party to power.

A Good Start ..

The new party was considered to be a hope for Turkey (although it was established by politicians who had left another already existing pro-islam party) with an energetic and capable leader. Crowds believed they had the energy and integrity and they had hunger to work to take Turkey out of the chaotic situation it had been put in for a long time.

The new party, although not favored and indeed scared by many citizens as they had a reputation for wanting to promote Islamic way of living in the country, made quite an impressive start and succeeded to take many steps (including dropping zeros from Turkish Lira at the time, bringing down inflation, taking initiative to improve relations with EU for admission to the community etc) and brought solutions to quite a few issues such as reforms in health system. They were also considered to be quite successful with infrastructure constructions such as motorways etc.

AK Parti has won all elections it has run for so far and with a big rate of vote such as 40 percent and over.

Rise of Criticism and Gradual Unsatisfaction

During their ruling, they have certainly received many critics though, for issues like favoring their supporters in all walks of life including business and employment opportunities, selling most valuable assets of the country (like Telekom) against benefits of the country and putting their supporters in all government offices, and most recently for manipulating the reforms they have undertaken with Judiciary.

Performance and Shortcomings in Economy Administration and Criticism

A major point of criticism has been that the government has displayed an unsatisfactory performance in the economy administration.  Reports mention that the current account deficit of the country has gone up to a risky level. They put the blame for Turkey’s current account debt on budget deficit. They say the main element behind Turkey’s current account debt problem is the budget gap and not the private sector.

To provide some figures for instance, the country’s current account deficit reached new highs in March at $9.8 billion. It is also recorded that some 80 percent of the gap is financed by foreign “short-term resourcers”.  The cumulative deficit for the 12 months, including March, was $60.5 billion, or about 7.7 percent of the forecast gross domestic product, or GDP, for 2011. Experts maintain that some three fourths of the current account deficit derives from the budget gap.”

The government is criticized for not having been very successful in balancing “the revenues generated from exports and payments generated by imports” so far as the country is in the greaatest amount of debt, throughout its history.

Thus, the government needs to contribute to creating new sources to generate more export revenues and push on the brake pedal for imports. Or else, “Turkey should to the best of its ability focus on increasing its production and export and other foreign currency revenues – such as tourism, construction or transportation”, sticking to the current level of import figures, simultaneously.

To make an analogy for instance, some experts claim Turkey has been acting like a football team who focuses on scoring goals mainly, forgetting to defend its goal properly however, which inevitably results in receiving many more goals than it can manage to score.

This is to say Turkey has indeed made progress in many areas such as the amount of exports, tourism revenues, increase in GDP, the number of cars, mobile telephones, white goods sold and many more. The question however is “AT WHAT COST”.

Harsh Practices Against Protesting Citizens and Strong Criticism Against the Ruling Party

As for today, they have been receiving very strong criticism both local and from some allies in regards to unfair and unjust practices in courts to trial some former and current military staff alleged to have tried to realize a coup against the government, in addition to the very harsh approach to journalists and youth who have been demonstrating strong protests lately.

A Strong Challenge from Rivals.. A New Hope?

On the other hand the main opposition CHP (Republican People’s Party) has made a big attack and turned into a real challenge for AKP, thanks to their new leader KILIÇDAROĞLU who has managed to establish a very warm and strong bridge of communication with voters (on the contrary to harsh attitude displayed by the current PM).

Turkey at a VERY Critical Turn

Turkey has come to a critical point again with all the local and exterior problems, including the Kurdish issue, unemployment, insufficient local production and inaccurate privatization as well as political favoring at governmental bodies etc.

Need for Unity and New Solid Projects for Human

Different to recent elections, many people have now started to realize that this is not the best way to go for Turkey and they need to know about new, solid projects  to improve their life standards mainly– and not only construction projects as strongly promoted by the ruling party. CHP for instance has come up with many projects targeting human.. to improve their life standards, to cut down on duration of obligatory military service etc..

Upcoming Elections

Upcoming elections may be due to bring along some major surprises for everybody and the party in power, such as having to form a coalition to govern or having to stay out of the government to watch other parties rule, in a coalition.

To recap, Turkey is due to live through the most important experience it has ever been through since the establishment of the republic.

Editor
BUSINESS TURKEY TODAY