BY TUFAN TURENC
HURRIYET- Columnist Tufan Turenc argues for what he calls a “failure” in the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) foreign and domestic policies. A summary of his column is as follows:
The Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) anger can’t change the fact that Turkey’s lot will not improve under this administration. However, there’s no alternative to the AKP. Both the center left and the right are in disarray. Therefore Turkey is going through a critical period. If we just remain patient, we can emerge from this bottleneck relatively unscathed.
Why can’t Turkey improve under this administration? Let’s explore this question. Certain developments threatening Turkey’s future are taking place in Iraq, and the government is staring at them in incomprehension. The best evidence of this is the failure back in March when Ankara rejected the deployment of US troops in Turkey. As a result, a half-century of cooperation with the US ended. The AKP government’s misguided foreign policy left Turkey on its own. If our membership negotiations with the European Union end badly, Turkey might fall into chaos. The AKP isn’t maintaining our other vitally important foreign balances either. Turkey’s relations with Russia and the Central Asian republics are also feeling chill winds. However, the more we improve our relations with them, the closer we’ll be to the West. This government lacks the foreign policy compass to comprehend it.
As for domestic policy, interest rates haven’t fallen as much as expected and the stock exchange is doing poorly too. It’s Turkey’s bad luck to bring such an inexperienced party to power.