By Mehmet Ali Birand
TDN- You might have noticed the fact that we complain about almost everything. Our region, our neighbors and our location. From the beginning of the Cold War until now, most of you must have heard this over an over: “Let god give no other country a neighbors like these. On the one side is the Soviet Union and Armenia, on the other Syria and Greece. All of them think nothing but ill for Turkey.”
This was the reason why we armed ourselves constantly and silenced those who complained about the money we spent on weapons. We used to say, “If we were Switzerland, it would have been easy, but we’re not.” The military always kept the nation under arms.
Another of our constant complaints was political instability. We used to criticize coalition governments and would get upset when the parties could not formulate a common policy for issues that involved national interests. This was sometimes cited to legitimize coups.
At present, we should stop complaining and start thinking about how lucky we are.
Making peace with neighbors
It would be right to say that we experienced many difficulties between 1970 and 1990. However, these difficulties benefited us from time to time.
Especially during the Cold War years, Turkey played the shield that protected the West against Soviet encroachment. This provided a significant boost to our economic and political arguments vis-à-vis the United States and Europe. Whenever Turkey faced an economic crisis, Western institutions (The IMF, World Bank, European Investment Bank and etc.) would rally to our cause and we were able to secure credits on much better terms than provided to other countries. Credits for military expenses, which took up an important portion of the budget, were easily available. We saw countless examples of these. While the Cold War affected our democracy and political stability negatively, we made sure we would receive some financial compensation in return.
If we just take a look at the last few years, we can say the situation has improved considerably.
We no longer see a Turkey that fails to get along with its neighbors.
Russia changed. Problems with Syria have been resolved.
Relations with Greece are warm.
We can also take a glimpse of Europe nowadays.
Every improvement in politics benefited us
Let us just take a look at domestic politics.
We can say Turkey has been lucky in this area.
The political developments in the past few years have benefited Turkey a lot.
Two of the most interesting examples of this development have happened since 1998.
The last coalition government, consisting of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Motherland Party (ANAP), implemented major reforms to harmonize with the Copenhagen Criteria and improve the economy. I ask you, if the MHP were not in this coalition, could Parliament have passed so many important laws on the Kurdish problem? Could the laws that abolished capital punishment, which resulted in the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK-Kongra-gel) leader escaping the death penalty, allowing Kurdish education and broadcasting to be passed, if it was not for the MHP? Even if these laws were passed without the MHP, the storm that an opposition MHP would have stirred up around the nation would have created chaos.
The other example is happening now.
If the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was the opposition, would any other government, for example one led by the Republican People’s Party (CHP) have been able to harmonize with the Copenhagen criteria. Just think of what would happen, if an opposition AKP had launched a campaign, claiming, “Religion is being superseded.” Don’t you think it was lucky to have AKP as the government for the implementation and passing of the EU reforms?
Conclusion: No need for pessimism
What I am trying to say is that we sometimes see our state as worse than it is.
Comparatively, Turkey is improving. There are certain deficiencies and we need to do a lot of hard work, but Turkey is on the right road.
We need to think about this as we enter New Year. There is no need for pessimism.
Just go and see the real Turkey. You’ll be able to see this country’s real potential. Wherever I go in the Middle East, Far East, Africa or Latin America and whomever I talk to, I hear the same words: “You are a great, strong and lucky country.”
How lucky we are!