Heavy toll for Turkey in 2015
All of them are complaining, but it is mostly Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and Israel that have had the strongest reactions against Turkey, on the grounds that Turkey “interferes too much with our domestic affairs.”
Last week, the Socialist International (SE) met in Geneva. Social democratic parties from almost 100 countries participated and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was also in attendance. Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu left his position of SE deputy chair to Umut Oran, who was elected as its new deputy chair. Oran is also a member of the ethics committee, which approves new members and cancels memberships.
Where is Turkey going? Like the entire West, the SE is also concerned. It is also mentioning the heavy toll that Turkey will face in 2015.
Turkey is a common focal point in several world issues that were discussed at the meeting. A common opinion is this: “[President Recep] Tayyip Erdoğan is sectarian and authoritarian. Turkey is distancing itself from democracy a little more every day.” Several SE members point to the restrictions in our country of basic rights and liberties.
It is also emphasized that values such as peace, freedom and democracy are being sunk by politicians in Turkey.
This is a huge loss of trust.
Referring to the issue of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Oran conveyed a striking claim at the SE meeting: “Turkey does not want any help.” He claimed that although certain Western countries want to help Turkey, especially in the fight against ISIL, but Turkey refuses this help. According to this claim, Turkey does not want anyone to know what is happening inside the country. There is something to this claim.
According to the SE, the latest observation about Turkey is one that will create huge headaches next year 2015 the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian incidents. It looks as if there will be huge uproar across the world. Several countries are preparing to put pressure on Turkey. There are many on every side that are ready to charge on Turkey.
A tough year is waiting for Turkey when our influential friends are decreasing, when we are offending many others, while we are burning our bridges with some main institutions. We will all have to wait to see how we will survive this.
Davutoğlu in wonderland
“In the 1990s, the world economy grew, but Turkey’s shrank. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) demonstrated the power of its political leadership in the global financial crisis in 2009, when the Turkish economy grew.”
These words were said by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu during a budget debate. This is wrong. While the world economy was growing at an average of 3.1 percent in the 1990s, Turkey was growing at an annual average of 3.9 percent.
When it comes to “political leadership,” between the years 2008 and 2014, while the world economy grew 3.2 percent on average, Turkey also grew 3.2 percent. The U.S., the center of the crisis, shrank 2.8 percent in 2009. Turkey shrank 4.8 percent the same year.
Davutoğlu said that before the AK Party came to power, the land in Thrace was twice pushed out of agriculture. Wrong, again. Davutoğlu was referring to the consolidated land, not the land that has become unsuitable for agriculture; whereas, agriculture is trending downward.
You should add to these examples the hike in food prices, the increase in the number of unemployed people, the climb in the foreign exchange rate and the increase in a family’s minimum monthly living index. It is high time that Davutoğlu leaves his role in “Alice in Wonderland” and comes back to reality.
An AK Party thathits the bottom politically and judicially is also hitting the bottom economically, and our situation is becoming even graver.
