Sunday Times 2
Turkey in Europe and Asia: A regional leadership role
View(s):By Satharathilaka Banda Atugoda
Turkey which has been the bridge between Asia and Europe was at the centre-stage of global politics, as had always been, in 2016 as well. There was an army coup in July of 2016, Turkey served as the stepping stone for Syrian and Middle Eastern refugees to Europe. Turkish people themselves, emigrated in large numbers to Europe, mainly Germany. There were attacks on civilians in Turkey by terror outfits. The Russian ambassador to Turkey was assassinated by a Turkish police officer. Turkey strongly suppressed the ISIS, and attempted to develop links with Russia and also with Moslem Asia.
The man behind this is President Tayyip Erdogan, who suppressed the internal rebellion to re-establish normalcy in the country. The battle against the ISIS has been partly successful but the latest attack on a night club where 39 had been killed reflects that it is far from over. Relations between Europe and Turkey are in the balance as seen by the opposition of the European populace to Turks entering European Union, although they are in the NATO. As recently as 24th November 2016 the European Parliament voted to suspend the accession negotiations with Turkey over human rights and rule of law. They are of course, with NATO since 1952 after the Second World War.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
Before discussing current politics it is interesting to briefly look at how Turkey is balancing her position between Europe and Asia. In fact only 3% of its territory lies in Europe, the historic Gallipoli Peninsula is separated by the Sea of Marmara and the narrow Straits of Bosporus and Dardanelles from the rest of the Anatolian Peninsula lying in Asia. The Anatolian Peninsula is bordered by the Taurus Mountains in the South and Other Uplands in the North. Istanbul or Constantinople had been the capital but it was moved to Ankara in the centre, by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
They claim to be an ancient culture from the Hittites, once-again an Indo-European people, who settled in Anatolia, around 1800 B.C. confirming their roots to both (continents) lands. Next came the Roman Empire’s eastern part which came under the Byzantine Empire. The Seljuk Turks from Central Asia in the 9th Century A.D. overran them in 1071 and they established an empire consisting of present Iran (Persia) Iraq, and Syria. Living in the region were the Armenians, and Greeks, practising Christianity. The Seljuks converted them to Moslems while on the western part ruled Osman who founded the Ottoman Empire, which is a europeanised form of word Osmali. These rulers captured the eastern Seljuk Turks and consolidated power by the 14th century. They even conquered the Balkans from 1345 to the early 15th century. The legendary Tartars led by Tamerlane captured the Ottomans at Ankara for a brief period. By 1453 Turks captured Constantinople and the Mediterranean Islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Aden. They spread their rule to Syria, Egypt, and Iraq by the beginning of the 16th century. They besieged Austria and Hungary but were defeated. However after Selim 1 their rulers claimed they were caliphs and spread the influence to all Islamic territories.
Their decline came with several wars with Russia in the 18th century and by the 19th century, the dependencies rebelled, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Algiers, Tunis, and Libya. In the First World War Turkey sided with Germany and she lost the remaining possessions, in Arabia Iraq, Syria and Palestine at the Treaty of Sevres, losing all possessions in Europe except, Istanbul. They gave eastern Anatolia to Armenia, Izmir and Gallipoli to Greece.
This outline was only to analyse the claim of Turkey to Europe and Asia. Modern Turkey with a claim to a super power historically, was transformed by Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938) who was a soldier who defended the Gallipoli in 1915 against the Allied invasion. He resigned from the army and established a Government in Ankara. He led the armies in 1921 against invading Greeks, and stopped aggression. A peace treaty was signed with them at Lausanne on favourable terms to Turkey. Turkey became a republic and Kemal became Ataturk, meaning father of Turks and used the title Ghazi, the victorious. He modernised the country. He introduced compulsory education for both girls and boys, and gave universal suffrage to both women and men, and there were women representatives in legislature in the 1930s. Religion was kept out of politics, and the Caliphate was withdrawn. The Roman alphabet was introduced in place of Arabic script, and the metric system was introduced for weights and measures. He introduced the western dress and English as a medium of instruction. Women’s dress was changed from the veil. Internationally he started friendly relations with bordering countries and the world at large. Although he was a dictator he allowed democracy to develop. Ismet Inonu his successor was able to establish democracy in the political system.
The country which became a member of the Council of Europe still could not enter the European Union due to other political pressures. There were coup d’etat attempts in 1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997. The latest was in 2016, July 15. There were several attacks by suspected ISIS militants, on the airport and civilians in border villages with Syria. There was an attack by the Turks on a Russian military plane flying over Syrian airspace. Worst of all is the killing of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, by an off-duty policeman. All these violent activities happened in 2016, not as isolated incidents.
They were building up from the time Kemal Ataturk passed away in 1938 exacerbated after the 1950s. There were the regimes of Suleyman Demirel seven times Prime Minister, Tansu Ciller the first woman Prime Minister and Bulent Ecevit. They were from different political parties but with a blend of Islamic extremism, which was abhorred by Kemal Ataturk. While unveiling statues in his honour the country was moving in a different direction in political ideology. This was perhaps, the influence of the other neighbouring West Asian countries which were more inward looking. Turkey on the other hand was trying to join the European Union to better her political and economic situation, by fulfilling the varied requirements like protection of human rights, protection of women’s rights, and promoting secularism. The Governments banned the death penalty, made women the head of the family, and retained the secularism clauses in the constitution. However, there were protests by a minority on the prohibition of women wearing head scarves in universities. The governments had to give into these demands. The granting of minority rights to Armenians and Kurds, by statutes, was also overturned by extremist Islamic parties. These political parties along with Erdogan’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had to have a mixture of Islamism in it to win elections. The President himself had been prohibited from contesting due to some cases by the judiciary, which were overturned by the legislature for him to contest for presidency under a new constitution.
These instances made the European Union halt negotiations for accession to the Union by Turkey. An Islamic cleric living in the United States, Gul, wields such influence as to get sections of the armed forces to stage coups against the Government. Erdogan retaliated by asking his supporters to take to the streets, to protect democracy. On July 15th 2016 the counter measures by the President succeeded, and the other political parties too supported the President. Europe was silent but did not oppose the measures by Erdogan to curb dissent. Hundreds died and thousands were taken into custody. Europe wanted the help of Turkey to stop the influx of Syrian Refugees via Turkey. The President was offered billions of dollars in this deal to help the Turkish economy. Thus 2016 was to Turkey a year of confusion and turmoil internally and externally making all attempts to become the regional power of West Asia linked to Europe, partly unsuccessful. However, both geographically, as wel l as in other developmental aspects, Turkey has a role to play in the peace-building measures in the Middle-East. Already Syria, Iraq and Palestine require external assistance to emerge from the years of instability while terrorism has always been a plague in this region.
Independent observers look to countries like Turkey to render leadership to the region to bring sanity to a region engulfed in violence, and turmoil with the assistance of Europe and powerful nations of Asia.
(The writer was a former ambassador who served in the Middle East.)