Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylife
What a difference an economy makes.
Visiting Istanbul last week, I could feel the toss of a new wind approaching. Suddenly, it seems, many Turkish politicians – and much of the Turkish public – are starting to look away from the long-cultivated association with the EU and hopes to join the community of European states.
With Europe’s continuing financial woes, along with the increasing conservatism of Turkish culture, the EU no longer holds the allure it once did, particularly in view of Turkey’s own vibrant economy. Rather, in fact, some wonder whether they shouldn’t turn away from Europe entirely – or do what they can to make Europe come, instead, to Turkey.
This, indeed, seems to be the (silent) perspective of the country’s ruling AKP party, which many credit with building Turkey’s newly stable economy. It is that same party, too, however, which has, in the process, turned the country away from Ataturk’s democratic ideals through (among other things) media censorship, the imprisonment of journalists, reported torture of prisoners, growing tensions between Turks and Turkish Kurds, and other autocratic measures that recently resulted in the mass resignation of the country’s military leaders. Earlier this year, Rosemary Righter described the situation in the Daily Beast,
Not only the military but journalists, academics, businessmen, and even jurists are vulnerable: anyone who criticizes the AKP; champions equal rights for Turkey’s large Kurdish minority; or, still more perilous, probes the penetration of Turkish schools, universities, media, and bureaucracy by the AKP’s own “deep state” ally, a wealthy and powerful Islamist movement directed from luxurious self-exile in the U.S. by Imam Fethullah Gülen, [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s friend and mentor.
And as the New York Times noted regarding the June, 2011 military resignations
raised fears that what many critics call a creeping authoritarian streak under Mr. Erdogan could accelerate. Mr. Erdogan is not only free to reshape the military, but has a much better chance of winning constitutional changes that could alter politics here for decades.
Even before the resignations, Mr. Erdogan had carved out a newly muscular role for Turkey in foreign policy, openly challenging the way the United States manages its two most pressing issues in the region, Iran’s nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The shift has made him a hero to the Arab world, but raised questions about whether Turkey would abandon its lengthy effort to join the European Union.”
That time may soon be upon us. While Istanbul’s intellectual elite (who spent the week visiting the 6th edition of the Istanbul Contemporary Art Fair, about which, more soon) hope still for a Turkey-EU partnership, most recognize that it is increasingly unlikely. The alternative — a “preferred partnership” – remains a possibility, but even this, as the Turkish government continues its overtures towards Iran and the rest of the Middle East, may soon fade.
In fact, the position that Turks are starting to think they’re better off on their own is shared, too, by British former European Parliament member Richard Balfe, who for 20 years served on the Turkey-EU joint parliamentary commission. In an interview with Turkish newspaper Hurriyet last week, Balfe stated that “Turkey should not always be saying ‘please be kind to us.’ Because actually the EU has too many problems and it will not be too many years before the EU is asking Turkey to join it. After all, Turkey has a much younger population profile than most of Europe. And it is a dynamic country. I often am asked in Britain, ‘Who else is going to pay for my pension if we do not let the Turks in?’”
Moreover, Turkey’s thriving economy – created largely through a balance of lowered taxes and reduced government spending anwhich the BBC recently noted is “enjoying economic growth rates close to China’s” — has become something of an example to those who fought in the uprisings of the Arab Spring. And the New York Times observes that:
for many in aging and debt-weary Europe, Turkey’s economic renaissance poses a completely new question: who needs the other one more — Europe or Turkey?
It is an astonishing transformation for an economy that just 10 years ago had a budget deficit of 16 percent of gross domestic product and inflation of 72 percent. It is one that lies at the root of the rise to power of Mr. Erdogan, who has combined social conservatism with fiscally cautious economic policies to make his Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., the most dominant political movement in Turkey since the early days of the republic.
So complete has this evolution been that Turkey is now closer to fulfilling the criteria for adopting the euro — if it ever does get into the European Union — than most of the troubled economies already in the euro zone.
Consequently, some Turks – both in Turkey itself and those living (even born) in Europe – are also starting to consider the possibility of another option: that Europe will begin – or can be convinced to begin – viewing the so-called “moderate Islamist” government of Turkey as a model, a preferred road to the economic stability that now evades its members. Bearing in mind the “it’s the economy, stupid” mantra, their idea – and hope (and that of some other European Muslims) – is that Europeans will put their economic concerns enough ahead of their past political ideals to consider a new approach to government and society – a kind of “Occupy Wall Street” with an Islamist twist.. The current growth and success of sharia banking in the UK and other European countries further supports their assertion that Europe could benefit from a more Islamized future based on the Turkish model.
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