TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Turkey’s choice: Strong country, leadership
Turkey made its choice on June 24 and named its new president and parliament members
Change Size
T
urkey made its choice on June 24 and named its new president and parliament members. The country will now be ruled with a presidential system, where the president will be the head of the executive, without the help of a prime minister.
The new system will not allow coalition governments, which means the government will be able to act faster and more effectively. The legislature and executive will be more clearly divided, with the executive to focus on its services and the parliament to make laws and oversee the activities of the former.
The president will work in tandem with the parliament for problem-free ruling. The president can hold the office for a maximum of two terms and the ministers in the Cabinet set up by the president cannot act as parliament members at the same time. The new system will also make it possible to indict the president with a parliamentary resolution.
The winner of the elections was the Cumhur (Public) Alliance, a coalition between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). At least 10 percent of the 52 percent of the vote that Tayyip Erdogan obtained in order to be the president came from MHP voters.
This shows that even though the president now has more powers, the allegations made against him that he has instated a “one-man rule” are untrue. The AKP will need to get the approval of the MHP in its policies, which will make the MHP a central player in the parliament.
The AKP-MHP alliance also means a stronger campaign against the terror group Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the introduction of stronger policies against plots targeting Turkey. This collaboration will, in particular, prevent the realization of the Greater Middle East Project, which was devised to divide the Middle East into smaller, weaker countries.
It is a known fact that this project was officially launched in Iraq and Syria and now continues in a bid to divide the people of the Middle East. A new map of the Middle East published in the New York Times in 2013 predicted that five countries in the Middle East would be divided, giving birth to 14 smaller new countries.
Many similar Middle East maps were prepared in the past, and the region was subsequently dismembered in line with those plans. The goal is to create a divided, unstable Middle East, where people are completely disconnected and intimidated through violence, bombs and riots.
To achieve this goal, it is believed that strong and central countries of the region should be weakened, disallowing strong governments. Turkey is at the top of the list.
For this reason, the architects of the Greater Middle East Project are focused on making Turkey weak and dependent. Riots like the Gezi protests, or the failed coup attempt of July 15, were part of this plan. When they failed, credit rating institutions stepped in and used the rise of the dollar as an excuse to show that Turkey was “not suitable for investments”.
______________________
The architects of the Greater Middle East Project are focused on making Turkey weak.
The plan was to demonstrate and present Turkey’s economy as bankrupt in an attempt to sway voters away from the AKP and ultimately for them to lose the elections.
For these reasons, it had been crucial for Turkey’s strong leadership to continue. The Turkish people gave the perfect answer on June 24. Strong rule in Turkey shows that those who made evil plans for the Middle East would not be able to advance their goals.
Turkey is making strong alliances with Russia and China in addition to its new eastern alliances that will further reinforce this effect.
The Cumhur Alliance is fully aware of the dangers Turkey faces and shapes its policies accordingly. The AKP-MHP alliance will continue to contribute to Turkey in the future.
The election results sent another important message. They showed that AKP still couldn’t win the hearts of people in coastal cities and North-west Turkey. It is clear that the AKP should assess the reasons behind the strong reaction against it in those regions and understand the concerns of the people. The people in coastal cities are still worried that their freedoms and modernism might be restricted. This is probably the most important issue the government needs to work on.
The AKP has completed very successful development projects and Turkey has seen truly enormous leaps over the last 15 years. Once these achievements are supported with further leaps in the arts, quality and modernism, people will feel more at ease and content.
Indeed President Erdogan expressed the importance of this point in his post-election speech when he said: “We will never allow anyone to be discriminated against, frowned upon or isolated because of their ethnicity, faith, clothing choice, lifestyle or any other difference”. When Turkey makes good on this promise, crucial changes will take place in Turkey.
It should be remembered that a healthy country is possible only when the leadership is strong and when women and young people are completely free and are contributing members of society. Women’s rights, one of the biggest targets of extremism, should be focused on in order to champion and ensure equality both in social life and politics. We hope that this will be an era of beautiful development for Turkey and the Middle East.
_______________________
The writer has authored books on politics and science.
