Turkish Daily News
Dec 30 2004

Turkey is a lucky country

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!