While listening to the historic
address by Mr. Tayyab Erdogan, the President of Turkey in the joint session, I
recalled the history of his forefathers and about his great soil. He is the
proud son of the soil.
This soil has created leaders
like Osman, Kamal Ataturk and many more. The Turks have a very old rich history
which you will know more about it when either you are in Istanbul or in
Anatolia. Both cities have witnessed the real rise of Turks starting from the
Ottoman Empire which emerged as mighty & longest dynasties of the history
of Empires. It emerged as the first Islamic superpower which ruled Middle East,
Eastern Europe and North Africa for over 600 years.
Basically Osman I, in tribal
Turkish of Anatolia is known as a great warrior as he was the founder of
Ottoman empire. The name Ottoman was derived from Osman, a bey (chieftain) from
a tribe in western Turkey, who declared independence from the Seljuk Turks.
The Ottoman Turks after setting
up their own government started to expand its territorial control by the
successive leadership like Osman I, Orhan, Murad I and Bayezid I. While Western
Europeans generally viewed Ottomans as a threat, many historians regarded the
Empire as a source of great regional stability and security, as many great
achievements were done in the arts, science, religion and culture are the part
of their steps.
When Ottoman Empire was
demolished, Mustafa Kemal took over the control on behalf of Turks. It was due
to his efforts that the Turkish nation refused to accept the old ways and
fought out to form a new and modern nation from the ashes.
The relationship between Pakistan
and Turkey dates back to the generations before the establishment of the two
states, more when the Muslims of the northwestern British Raj sent financial
aid to the declining Ottoman Empire during the Turkish War of Independence,
which was followed by the formation of the Turkish Republic and the
Independence of Pakistan. As a result, both countries have enjoyed a positive
perception for many decades.
I once had a chance to see the
reserved museum, where the belonging of Allama Iqbal is still intact and people
in Turkey really love Allama Iqbal and his poetry. This country has gone
through various phases of ups and down. I remember visiting the home place of
ruler Osman in Anatolia and how, his people were still proud of his deeds and
bravery.
The modern and successful Turkey
started emerging under the leadership of Tayyab Erdogan and his team.
The most popular leader in Turkey
today is Mr. Tayyip Erdogan who has great knowledge of strategic depth and he
knows the country issues and the past political problems very well. Erdoğan
became prime minister when Turkey was a country that suffered from constant
economic crises despite the fact that the rest of the world was doing fine
economically. Now Turkey is thriving and its economy is still growing despite
the fact that the world has been in an economic crisis since 2008 and the fact
that many major and minor economies have been shrinking lately.
Before Erdoğan (and during his
initial years in prime minister while he was not yet very strong in the face of
the resistance by the totalitarian secularist establishment), Turkey was a
country in which even wearing the headscarf in universities was forbidden and
both Muslims and non-Muslim minorities were repressed by the secularist
establishment and the secular-totalitarian Turkish elites. Now Turkey is a
country in which people of all faiths are respected in whatever warped way the
mendacious foreign media, under orders from Western intelligence services may
portray the past and present realities of Turkey.
In the history of Turkey, i.e. after
the end of the Ottoman Empire, this is the only time after Mustafa Kamal that
Turkey has a leader that improves Turkey almost in every way: its economy, its
internal cohesion and its treatment of citizens. Though Kamal Attaturk made
Turkey modern yet no leader has been as successful as Erdoğan in Turkey as he
came in a democratic way, that’s why he is regarded as the greatest leader ever
in the history of the Republic of Turkey. The previous model of governance in
Turkey was similar to that of Pakistan and there was semi-military Governance
model and the army had its constitutional defined rule.
During his prime minister ship
and presidency, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has increased Turkey’s GDP some 9-folds
while that of neighboring Greece remained almost the same. Turkey has become
filled with a great manufacturing industry in the past fifteen years, and this
has been visible to observers who have experienced this decade and a half in
some major industrial regions such as the region to the immediate east of Istanbul,
comprising the Kocaeli province and some Anatolian districts of Istanbul.
Both President Abdullah Gul and
then PM and now the president played a pivotal role and brought new model of
governance by bringing back the presidential system where as president Gul
formed his own party and parted his ways with TA.
In his first year of Govt, in
2001 he ended “State of Emergency” (Olaganustu Hal) in east of Turkey. This
increased the investments to the east, inflation rate decreased to around 7-10%
that decreased interest rates and this boosted consumption in all manners and
credit cards and consumer loans became available for the masses. Long term
credits became available like mortgage and mortgage system became available
after 2005-2006 and this helped people to build better houses, accumulations in
treasury (dollar, gold) increased by 4 times. Long term international credits
became available as before Erdogan Turkey was craving IMF for 1-2 billion
dollar with high interest rates. Today, Turkey can borrow money for 30 years of
payback. IMF offered 40 billion dollars in 2011 but Turkey rejected it.
USA did not like the rise of
Tayyab Erdogan as a visionary leader and serious attempts were made to remove
him as president.
On July 15th 2016, a coup was
attempted in Turkey against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Government
by a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces that organized themselves as the
Peace at Home Council. But the success of coup was averted by the citizens, the
loyal forces and his own loyal part of the intelligence who mobilized on the
street to save his capture as the plotter failed to gain public and political
support.
He has more power now and he more
administrating and political space which he is exercising very prudently and
his result oriented approach is paying back to Turkey.
I have met him in my official
capacity as Interior Minister while he was the PM in his office and during a
couple of meeting during his visits to Pakistan. I found him to be very
decisive in his approach with the issues.
I remember a meeting where he was
with his Interior minister and the issue of illegal immigrants of Pakistan was
at the rise, as per his instructions, his interior minister and I handled the
issues by deporting the Pakistani illegal immigrants back to Pakistan duly
financed by Turkey.
It is unfortunate to note that
lately, an increased number of illegal Pakistani immigrants have been found
roaming around the streets of Istanbul and according to latest figures the
number has gone up to 80000 Pakistani in Turkey.
I hope the govt takes some solid
action to bring them back, even some of them are those who have been pushed in
Turkey by Deish in the guise of jobless persons after having them fully trained
and using them on various operations in Syria etc.
I would like to express that
Turkey is one country which has been helping us in almost all the fields
including defence. Turkey and Pakistan laid the foundation of their security
and diplomatic ties in 1951 by signing the Treaty of Eternal Friendship.
In the 1970s, Turkey and Pakistan
provided both political and military support to one another. Turkey aided
Pakistan diplomatically and militarily throughout the process of Bangladesh
gaining its independence, and restrained from recognizing Bangladesh as an
independent state until Pakistan did. Pakistan gave Turkey its full support
during the Cyprus crisis, and provided it with military-logistic supplies. The
Cyprus operation took place in 1974, when Turkish soldiers were responding to
violence amid a Greek Cypriot attempt to forcibly unite Cyprus with Greece.
President Turkey stated in his
address during his recent visit to Pakistan, how people of Pakistan helped the
Turkish earthquake victims through donation a strong earthquake that hit the
eastern region of Van, Turkey in 2011. A large number people gathered to lend
support to Turkish brothers and sister from Lahore chowk. The consignment of
relief items for the earthquake victims of Turkey was sent by the Punjab government
via a special plane
His statements in the support of
oppressed Kashmiris have given a new strength in highlighting Kashmir cause in
the world. He also emphasized on the importance of the Kashmir issue for
Turkey, with a clear mention of the country’s support to Pakistan for a
solution. He said it by saying:
“And now, we feel the same about Kashmir
today. It was Çanakkale yesterday and Kashmir today; there is no difference
between the two,” Erdoğan said, adding that Turkey will continue to support
Pakistan.
I also had the privilege of
presenting him my new book namely “Kashmir Bleeding”, during the official
dinner given in his honor at the Presidency. He was very happy to read the
title of the book and also promised to give feedback on it.
During his speech at the
parliament, he also reiterated his support towards Pakistan in FATF by sending
a strong message to USA by siding with Pakistan on FATF, Erdogan said:
“I also want to emphasize that we will give
support to Pakistan which is subject to political pressure in the Financial
Action Task Force (FATF) meetings.”
“As in the past, we will continue
to stand by Pakistan in the future.”
And by this statement, FATF will
not be able to declare us Black from Grey list where it looks that USA may not
like us to be out of grey list unless International pressure is mounted from
our friends like Turkey on our behalf.
I am of the firm view that Turkey -
China and Pakistan can impose a strong International political pressure block
against those who are in favor of these three nations. I pray one day we will
be an economic pillar in the world.
Tayyip Erdogan has also emerged
as an Ottoman warrior, just like his forefathers and is defeating west on many
fronts like the Ottoman Empire defeated the Byzantine Empire.
Now the world is facing wars and
destruction in order to overpower the Economic Zones with multiple resources
including water which will be yet another reason of bigger wars.
We need to examine what made
Turkey better than us and what can we follow through their experience to make
Pakistan as world Economic power which we can only perform by creating unity
among ourselves to stand together to resolve our national issues. Let us also
settle our internal fights and issues so that we can give the nation a new
brighter life based on the example of the Turkish model.
The article was published in The Nation on February 21, 2020, links to articles- https://nation.com.pk/21-Feb-2020/turkey-a-role-model-of-economic-and-political-transitions-part-ii
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