Is Geography Türkiye’s Destiny?

By: Editor in Chief

In the 100th year of its founding, has the young Turkish Republic, which formed its current borders through the War of Independence against imperial powers of the time, faced the same threats again?

Are the threats imposed on Turkish society by all Republican governments real, or just an excuse used to cover failures?

Geographically, being neighbors with the birthplace of all major religions and being among the world’s most abundant underground resources… Does this always mean being a target of imperial powers’ “divide and conquer” threats?

Although a large part of the Turkish population thinks that these issues are realistic reasons for the negativity experienced in recent times, no side has been fully satisfied with these justifications.

All governments that come to power agree on the terrorist organizations and their goals that threaten the Turkish Republic, which are under the control of imperial powers.

However, they don’t hesitate to flirt with these organizations’ extensions both in the public sector and within the police and military, giving an image of themselves that accuses each other of benefiting from terrorism with the same justifications when necessary, regardless of being in the government or the opposition.

Is it a fate or a necessity for developing societies to experience such situations?

Undoubtedly, education is the most unsuccessful issue that the AK Party government, which has been in power for almost a quarter of a century, accepts about themselves.

Today, more than 6 million Turkish voters who will vote for the first time in their lives have not seen any government other than the AK Party.

When you also take into account the middle-aged voters, the situation varies significantly.

Moreover, this group of voters can only compare the current AK Party with the relatively successful AK Party of the past.

Unfortunately, this generation, who cannot receive a quality education but uses social media effectively and is susceptible to all kinds of manipulation, is waiting in a polarized situation where authoritarian Erdogan’s rhetoric and policies are susceptible to all kinds of disinformation in the presidential system, where even a 1% vote can change things, to determine the fate of the country.

Due to this determinative power, both the ruling party and the opposition see attacking each other with the same arguments as sufficient in terms of producing the necessary effect on their target audience.

Promises such as salary and wage increases, which aim to create the intended effect in this poorly educated segment of society, are another argument used by both the ruling party and the opposition.

However, educated voters know that this will have a negative short-term effect on purchasing power by increasing inflation.

After coming to power in 2002, the AK Party managed to cover significant socio-economic distances that felt in Türkiye, which had been governed by coalition governments for many years.

However, these achievements, such as non-exportable production, contemporary technological production, and efficient agricultural production, weren’t based on rational activities, making them unsustainable in the long term.

Moreover, without a reliable justice mechanism that delivers justice, qualified foreign capital couldn’t enter the country except for short-term, aimless inputs.

Economic policies that focus on short-term hot money inflows, aimed at surviving the day, may have a numbing effect on the low-educated Turkish public, who no longer want to wait for anything.

However, the negative results felt by ordinary Turks on the streets have already become part of everyone’s daily routine, and the unpleasant realities that no one can avoid facing.

At the end of the day, the situation where geography is destiny is limited to the issue of this tectonic movement, which is thought to result in the disappearance of the Mediterranean Sea in about a million years due to the country’s southeast being pushed by about 5 cm every year by the African continent.

Unless rational and sensible social economic policies are produced, the fact that Türkiye’s problems cannot be solved even if it is removed from the world and positioned on Mars must be understood.

Can the Turkish people comprehend this without experiencing an existential threat?

Could the solution to the problem be hidden in this answer?