The Turkish leadership enjoys popular support
In 2017, it was India who first hosted Recep Erdogan after the Turks voted to change their governing system
On June 24, Turkey left behind the most important election of her democratic history. The first free multiparty election in the country was held in 1950. Over the past 70 years, it witnessed three coups. However, the bloodshed recorded in the failed coup attempt of 2016, which the nation will remember this weekend, on July 15, can’t be compared with any of the previous ones. Tanks, F-16 fighters, and helicopters targeted the parliament, the presidential compound and the security forces’ compounds in Ankara. That night, 251 people, most of them civilians, were killed and more than 2,500 wounded.
At that time, I was the director general in the foreign ministry, in charge of bilateral relations with South Asian countries, including India. I received a call from the Indian Ambassador in Ankara, telling me that Mr Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, would like to talk to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey. The so-called lovers of democracy in the West who wish to educate others about what democracy should be, waited for days to do what PM Modi had done. In April 2017, it was again India, the first nation who hosted President Erdogan two weeks after the Turks voted in a referendum to change the country’s governing system from parliamentary to presidential.
The free media in democracies have an indisputable right to question the elections. Some columnists of both the Turkish and Indian press have honestly commented on Turkish elections as well as last year’s constitutional referendum. However, the criticism of some focused mainly on the credibility of the elections, held under the state of emergency, which was declared immediately after the bloody coup attempt of July 2016. Turkey is not the only European country that has held elections under the state of emergency. France also held presidential elections under a state of emergency declared after a terrorist attack, where the casualty figures were lower than Turkey. The June 24 elections recorded a voter turnout of 87%. From those who went to vote, 98% gave their choice to the new parliament. The new parliament will be housing the highest ratio of women MPs of Turkish democracy to date. Erdogan himself received 52.5% of votes, at least 20% higher than his nearest contestant.
Sharing a borderline of 1,300 km with Iraq and Syria where the fight against the DAESH is still on, keeping a secular and pluralistic democracy is not easy. India, like Turkey, has been and still is the target of a number of terrorist organisations. Turkey expects the Indian media to understand its fight against terrorists who enjoy financial and logistical support from beyond the borders.