Most Turkish voters stick with Erdogan
The president has embarked on foreign policy choices that are not in the region’s interests
With the votes of Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections now counted, the majority of Turkish voters have decided they wish to continue on the path to autocracy favoured by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and have returned him to the presidential palace in Ankara with some 52.54 per cent of the popular vote. Sunday’s election offered an opportunity for Turkey to change course and halt its slide away from the principles of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s republic that guaranteed a democratic and secular state for all.
Since coming to power 15 years ago, Erdogan has concentrated power on his person, and now becomes president with formidable and autocratic powers with limited parliamentary oversight — and that is disappointing. Domestically, he has silenced, jailed and intimidated critics while fuelling economic growth through protectionism of his currency and appealing to Turkish national sentiment. His foreign policies, however, also are a cause for concern in his immediate neighbourhood and here in the Gulf. Although a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and an aspiring applicant to the European Union, under Erdogan’s leadership Turkey has engaged in activities that have raised tensions with Greece, resulted in the breakdown of talks on the re-unification of Cyprus, and aggressively claimed parts of the sea floor of the Mediterranean that are Egyptian territory. Ankara has interfered in German and Dutch domestic matters and now remains a geostrategic threat to the United States, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
Under Erdogan’s leadership too, he has meddled inside Syria with the sole intent of attacking the Kurdish stronghold of Afrin by dressing it up as a security threat to Turkey, destabilising and complicating even further the difficult situation in Syria for groups fighting against the regime of President Bashar Al Assad.That intervention in Syria is misplaced and certainly out of sync with positive regional geopolitics as Turkey looks to the regime in Tehran for opportunities to expand Erdogan’s influence and standing. During the course of his rise to power and concentrating control around him, he has undermined the sectarian principles of Turkey itself. His support of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has helped propagate instability, insecurity and violence there. Similarly, he has offered support to Qatar as it refuses to acknowledge and accept its international obligations to fight terrorism. The anti-terror quartet of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt remain resolute in holding Qatar to account, and Erdogan’s misguided support of Doha is not helping. Following Sunday’s election, Erdogan remains an irritant.