Turkish Ambassador to Mexico Mustafa Oguz Demiralp didn’t mince words in his short-but-to-the-point national day reception speech last Friday, Oct. 28.
“We went through a very difficult and trying period after the attempted coup last July,” he told guests at a diplomatic reception to mark the 93rd anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey.
“But now Turkey is back on track and everything is back to normal.”
Well, “back to normal” might be a bit of a stretch, since there has been a rather dramatic government crackdown on media and individual freedoms as a result of the failed putsch, and there has also been a notable shift in Ankara’s political alliances, with Turkey moving further away from Europe and the United States (in large part due to the West’s waning support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Europe’s unwillingness to keep its end of an immigrant bargain hatched in March and the United States’ steadfast refusal to even consider the repatriation of imam Muhammed Fethullah Gülen, who Ankara maintains was instrumental in the stillborn coup), and closer to Russia, China and Iran.
But, despite the heavy-handedness of Erdoğan (or maybe because of it), Demiralp was right about Turkey regaining its footing after almost losing its democratically elected government to an aborted military takeover.
Despite a series of vicious terrorist attacks, a barrage of downgrades by international rating agencies, sagging financial reserves and having to support over two million refugees from Iraq and Syria without the funds promised by the EU in exchange for stemming their tide into Europe, Turkey’s economy has managed to stay afloat.
And while the Erdoğan government is still strapped for funding as it continues to confront domestic Kurdish insurgency and assaults from an ever-more aggressive Islamic State (I.S.), Turkey shocked international financial markets by registering a 3.1 percent expansion in the second quarter of this year.
So no matter what critics may have to say against Erdoğan’s politics, he clearly deserves their recognition and kudos for keeping a steady helm on the economy during times of turbulence.
Granted, there are several factors in Turkey’s favor.
Low oil prices translate into domestic price stability and the main driver of the Turkish economy is private household consumption, which represents nearly 70 percent of the country’s GDP.
Also, Turkey boasts a strong banking sector, which contributes to financial stability.
And the country has a diversified economy and well-educated workforce, which makes it attractive to investors.
Finally — and this is a quality that has to be attributed to the Erdoğan regime — Turkey has a solid, pro-business environment, which has helped both corporations and the nation to weather political jolts of all kinds.
So, while the international naysayers and rating agencies may have been ready to write Turkey’s economic future off after the failed coup, Erdoğan and his people proved their resilience and essentially, as Demiralp said, got the country “back on track,” and that is no easy feat in the span of just three and a half months.
There was one other resounding message in Ambassador Demiralp’s national day speech, and that was that his government is going to continue to take a strong approach against terrorist acts, no matter who may be responsible for them.
“We will fight terrorism on every front,” he said.
“Terrorists are the sons of the devil, and their despicable acts have nothing to do with Islam or humanity. They must be stopped.”
Again, Demiralp is right.
In the last few months, Turkey has been marred by the horrors of terrorist violence, and there is no other way to confront these criminals than through a strong military stance.
Clearly, Erdoğan may not be a man for all seasons, nor all nations, but he does seem to be the man for this season in Turkey, and while he may have more than his fair share of detractors abroad, it should be remembered that he was democratically elected and still has the majority support of his people, even — as we have seen — in the face of a futile military coup.
Thérèse Margolis can be reached at therese.margolis@gmail.com.