Day: May 13, 2023

Global developments including the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have disrupted supply chains worldwide and sent many major economies into recession. And Türkiye has also been impacted. Asli Atbas has more on Türkiye’s economy model.

Source: TRTworld.com

A Russian tennis player who won the 2015 Wimbledon junior tournament and had all the hallmarks of an up-and-coming sports star, offered a rare glimpse into the reasons why she dropped out of world-class sports, instead opting for a business career and even creating an OnlyFans account.

In an interview with Sports.ru released on Friday, Sofya Zhuk, 23, insisted she would never return to tennis after retiring in 2019, explaining that her early years were marred not only by immense physical stress, but also mental breakdowns.

Zhuk said she could have continued with tennis, “if I hadn’t experienced such pressure from my family, parents” who pushed her to achieve greatness in the sport – unlike other players her age that did not have to deal with so much pressure and were able to lead mostly normal lives.

I was accompanied by my mother 24/7. I cried because of this, I was freaking out due to fatigue, I locked myself in the bathroom just to be alone. At tournaments, my mother stood at the locker room entrance so I would not spend more than ten minutes there.

After becoming fed up with the routine, she quit tennis upon coming of age. After getting married, Zhuk opened a car rental business with her husband while running several other ventures. The intense workload involved in the rental business, however, took a toll on her health, resulting in pancreatitis.

The ex-tennis star also confirmed rumors that she had opened an account on OnlyFans, an adult subscription website, but said she never intended to produce any explicit or pornographic content.

“To be honest, I just became curious how much one could earn there in a week without uploading any nude and depraved content… My husband and I just became interested,” Zhuk said, adding that she had made $4,500 in just five days.

She said she was surprised by the results, but lost interest and eventually stopped uploading.

During her short tennis career, Zhuk won the 2015 Wimbledon girls singles title and six International Tennis Federation tournaments. Now, in addition to her business activities, she has an Instagram account with more than 168,000 subscribers.

Source: Russia Today

A Ukrainian missile attack on the Russian city of Donetsk has killed a woman and her four-year-old son, Mayor Aleksey Kulemzin said on social media on Saturday.

Ukrainian forces shelled the city several times over the course of the day, damaging a total of 18 residential buildings and three civilian infrastructure facilities in Donetsk and the nearby town of Gorlovka, the local authorities said.

A Ukrainian projectile struck the house where the woman and her child lived, causing a fire, Kulemzin said. According to Russian media reports, the family home was burnt out completely. Russia’s MK newspaper reported that the two were “burned alive.”

Several media outlets also published a video purportedly showing what was left of the building. Footage show the ruins of a single-story house, with its roof destroyed and little but walls burnt on the inside remaining.

According to Kulemzin, six people were also injured in other Ukrainian strikes targeting various city districts on Saturday.

Kiev’s forces shelled the area using Soviet-made Grad multiple rocket launchers and the 155mm artillery provided by Western nations, Russian outlet Izvestia reported. A local school was also hit in the strike, it added.

The strike came just a day after six children were injured in a Ukrainian strike on another Donbass city, Lugansk. Remnants of a US-made ADM-160B decoy missile were found in Lugansk after the attack.

Ukrainian forces have repeatedly shelled not just Donbass but also Russian border regions since the conflict began in February of last year.

Last week, Kiev’s troops struck a school in the town of Shebekino, located just around 20km (12 miles) from the Ukrainian border, in Russia’s Belgorod Region. No one was hurt in the school itself – which was closed on the day of the strike – but the attack left one person injured nearby, the local authorities said.

In late April, four civilians were killed in a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Bryansk Region. One house was completely destroyed in the attack and two others were damaged, the governor of the region, Aleksandr Bogomaz, said.

Source: Russia Today

The Dow Jones and the S and P 500 closed lower Friday to post losses for the second consecutive week. The Dow decreased almost nine points, or 0.03%, to finish the day at 33,300. The blue-chip index saw a weekly loss of 1.1%. The S and P 500 shed six points, or 0.16%, to end the last trading day of the week at 4,124. The index recorded a weekly decline of 0.9%. The Nasdaq declined 43 points, or 0.35%, to close the session at 12,284. However, the tech-heavy index managed to post a gain of 0.4%. The losses in exchanges came after US consumer sentiment declined in May amid concerns about the economy, according to the University of Michigan's consumer survey preliminary results released earlier. "Consumer sentiment tumbled 9% amid renewed concerns about the trajectory of the economy, erasing over half of the gains achieved after the all-time historic low from last June," Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu said in a statement. Due to economic concerns, the VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, rose 0.6% to 17.03. The 10-year US Treasury yield, meanwhile, jumped 2% to 3.464%. The dollar index was up 0.6% to 102.69, while the euro decreased 0.6% to $1.0850 against the greenback. Precious metals were in negative territory, with the price of gold losing 0.2% to $2,010 per ounce and silver diving 0.9% to $23.96 an ounce. Crude oil prices fell around 1% with the global benchmark Brent crude price at $74.22 per barrel and the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude price at $70.09.

Source: Anadolu Agency

As the election day in Türkiye draws near, civil servants, political parties and independent observers are gearing up to take their posts at the election centres across the country to ensure the integrity and fairness of the vote.

Contrary to the doubts that some international news organisations have raised in recent days, the process to cast the vote and subsequent counting has been designed in a way to minimise chances of rigging.

More than 60 million people are eligible to vote in the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections that will be conducted in 81 provinces under the full media glare. The exercise involves keeping track of 191,000 ballot boxes. And there will be plenty of eyes on them.

Diaspora voting

Around 6.5 million Turks live in other countries. Among them, 3.28 million are eligible to cast their votes in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary election.

Compared to the 60.9 million registered voters within Türkiye, the diaspora vote might appear to be minuscule, and the state takes every necessary steps to ensure security of ballot boxes at custom gates and in countries Turkish expats casting their votes.

Following the completion of voting, sealed bags are sent to Türkiye accompanied by representatives of political parties contesting in the elections, and locked in a room until voting ends in Türkiye and counting starts.

A majority of the Turkish diaspora lives in Western Europe, where migrant workers settled in the 1960s as part of the post-World War II reconstruction programme. They make up the single-largest Muslim immigrant group in Western Europe.

With over 1.5 million registered diaspora voters, Germany tops the list of countries where Turkish politics will play out at a fever pitch, followed by France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Conducting elections

Türkiye’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) has put in place a system which ensures the integrity of the vote starting from the polling booths.

At every polling station, a five-member board, which includes representatives of the YSK and dominant political parties, has been deputed. The board cross-checks the identification of the voters and if their names are included in the electoral list. This eliminates the chances of one person casting a vote twice. It also helps build consensus between the parties on the result.

Political parties including the AK Party and the opposition CHP, which is part of the six-party Nation Alliance, will send out tens of thousands of observers to polling stations.

Elections in quake-hit provinces

YSK has also made special arrangements to facilitate voters in the 11 provinces hit by the deadly February 6th earthquakes. Around 300,000 people, who are eligible to vote, and have moved to other cities after the disaster have registered in a special system to cast their ballot without needing to travel back to their hometowns.

Over the past few weeks, several delegations of the YSK have visited the quake-hit region to take stock of the situation and access what is needed to conduct the elections.

Thousands of observers will follow elections

Ahead of the election, the parties recruit thousands of volunteers especially for this purpose. These representatives have the permission to accompany the ballot boxes.

Besides the party representatives and YSK officials, non-government organisations have their own volunteers to monitor the voting. One NGO, Vote and Beyond, says it has assigned around 100, 000 people to collect voting results.

As the counting starts, volunteers of the political parties are present at the polling stations to oversee it. They can tally the votes, take pictures and pass on the information to party higher-ups.

What makes the electoral process even more transparent is the presence of independent observers including a 40-member team of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) who have come on the invitation of the government.

The independence of the Supreme Election Board became obvious early this month when it refused the government's request for ballot box location data ahead of the elections. The opposition was not in favour of YSK sharing the location of the booths with the interior ministry at such a crucial juncture.

This just goes on to show that election authorities are working independently of politics and government influence.

To avoid any confusion, only the official state-run Anadolu Agency is authorised to release election results.

Source: TRTworld.com

Scholars often use a variety of established facts and theoretical concepts to better explain the patterns of international politics.

Since these conceptual frameworks are not static but subservient to changing events and circumstances, they can influence the scholarly work on international politics over time.

In this sense, Turkish foreign policy and the Western ‘Türkiye’ policy may be rooted in the existing works of thinkers. As conceptual explanations, influenced by repeated events, shape political narratives, Turkish foreign policy and the West’s Türkiye policy have also emerged in light of a fast changing geopolitical landscape.

On an appropriate examination, American political scientist, the late Immanuel Wallerstein – one of the fiercest critics of the global elite – deserves an appreciation for analysing and synthesising Türkiye’s struggle to expand its seat in the international realm and the western efforts to impede it.

Wallerstein tells us about the ‘world system theory’ with his original contribution to Lenin’s ‘core-periphery state’ explanation of imperialism. The theory argues that the ‘core states’ build supremacy over the ‘periphery ones’ – terms he uses to denote the developed and under-developed nations – while the semi-periphery states serve the core ones as a bridge to the peripheries.

For Wallerstein, semi-peripheries cannot be a member of the core community in terms of holding control of the world system. In other words, a core-states club is about setting consensus to jointly dominate the international realm where the semi-peripheries and peripheries are subjected to the imposed order.

This explanation may be applied to the G7 and G20 summits, where the first group represents the core states while the second bloc provides the foundation for the meeting of the core and periphery states.

The roles of the semi-peripheries, for the sake of limited and regional incentives, are determined through the consensus of the core – G7.

The Turkish experience

The West, or core states, regard Türkiye as a semi-periphery one in the designated ‘world system’. More precisely, the core states expect Türkiye to rely on their ‘order’ and observe the fruits afforded to them.

The expectation is to have Türkiye not challenge their order in a vehement manner. Moreover, rising anti-Muslim sentiments after 9/11 and the strained relations between the US and Türkiye complicate the offers and expectations between the two sides.

The decision of Türkiye on March 1 2003, not to allow American soldiers deployed to Iraq en route Türkiye to set foot in the war-affected country, marked a turning point as it resulted in Türkiye being punished for non-compliance with US demands and to serve as an example.

In parallel with the decision of the Parliament, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policy of expanding Türkiye’s capacity to be a regional power was the first alarming bell for the dominating core states. The thriving economy of the 2000s reminded us that a prospering Türkiye could intervene in the regional issues that could harm the interests of them.

Then, a semi-periphery state like Türkiye is expected to have a favourable pro-government and comply with the imposed order of the core states, say the USA, as stated by Joe Biden in a meeting with the New York Times editorial board.

The course of achieving such an end was to encourage internal political factions and proxies to challenge the Erdogan government.

In this sense, there happened a series of events to topple the democratically elected Turkish government which were the Gezi incidents of 2012, the plots against the able Turkish Armed Forces through the ‘arranged’ Balyoz and Ergenekon lawsuits, the 2013 plots on the Erdogan-led government by the hands of FETO judges and prosecutors, the 2015 wide scale attacks in the cities of Türkiye by the hands of the PKK cells, and finally the July 15th coup attempt of FETO, which failed due to people's resistance.

The response of the Erdogan leadership has been to drive strategic autonomy for the sake of ‘survival’ through a ‘self-help’ system. In this context, Erdogan responded to the internal and external challenges and pursued a policy of promoting Türkiye as a regional power independent from the core states.

Once the West imposed an order urging Türkiye to accept their demands, Erdogan commenced a wise balancing strategy. The Eastern Mediterranean issue has been a significant case to observe in terms of understanding the attitude of the core states and semi-periphery – the West and Türkiye.

The political and military escalations of 2019 underlined the competing interests of both parties and their competition across the region with the coverage of Syria, Cyprus, Libya, and Greece.

The response of the West to the policies of the Erdogan government had been to apply underhand and overt sanctions on Türkiye while isolating the Turkish government in the Western hemisphere.

The counter response of Türkiye was twofold. The initial course was to pursue a new foreign policy that adopts the normalisation with the other semi-peripheries to prevent the infiltration of external diffusion.

Turkish foreign policy has gained new momentum, competing and cooperating with others.

Military and defence: primary success stories

The Turkish leadership has started diplomatic efforts bargaining in the halls of Washington, Brussels, and Moscow while militarily confronting the interests of these states in Syria, Libya, or Karabakh.

The second course was to eradicate dependency on the other states. For instance, the US had rejected selling the Patriots to the Turkish Armed Forces during the tense period of the Iran and Syria tensions.

Türkiye purchased a more efficient air defence system from Russia and started the air defence program to manufacture the locally made short-range HISAR A+, medium-range HISAR O+, and long-range SIPER air defence systems.

The American response was to expel Türkiye from the F35 program, despite Türkiye being the founding partner of the program.

The Erdogan government enhanced the Turkish aviation program with HURKUS, HURJET light attack aircraft, and 5th generation KAAN fighters other than a wide spectrum of precise ammunition.

Anadolu Amphibious Warship informed the global public about the capability of force projection to remote crisis-laden regions. The Turkish defence industry proved that Türkiye can find alternatives manufactured in Türkiye through the dedicated efforts of Turkish engineers to reach the capabilities of a core state.

Military and defence have been the primary success stories in repelling the sanctions of the core states, though; the essential challenge is about manufacturing such Turkish commodities with high-tech solutions to find room in the global competition.

The TOGG – a Turkish e-automobile has taken its seat across the streets of Türkiye, most probably to replace the flags of the Western automobile industries.

The nuclear energy plant in the city of Mersin is proceeding well to distribute cost-efficient energy to Turkish homes and industries. The natural gas, discovered in the Black Sea, is now heating the homes of Turkish citizens. The new oil reserve identified in Gabar Mountain will reduce oil imports by 10 percent annually.

The low-interest policy of the government prevented unemployment after the Covid-19 pandemic and the low exchange rate boosted exports.

Türkiye augmented its regional leadership status-quo to expand toward the surrounding regional systems. After these achievements, it may be too early to claim a global status, though; Türkiye is advancing well and committed to being a global actor.

This reality has been perceived as a risk for the supremacy of the core states specifically in the neighbourhood of Türkiye. Consequently, this pattern reflects the intention of being ‘independent’ rather than being a mere subject in the world system.

Source: TRTworld.com

Türkiye’s rise in political, economic, technological, military, demographic, and diplomatic terms in the past two decades is a fact. The numbers are there for anyone to see to measure Türkiye’s overall progress between 2002 and 2023, but the leap is not limited to quantitative change.

Türkiye also achieved qualitative progress as well in the said period; numbers are not the only things that grew over the years. Türkiye developed novel capabilities.

For instance, Türkiye not only increased its defence and aviation exports from $248 million in 2002 to over $4 billion in 2022 but also achieved a new status as a country that is capable of developing and exporting advanced indigenous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as well as unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs). In 2002, it was wholly dependent on imported UAVs in its counter-terrorism missions.

In democratic terms, too, Türkiye achieved a great deal between 2002 and 2023, despite the allegations of “democratic backsliding” and “growing authoritarianism” featuring in almost all prominent media and opinion outlets in the developed world.

No one can claim that Turkish democracy is flawless. No democracy is. But it is safe to claim that the democratic standards and maturity between 2002 and 2023 are much higher than in any other period in Türkiye’s republican history.

The measure for the health and maturity of a democracy might vary among countries as they all have different conditions ranging from socio-economic development, culture, geography, and so on.

But the measure of maturity for Türkiye’s democracy is clear from the extent of the civilian space’s freedom from military intervention and tutelage.

Like the measure of maturity, the main challenges to democratic progress, too vary among countries.

And the main challenge for Türkiye’s democracy was the omnipresence of either an actual military coup –exemplified by the coups in 1960, 1971, 1980, and even 1997- or the threat of an imminent military coup or intervention such as the 2007 ultimatum, better known as the “e-memorandum” by Turkish generals.

Before 2002, all civilian governments had to yield to coups or other sorts of military interventions. The first time a civilian government repelled a threat of military intervention in Türkiye was in 2007, and the second was on July 15, 2016.

The only two examples of civilian resistance and actual success in repelling attempted coups occurred in 2002-23.

Whatever the quality of Turkish democracy has been since 2002, it is far better than anything Türkiye has ever experienced. The progress and achievement are the results of a costly and decisive struggle of the nation’s will against the forces of instability.

And Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan deserves credit as the leader of this long struggle with his resolve, decisiveness, and ability to mobilise the nation’s will for a more democratic and prosperous country, free of the interventions and disruptions of undemocratic forces within.

However, Türkiye’s achievement and democratic maturity do not only fare well in comparison to its relatively poor standards in the past but also in comparison to advanced democracies. No other advanced democracy has ever been subject to what Türkiye has been in the past two decades.

Given the destabilising and undermining impact of a single major terror attack, an economic crisis, proximity to a conventional war etc., on the health of any democracy, Türkiye’s resilience and resolve to stick to democracy and the rule of law in the face of much greater crises attest to its success and performance.

Again, this success would arguably not be possible without the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At times of crisis, chaos, and uncertainty, people and masses search for a sense of control and certainty. In every single crisis, domestic or global, Türkiye has faced in the past two decades, Erdogan gave a sense of calm, control, and direction to the masses and took bold initiatives to overcome those crises.

When Erdogan and the civilian will he led faced a dead end domestically, he always invoked his biggest strength: the ballot box. By not shying away from but facing head-on crises and obstacles, Erdogan gradually but steadily increased and consolidated its popular support at home in the past two decades.

To the extent that Recep Tayyip Erdogan managed to contain the disruptive and undemocratic forces to civilian rule at home, he could channel Türkiye’s national potential and attention to build a higher and stronger status internationally with people’s strong support.

The strong popular support he enjoyed was the source of Erdogan’s bold decisions and initiatives during global crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Similar to his normal reaction to domestic crises, instead of looking the other way, Erdogan chose to face international challenges, too, at the expense of straining Türkiye’s ties, especially with its Western allies, on issues of Türkiye’s core national interests.

There is no achievement without a fight or struggle for anyone, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan heeded this accordingly, and the Turkish people kept rewarding him for 21 years.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT World.

Source: TRTworld.com