The Tortoise Trainer’s Triumph: Robust Anatolia Amidst Western Turmoil

Osman Hamdi Bey’s “Turtle Trainer” is one of the most iconic masterpieces of the Ottoman period.

Over the past 15 years, Western powers have intensified their pressure by persistently trying to change the Turkish government headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Despite these efforts, like the coach in the painting, Trkiye continues to train the “turtles” slowly and patiently.

The Western media suggested that the vote to be held in May is “the most important election of 2023”. They have been discussing this idea for months and are focusing on Turkey. Before the elections, Western media organizations issued direct threats rather than forecasts and analyses. Some headlines said that President Erdoğan should go, otherwise he threatened chaos. Some liken Erdogan to former Ottoman sultans or Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some of them threatened the citizens of Turkey and Turks living in their countries and made them even more hostile.

At dawn on election night, the next day’s headlines in The Washington Post read, “Turkey’s opposition, left behind by Erdogan, faces harsh post-election realities.” While the People’s Alliance, led by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), triumphed in the election with a comfortable majority in parliament, Erdogan won by a clear margin, but missed a scant one-and-a-half percentage points to avoid a runoff within two weeks, prompting a U-turn by the Western media. started

Western media acknowledged that Erdogan has won and that Turkey has a transparent election system. Newsweek put an end to the dictatorship discussions: “Stop calling Erdogan a dictator. Dictators don’t go to second rounds!”

Meanwhile, Turkish-American economist Daron Acemoli, a critic of Erdogan, diagnosed the cause of the disappointment, largely with the help of a majority of pollsters whose predictions were confused: It turns out that many of us once again underestimated Erdogan’s political skills and his ability to read and manage the situation. .

All eyes on Turkey

At a time when global geopolitical balances were disturbed and a new set of relations was being regulated, the emergence of the Republic of Turkey as a regional power attracted the attention of all nations from east to west, from south to north. So, as the country moved towards the presidential and parliamentary elections, the eyes of the world community were all fixed on Turkey.

Of course, there were reasons for such interest in Turkey’s elections. While NATO was directly at war with Russia over Ukraine, the United States, England, France and Germany wanted to prevent Turkey from conducting an independent, versatile and active foreign policy.

Unfortunately, the leaders of the Turkish opposition parties could not comment on this great strategy of the leading Western countries. All of them supported the idea that Turkey’s election campaign and discussion topics are purely a matter of domestic politics.

The opposition parties underestimated the infrastructure investments made by the AK Party during its 20-year rule. However, thanks to such infrastructure, health, education, transport and energy ecosystems have raised Turkey to the level of developed countries. In addition, Turkey has recently taken a giant step to close its energy deficit with natural gas and oil discoveries. Despite the rhetoric of the opposition parties, voters experienced the value of this success personally.

In fact, according to the discourse emphasized by the opposition during the election campaign, although the AK Party did great things and brought Turkey to the level of developed countries in the areas mentioned above, the economy was going badly, the nation was hungry. According to the opposition, megaprojects such as TCG Anadolu or the locally produced Togg car have not been able to mask weakened purchasing power in the face of rising inflation.

Emergence as a regional power

The speech of the opposition parties did not reflect the situation in Turkey. At the end of the AK Party’s 20-year rule, the Turkic States emerged as a regional power, delivering effective messages to the world community through the Organization of Revived Turkic States (OTT).

Turkey became France’s regional rival in Africa, and French colonialism was threatened with expulsion. The Balkans, where the power struggle between Germany and Turkey was going on, was stabilized by the strengthening of Turkey.

In the meantime, the United States, with the help of the PKK, began to undermine Turkey, a NATO ally, by moving to establish a second state of Israel in Syria. Turkey’s military operations overturned the plans of the United States there.

When former ambassador nal evikz became an advisor to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kldarolu, he sent messages of obedience to Western powers, especially the United States, after becoming one of the party’s leading figures. Greece in conflict and rising tensions in the Aegean Sea. He promised Turkey to withdraw its troops from Cyprus and oppose Russia in the Ukraine war. However, Turkey, a member of NATO with an active neutral position in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, used the policy of balance in international politics, which is the main weapon of its centuries-old history. The independent and versatile foreign policy adopted during the AK Party’s 20-year rule was important for Turkey’s national interests and defense.

Thanks to this foreign policy, Turkey secured its exclusive economic zone by signing a memorandum of understanding with Libya on the delimitation of maritime jurisdictional areas, thus succeeding in creating a “Blue Homeland” in the Mediterranean Sea. Thanks to President Erdoğan’s strong leadership, the Turkish public became aware of the regional threats facing our country, and smart and consistent foreign policy policies and advances in the defense industry ensured Turkey’s emergence as a regional power.

Western manipulation

While international propaganda against Turkey was carried out on the basis of the arguments of the PKK terrorist organization and the Glenist terrorist group (FET) in the leading media of the West, the voters had a good attitude towards their country and President Erdogan.

While the opposition parties who adopted illogical political discourse suffered a heavy election defeat, the opposition intellectuals and media members showed that they were neither aware of Turkish national interests, nor of Turkish sociology, nor of the geopolitical sensibility of President Erdoğan’s leadership.

The people of Anatolia, keeping Turkey’s national interests in the forefront, have consistently elected President Erdogan as their leader and thus ensured the country’s stability and security with his unwavering support.