Election loss weakens Turkey’s President Erdogan
Because I’m a professional practitioner of the pedagogical arts (known in some parts as fancy book learnin’), I’m privileged to enjoy a Spring Break holiday that usually falls during the same week my semi-grown daughters are also out of school.
Back in the good old days when the girls still spoke to me with actual words, we would spend our Spring Breaks together – playing at the park, riding bikes, or sharing the trauma of a Disney character’s parental death scene.
This year, instead of bonding with me and giggling about my excessive ear hair, all three daughters struck out on their own to sigh dramatically and roll their eyes elsewhere.
My eldest and most expensive daughter took a trip with a friend and several of my credit cards to enjoy the urban vibrancy of Las Vegas. My middle daughter and her sorority sisters soaked up the sun and repelled the advances of countless pec- flexing goobers on the sugar-white sands of Orange Beach, Alabama. My youngest and quietest daughter communed with nature, her best friend, and a jumbo bag of snack cheese on an all- day picnic. I took the family doglets out to potty several times.
Amid these canine assaults on my lawn, I took the opportunity of a daughterless house to do some decluttering. Yes, we are those people who keep things that we might (but probably won’t) need some time in the next fifty years – because who knows when that free miniature tube of toothpaste I got from the dentist in 1997 might come in handy ( along with the other 34 tubes in the same drawer).
I’m sad to say that after an entire week of decluttering, I only made it through our laundry room. The following is a catalog of the clutter I decluttered in there.
First, I got rid of two large Rubbermaid tubs full of cables, wires, cords, adapters, and about a hundred other electronic/computery- type thingies I couldn’t identify. I did feel a slight twinge of fear that this stuff might be important, but since I hadn’t opened the tubs since it was still cool to wear a pager, I decided it was safe to let them go.
Next, I reduced the lifespan of my lumbar spine by lifting down a cardboard box with long- forgotten contents to discover about 60 pounds worth of seashells inside. Yes, seashells. After taking our girls on numerous trips to the beach over the years and allowing them to bring home every fragment, shard or sliver of what might once have been a seashell, I’m sure we thought we would get crafty someday and open a seashell décor emporium. Instead, I now have to perform the geezer shuffle when I walk.
Next to the seashell hoard was a second mystery box that revealed a complete set of what appeared to be old martini glasses. Neither my wife nor I have any idea where these came from or why they had been marinating in dust on a shelf above our dryer for the past twenty- odd years. We’ve never made a martini or even drunk a martini. And, as far as we know, neither have our parents–though mine probably should have done so regularly during my teen years.
This summer, I plan to have one of my famous garage sales and transfer ownership of these delightful objects to other folks who can find them boxed up in their laundry rooms years from now and wonder where in the heck they came from. So if you’re in the market for some old electronic waste or some seashell parts, come on by. Maybe I’ll even make you a martini, but probably not.
Jase Graves is an award-winning humor columnist from East Texas. His columns have been featured in Texas Escapes magazine, the Shreveport Times, the Longview News Journal, and the Kilgore News Herald. Contact Graves at susanjase@sbcglobal.
At the end of March, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suffered a major political defeat, including but reaching well beyond the elections involved. The voters of the nation sent the autocrat a courageous message of defiance.
A sizable majority has reelected opposition Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu by over fifty percent of the vote. This is a rerun of elections in 2019 where Imamoglu first emerged victorious.
The opposition Republican People’s Party, known as the CHP, won 36 of the municipalities of Turkey’s 81 provinces. A sizable proportion of the new mayors elected are women, an extremely important positive development.
Erdogan is no longer is the predictable political winner. He did narrowly win a third term as president last May, while his Justice and Development Party, known as AKP, in alliance with another party, secured a strong parliamentary majority.
In 2016, he personally turned back an attempted military coup, using social media to urge the people to resist. That showed courage as well as cleverness. A national state of emergency was declared. Police arrested citizens before the national elections for publicly criticizing Erdogan.
An April 2017 referendum gave expanded presidential powers. Erdogan and allies quickly declared victory after the voting, but their margin was narrow, with accusations of irregularities.
Turkey retains great strategic importance. First, the nation geographically spans Europe and Central Asia. Turkey can be a diplomatic bridge between
Islam and the West. Turkey controls important sea and land shipping routes, including the Bosphorus Strait that channels Black Sea access.
Second, long-term since World War II Turkey has maintained good relations with European nations and the United States. Current tensions overshadow this important history.
Third, Turkey represents a unique marriage of firmly rooted Muslim religious and cultural attitudes with Western-style governmental and commercial institutions and practices. This draws on the nation’s Ottoman history, which combined religious and firmly secular outlooks.
In “Lords of the Horizon - A History of the Ottoman Empire,” Jason Goodwin notes that he writes “about a people who do not exist. The word ‘ Ottoman’ does not describe a place. Nobody nowadays speaks their language. Only a few professors can begin to understand their poetry... [Yet] For six hundred years the Ottoman empire swelled and declined.”
Over the past four decades, Turkey’s economy has enjoyed reform and expansion. Growth was strong until recently, corruption and inflation were reduced, and government red tape and bottlenecks eliminated.
Much of the credit belongs to reform Prime Minister and President Turgut Özal, who held office from 1983 to 1993. He was a close friend of President George H.W. Bush.
While Turkey has had rocky relations with the European Union, the NATO alliance benefits from the nation’s highly effective military. In the Korean and First Gulf Wars, Turkey was a significant military coalition partner. In Korea, Turkey’s military reconfirmed once again their well-deserved reputation for combat effectiveness. In Afghanistan, Turkey had top command responsibilities over the years.
Erdogan’s autocratic behavior presents a challenge, yet modernization continues in Turkey. Opposition parties are established in parliament. Current economic weakness provides the political opposition opportunities, and undercuts regime support. As in other parts of the world, public pressure grows for a modern standard of living
During the Cold War, Washington worked with unattractive governments for good practical reasons. Similar considerations apply today.
Turgut Özal along with G.H.W. Bush deserves respect for mature leadership. Both had executive skill and personal integrity. In future, their examples should guide Turks and Americans.
Arthur I. Cyr the author of “After the Cold War – American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia” (Macmillan and NYU Press). Contact acyr@carthage.edu.