Erdogan, An Emerging Turkish Leader and Zardari

By Bader Al Hussain
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a Turkish prime minster and a chairman of AK party (also called Justice and development party) which holds majority of seats in Grand National Assembly of Turkey since 2002.

As a teenager Erdogan used to sell lemonade sesame buns in the streets of Istanbul to earn extra money. He started his political career as a student activist by joining National Turkish Student Union (anti-communist action group) in Marmara University where he studied business administration. In 1976, he became head of Beyoglu youth branch of the Islamist National Salvation Party (MSP). Later in 1980’s military coup, Mr. Erdogan was among the follower’s of Erbakan whose welfare party which was dissolved in 1998 after coming into power because it was suspected of having Islamist agenda and accused of violating the principle of secularism embedded in sacred Turkish constitution.

  Moreover, Mr. Erdogan became the party’s Beyoglu district chair in 1984, and in 1985 he became the chair of the Istanbul city branch. He was elected to parliament in 1991, but barred from taking his seat. In 1994 local elections he was elected as a Mayor of Istanbul and initiated numerous development projects and solved most of the problems that the city was confronting.

In 1998, Welfare party of Erbakan was banned in Turkey after military coup. Mr. Erdogan became a constant speaker at the demonstrations held by his party colleagues of Welfare party.He was given a 10 month prison sentence (of which he served four) for reading a poem in Siirt in December 1997, which, under article 312/2 of the Turkish penal code was regarded as a violation of Kemalism by the judges. It included verses translated as "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...." The poem was a work by Ziya Gökalp, a pan-Turkish activist of the early 20th century. Mr. Erdogan has in his defense said that the poem had been approved by the education ministry to be published in textbooks.

With the conviction, Mr. Erdogan was forced to give up his mayoral position. The conviction also stipulated a political ban, which prevented him from participating in parliamentary elections. He completed his sentence on 24 July 1999.

In 2001, Mr. Erdogan established a moderated Justice and development Party (also known as A.K.P.) which won landslide victories by scoring 34%, 46.6% and 50% votes in 2001, 2007 and 2011 general elections respectively. Hence, showing vividly the increasing popularity of Mr. Erdogan’s A.K. party, this was due to political stability, economic growth and growing Turkey’s international stature.

During this period, Turkish economy was tripled, from 39^th largest economy it became 17^th biggest economy of the world and joined the elite club of G-20. As aspiration grows, Turkey is aiming towards becoming one of the top ten economies of the world in 2023 and second voluminous economy in Europe after Germany in 2050. Turkish exports which were merely 36 billion dollars in 2002, now sprang up to about 135 billion dollars approximately. Turkey has a large and growing automotive industry, which produced 1,147,110 motor vehicles in 2008, ranking as the 6th largest producer in Europe (behind the United Kingdom and above Italy) and the 15th largest producer in the world ranking as the 6th largest producer in Europe (behind the United Kingdom and above Italy) and the 15th largest producer in the world.

Furthermore, according to Semih Idiz, a columnist for the newspaper Milliyet and foreign policy specialist, Turkey under the current leadership of Mr. Erdogan is reaching out to the people rather than the establishment” of countries around the region, Mr. Idiz said. “It’s a new approach” to the challenges of the Arab Spring, he added. “Human rights and democracy remained in the background” under that approach, Mr. Idiz said. Now that is changing, he said, and Turkey is casting itself as a “champion of human rights and democracy” in the region.

Recently, youths from countries around the region visited Turkey after an invitation by the governing party to observe the election campaign and learn how to run a democratic election.

“It is this kind of ‘soft power’ engagement Turkey is trying to project,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The policy is also about moving Turkey out of the shadow of the United States, its traditional ally, and making it a regional player on its own terms.

On the other side, Asif Ali Zardari who is the current president of Pakistan brought up in a wealthy family, and after graduating from the University which did not exist on the face of this earth, came into politics and joined Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Faced by the charges of corruption after every PPP government, he was sent to jail for about eight years.

Furthermore, he also earn the title of “Mr. 10 percent” which after becoming president in September 2008 changed to “Mr. 90 percent”. Embroiled with mega scandals such as Swiss bank black money, kick-backs from purchase of Agosta submarines etc., but such discoveries had a little impact on his voters.He came back in politics after the assassination of his spouse (Benazir Bhutto) who was at that time was PPP chairman and till that time served twice as Prime minister of Pakistan.  

Zardari’s political party came into politics through NRO deal which was formulated jointly by US and some elements of Pakistani establishment. As a result shame democracy came to power, after getting 24% votes in 2008 elections. In addition to that, later on 46% votes in this election were declared bogus by the Supreme Court.

During his Presidency, Pakistan’s economy went haywire accompanying with double digit inflation, stagnant growth in GDP and exports and rising unemployment. Pakistan went up among the most corrupt nations according to the transparency international Pakistan. With his popularity nose diving, he is struggling to save his government by allying to almost every opposition party in parliament even to those, to whom he accused of the murder of his wife. Moreover, he blatantly rejected most of supreme courts verdicts. 

In conclusion, Pakistani leaders should learn the lesson from their Turkish counterparts by making Turkey a role-model. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has changed the course of Turkey from lethargic secular state into more progressive welfare state.
The writer is currently a student at NBS