After a 12-year grip on power Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan extended his rule, securing a landslide victory in the first direct presidential vote in country’s history. Firing back at his critics who accuse him of autocratic rule, Erdogan pledged to unify the nation by building “new great Turkey”.
Vladimir Sotnikov, Director of the East-West Strategic Studies Center in Moscow, Christopher Brewin, Senior Lecturer in International relations at Keele University, UK, Vladimir Avatkov, expert on Turkey, lecturer Moscow State University of International Relations, and Murat Yeşiltaş – Professor at Sakarya University in Turkey, shared their opinions with Radio VR.
Vladimir Sotnikov: He is a great leader and that actually explains everything. I think he can be compared with Kemal Atatürk. And if he will be successful enough and there won’t be any internal opposition against the completion of his reforms, he will not only make history, he will be in the history of not only Turkey, but of the whole region. And I think he has the whole potential to do this.
What could be the main obstacles? You heard about this corruption scandal just on the eve of the presidential election in Turkey. The opposition could be the obstacle to the reforms, which Erdogan is going to conduct in the near future, because there are some other political figures who would very much like to be in his place.
What would be the Turkish foreign policy?
Christopher Brewin: I think he’s always wanted to be a strong Muslim and also to restore the Turkey’s power in the region. I think he is a very determined and a very cautious man.
Is the idea of European integration of Turkey dead with Erdogan?
Christopher Brewin: I think Mr. Erdogan is sort of moving away from the West in general. Although, from the European point of view it would be good to have a Muslim state in Europe, because there are so many Muslim communities in the EU, the leaders in France and Germany, and Luxemburg, and Poland have been far too cautious about Turkey. And so, that’s gone very-very quiet.
This vision of Erdogan that he can restore what they call neo-Ottoman view, restoring influence where the Ottoman Empire used to have influence – in the Balkans and in the Caucasus – at the moment it’s been a very cautious foreign policy.
What do you make out of his victory? Do you think that Turkey is really heading to the era of bright future, as Mr. Erdogan said in his speech?
Vladimir Avatkov: He seems to be a father of the new conservative moderate Islamic regime and, on the one hand, it is right. But on the other hand, he is a leader for mostly a conservative part of Turks – the east and the middle of the country. And he is quite a charismatic leader, a self-made man with not an easy one biography.
To what extent do you think he would be able to win the hearts of those who initially strongly disliked him? Do you agree that he has to have some sort of a message for those people?
Vladimir Avatkov: He has kind of a message for those people, which is that – we should be united. But at the same time, I don’t think that this message will be understood by those who strongly oppose him, they do not agree with his policy at all. So, I don’t think that they will unite, they can be united only against him. But now many of them are in prison for those demonstrations in Istanbul and many of them are suppressed and just sit at home.
Do you think that Erdogan will emerge as a politician who makes history?
Murat Yeşiltaş: I do believe that the presidential election, as a political process, did only lead the Prime Minister Erdogan into the presidency, but also carried through the democracy as a significant step forward.
The presidency, as an institutional structure and state-centric ideological apparatus of the Turkish state will transfer after these election. This is the political meaning of this election. I think second one is that the presidential election for the first time held by the popular votes is an evident sign of the ongoing consolidation of the Turkish democracy.
I do think that this election also reiterates that Erdogan emerged as not only the leader of normalization, but also a figure who skillfully managed the radical challenge against his government and power.
