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Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Dec 4 2011
Why Biden visited Turkey
YUSUF KANLI
Turkey is a great country with its history, culture, economy,
potentials and of course people. Even at its worst periods in history,
this country has always been one of the biggest countries in its
region as well as in world politics.
Turkish economy has been rather strong, despite some minor setbacks
such as a gigantic current account deficit and constant warnings by
some economics pundits about a probable spillover effect of the crisis
gripping Europe for some time. Even the most stringent opponents of
the Justice and Development Party (AKP) expect some 3-4 percent growth
for Turkish economy at a time when alarm bells are ringing high for
European economies.
Despite all the criticisms regarding overall democratic deficiencies,
allegations of wild police state applications as well as complaints on
the narrowing sphere of freedom of speech and definitely the rampant
autocratic tendencies in governance, it has to be underlined that in
economics Turkey has been doing great for the past decade.
The economic success might partly be attributed to the AKP
government's compliance with the economic program it inherited from
the preceding three-way coalition government, or to the fact that for
most of the past ten years there was an enlarging global economy. We
may even go to the extent of conspiracy theories and talk about
billions of dollars alleged to have been poured into Turkey
unregistered from the Arab world. What may happen the moment we no
longer can borrow from tomorrow, or the moment the government can no
longer manage to introduce disguised taxes ` predominantly indirect
and wild consumption taxes ` or when we start feeling the `spillover
effect' of the crisis in Europe?
At a time when many American pundits started discussing that perhaps
Barrack Obama has no other option but to use war-politics in order to
overcome the drastic erosion of his public support and acquire the
prospect of a second term in the White House, a very high level
visitor stopped by Ankara.
Vice President Joe Biden's Ankara trip cannot of course be considered
separately from President Obama having `intimate' relations with
Premier Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an (that's how Obama recently described his
relations with ErdoÄ?an) and Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu talking
on the phone and face to face so frequently with Hillary Clinton (who
I have heard might be preparing step down soon in order to assume the
World Bank top seat). Or, nor can we ignore the Iran, Syria, Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Particularly, with Iran going berserk and engaging in all those
ridiculous acts against the British, while Bashar al-Assad of Syria
has been so successfully providing every possible alibi for an
operation on his country, there are more than enough reasons to become
panicked about Biden's trip to Ankara and Istanbul. Worse, if this
country `with some creative encouragement' has been so deeply involved
in nourishing politically ` and hopefully not militarily ` the
opposition to al-Assad, prospects indeed might not be bright at all.
Still, we may turn a blind eye to all these and talk about how strong
Biden supported freedoms, what great democratic ideals he voiced and
how strongly he warned Turkish leaders that Internet censorship is not
a wise idea.
Why do you think Biden visited Turkey?
December/04/2011
From: Baghdasarian
Dec 4 2011
Why Biden visited Turkey
YUSUF KANLI
Turkey is a great country with its history, culture, economy,
potentials and of course people. Even at its worst periods in history,
this country has always been one of the biggest countries in its
region as well as in world politics.
Turkish economy has been rather strong, despite some minor setbacks
such as a gigantic current account deficit and constant warnings by
some economics pundits about a probable spillover effect of the crisis
gripping Europe for some time. Even the most stringent opponents of
the Justice and Development Party (AKP) expect some 3-4 percent growth
for Turkish economy at a time when alarm bells are ringing high for
European economies.
Despite all the criticisms regarding overall democratic deficiencies,
allegations of wild police state applications as well as complaints on
the narrowing sphere of freedom of speech and definitely the rampant
autocratic tendencies in governance, it has to be underlined that in
economics Turkey has been doing great for the past decade.
The economic success might partly be attributed to the AKP
government's compliance with the economic program it inherited from
the preceding three-way coalition government, or to the fact that for
most of the past ten years there was an enlarging global economy. We
may even go to the extent of conspiracy theories and talk about
billions of dollars alleged to have been poured into Turkey
unregistered from the Arab world. What may happen the moment we no
longer can borrow from tomorrow, or the moment the government can no
longer manage to introduce disguised taxes ` predominantly indirect
and wild consumption taxes ` or when we start feeling the `spillover
effect' of the crisis in Europe?
At a time when many American pundits started discussing that perhaps
Barrack Obama has no other option but to use war-politics in order to
overcome the drastic erosion of his public support and acquire the
prospect of a second term in the White House, a very high level
visitor stopped by Ankara.
Vice President Joe Biden's Ankara trip cannot of course be considered
separately from President Obama having `intimate' relations with
Premier Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an (that's how Obama recently described his
relations with ErdoÄ?an) and Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu talking
on the phone and face to face so frequently with Hillary Clinton (who
I have heard might be preparing step down soon in order to assume the
World Bank top seat). Or, nor can we ignore the Iran, Syria, Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Particularly, with Iran going berserk and engaging in all those
ridiculous acts against the British, while Bashar al-Assad of Syria
has been so successfully providing every possible alibi for an
operation on his country, there are more than enough reasons to become
panicked about Biden's trip to Ankara and Istanbul. Worse, if this
country `with some creative encouragement' has been so deeply involved
in nourishing politically ` and hopefully not militarily ` the
opposition to al-Assad, prospects indeed might not be bright at all.
Still, we may turn a blind eye to all these and talk about how strong
Biden supported freedoms, what great democratic ideals he voiced and
how strongly he warned Turkish leaders that Internet censorship is not
a wise idea.
Why do you think Biden visited Turkey?
December/04/2011
From: Baghdasarian