To be a part of the EU, Turkey can take a lesson from Pakistan

No more clichéd ‘sick man of Europe’, Turkey looks hale and hearty. Over the last decade and a half, Turkey’s economy has been growing consistently while its military remains limited to its professional role. Yet, Brussels is un-impressed, refusing to ease its way into the European Union.

Although Islamist leaders Abdullah Gul and Recep Tayyip Erdogan became poster boys for the country’s long awaited democracy, every segment of society sick of Kemalists and military rulers fittingly played their part. Come 2014, sacks of money were recovered from residences of men in Erdogan’s inner power circle including son of a minister and a construction tycoon. Contrary to the expectations of outside observers, the prime minister dismissed the graft allegations against 60 high profile suspects and damned the proofs. In the following weeks, the prosecutors were dismissed and a witch-hunt ensued against police officers and the then prime minister’s erstwhile ally, social conservative Islamic scholar Fatehullah Gulen. President Abdullah Gul and almost every influential politician in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were all on board. Erdogan, ever since, has played the double role of a counsel and a judge alike.

Now, President Erdogan’s Turkey is anything but a role model. The AKP legend condemned Egyptian dictator al-Sisi for prosecuting opposition politicians and media but doesn’t shy away from doing the same. The peace process with embattled Kurds has been replaced with F-16 sorties and curfews in southeastern cities. Meanwhile, the foreign-funded Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) continues to terrorise common people through suicide attacks and car bombs from Diyarbakir to Ankara and Gaziantep to Istanbul.



Meanwhile, Erdogan’s failure to even initiate a no-fly zone in northern Syria was met with disastrous Russian intervention, resulting in saving Bashar al-Assad for the time-being and emboldening Iran-funded and armed Hezbollah and other Shiite mercenaries. Ankara instead is left hosting over 3 million Syrian refugees, which include scientists, intellectuals and craftsmen. Turks are not quite at ease integrating foreigners into their neighbourhoods and economy; therefore Syrians not only face everyday discrimination for being Arabs but are also ridiculed for being a burden brought by autocratic Erdogan. A segment of the Pakistani nation felt the same way about Afghans during Ziaul Haq’s regime.

Alongside autocratic rule, the PKK insurgency and the soaring number of Afghan refugees, penetration of Daesh in Turkish society is a damning threat. Though Turkey has acted swiftly in containing the flow of Europe’s Raqqa-bound volunteers, the IS has sympathisers in the society which was otherwise known to be secular and followed a mystic approach towards Islam.

Learning from Pakistan’s experience with al-Qaeda and Taliban, Ankara should not make a blunder in banking on Daesh as a strategic asset against Russia, Assad or Iran. Last week, the Turkish ground forces were repelling IS attacks, which seems raged at measures taken in conjunction with NATO and Gulf allies.

Metaphorically branded as two countries, one nation, Pakistan and Turkey never run out of uncanny similarities. Erdogan’s recent erratic policies parallel those of Ziaul Haq. Pakistan has been paying a heavy price for the autocratic policies of military generals and politicians alike. Islamabad has sufficiently learnt the hard way that non-state armed actors can’t be inherently permanent strategic or tactical allies. Odd development can do more than lethal payload of fighter jets, may it be Balochistan or Waziristan.

Similar to Pakistan, Turkey has its own strategic significance unparalleled in the entire neighbourhood. It’s often called Europe’s first line of defense and Middle East and Central Asia’s doorway to the west. Brussels-Ankara deal worth €3bn to stem the refugee and migration crisis is just one of its many manifestations.

There are no shortcuts to soft power than a vibrant economy and self-sufficiency in the technological realm. Pakistan’s nuclear capability adds a little to its national power and profile, given billions of dollars in debt to the global financial institutions.



Last but not the least, democracy does not merely stem from the ballot box. An elected leader can be best preserve itself if they seize to be a politician in a chief executive’s office. Pakistan has been and continues to be paralysed by partisan, corrupt and opaque political clique.

Neighbouring hostile Putin in Syria, with vicious Daesh in Iraq and trigger-happy PKK in the southeast, Turkey can’t afford too much internal turmoil amongst its political actors, civil society and media practices. Erdogan’s diagnosis of Turkey’s recovery is premature but he’s not listening any more. This time around, even Europe may not cope with this large, ‘sick’ republic next door. Had Brussels acted less subjectively, the Muslim majority nation would have possibly been acting differently as an EU member.

Naveed Ahmad is a Pakistani investigative journalist and academic with extensive reporting experience in the Middle East and North Africa. He is based in Doha and Istanbul. He tweets @naveed360