Osman Hamdi Bey's "The Tortoise Trainer" stands as one of the most iconic masterpieces from the Ottoman period.
Over the course of the past 15 years, Western powers have persistently sought to bring about a change in the Turkish government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, intensifying their pressure. Despite these efforts, akin to the trainer in the painting, Türkiye has kept training the "turtles" slowly and with patience.
The Western press proposed that the May vote was "the most important election of 2023." They have been discussing the idea for months and focused on Türkiye. Before the elections, Western media organizations issued direct threats rather than predictions and analyses. Some headlines read that President Erdoğan had to go, threatening chaos if otherwise. Some liken Erdoğan to former Ottoman sultans or Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some have gotten more hostile by threatening Turkish citizens living in their country and the people of Türkiye.
At dawn on election night, like The Washington Post headlines would read the next day, “Turkish opposition, trailing Erdoğan, faced hard post-election truths.” While the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) led People’s Alliance left the elections behind victoriously with a comfortable majority in Parliament, Erdoğan won with a clear difference but a tiny half percent missing to avoid the runoff in two weeks, and the Western media started to U-turn.
The Western press admitted that Erdoğan reached for victory and that Türkiye had a transparent election system. Newsweek put a full stop to the dictatorship discussions: “Stop calling Erdoğan a dictator. Dictators don’t go to runoffs!”
Meanwhile, Daron Acemoğlu, an American economist of Turkish descent, who is an Erdoğan critic, diagnosed the reason for the frustration caused mainly with the help of most of the pollsters whose predictions were confounded: It turned out that many of us, once again, underestimated Erdoğan's political skills and ability to read and control the situation.
When the global geopolitical balances were in disarray, and while the new set of relations was settling, the emergence of the Republic of Türkiye as a regional power drew the attention of all nations from east to west, from south to north. So as the country progressed toward the presidential and parliamentary elections, the eyes of the world public were all on Türkiye.
Of course, there were reasons for this intense interest in Türkiye's election. While NATO was in a direct war with Russia over Ukraine, the United States, England, France and Germany wanted to prevent Türkiye from pursuing an independent, versatile and proactive foreign policy.
Unfortunately, the leaders of Türkiye's opposition parties failed to interpret this grand strategy of the leading Western powers. They all supported the perception that Türkiye's election campaign and the discussion topics were purely a matter of domestic policy.
The opposition parties underrated the infrastructure investments made by the AK Party during its 20-year rule. However, thanks to such infrastructure, health, education, transportation and energy ecosystems boosted Türkiye to the level of developed countries. Furthermore, Türkiye recently took a giant step forward to close its energy deficit with natural gas and oil discoveries. Despite the rhetoric of the opposition parties, the voters personally experienced the value of this success.
In fact, according to the discourse highlighted by the opposition during the election campaign, even though the AK Party had accomplished great things and brought Türkiye to the level of developed countries in the areas mentioned above, the economy was going badly, and the nation was hungry. According to the opposition, megaprojects such as the TCG Anadolu or the domestically produced car Togg could not hide the weakened purchasing power in the face of rising inflation.
The opposition parties' discourse did not reflect the situation in Türkiye. At the conclusion of the AK Party's 20 years in governance, Türkiye has emerged as a regional power, effectively conveying a resounding message to the global community through the revitalized Organization of Turkic States (OTS).
Türkiye became a regional competition of France in Africa, and French colonialism was in danger of being expelled. The Balkans, where there was a struggle for influence between Germany and Türkiye, stabilized with the strengthening of Türkiye.
Meanwhile, the U.S. took action to establish a second state of Israel in Syria with the help of the PKK and started to undermine Türkiye, its NATO ally. The military operations conducted by Türkiye turned the U.S. plans upside down there.
When former Ambassador Ünal Çeviköz became an adviser of main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, hence a leading figure in the party, he sent obedience messages to Western powers, especially the U.S. He promised to support Armenia in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict and Greece in escalating tension in the Aegean Sea. He promised that Türkiye would withdraw its troops from Cyprus and oppose Russia in the Ukraine war. However, with its active neutrality stance in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, NATO member Türkiye was using its primary weapon, the balance policy in international politics, of its centuries-old history. The independent and versatile foreign policy adopted during the 20-year rule of the AK Party was essential for Türkiye's national interests and defense.
Thanks to this foreign policy, Türkiye secured its exclusive economic zone by signing a memorandum of understanding with Libya on the delimitation of the maritime jurisdiction areas, hence succeeding in creating its "Blue Homeland" in the Mediterranean. Thanks to the strong leadership of President Erdoğan, the Turkish public became aware of the regional threats facing our country and that the prudent and consistent policies adopted in foreign policy and the breakthroughs made in the defense industry ensured the emergence of Türkiye as a regional power.
In the face of international propaganda against Türkiye in the leading Western media based on the arguments of the PKK terrorist organization and the Gülenist terror group (FETÖ), voters took good care of their country and President Erdoğan.
While the opposition parties, which adopted an irrational political discourse, suffered a heavy electoral defeat, the opposition intellectuals and members of the media showed that they were neither aware of Türkiye's national interests, Türkiye's sociology, nor the geopolitical sense of President Erdogan's leadership.
The people of Anatolia, prioritizing Türkiye's national interests, have consistently elected President Erdoğan as their leader, thereby guaranteeing the country's stability and security through their unwavering support.
