President Erdoğan recently amazed the world with his surprising and impressive strides in the economy, adding the dollar to the list of enemies he has faced and won so far.
Erdogan demonstrated his leadership wisdom economically and politically through an exceptional decision that no one expected, he took last week with the aim of protecting the Turkish lira, which had lost its value for some time against the dollar. It can be said that this step, whose results came immediately, with the lira regaining 30% of its value in one day, and 45% within a few days, renewed Erdogan’s influence and his position at the top of the pyramid of power.
In fact, Turkey under Erdogan’s leadership is taking effective steps in many areas. Two weeks ago, Istanbul hosted the Turkish-African Partnership Summit, during which Turkey completed one of the important steps in its multidimensional foreign policy. We had written about the dimensions of this summit, whether from the point of view of Erdogan’s policy in Africa, or Turkey’s demand to establish a new world order. A month before that summit, another summit was held in Turkey, the Summit of Turkish Heads of State, where the heads of 6 Turkish-speaking countries met in Istanbul.
The Organization of Turkish States should not be seen as an alternative to Islamic unity. Rather, it is a positive step along this path, and may help speed up its achievement. Turkey does not see that any step for rapprochement between Islamic countries contradicts any other steps in this direction
These countries are considered an important strategic depth for Turkey in Central Asia, and the region – which includes about 300 million people who speak Turkish – has begun to gain more political importance for Ankara, which under Erdogan’s leadership is looking to make better use of it.
These peoples were separated from each other in the Soviet era, and Turkey did not benefit from them in any way. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the independence of these countries, the ties between the peoples of the region gradually developed and began to establish relations on the basis of common interests.
In fact, there are promising opportunities for developing relations between these countries, which are still largely under Russian influence, through the common Turkish language and culture and the Islamic religion. The consolidation of these relations will pave the way for the establishment of a strong and profitable common market for all countries. However, the success of this partnership requires a stronger will, a better atmosphere and more initiatives.
The liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan – occupied by Armenia for 30 years – with the support of Turkey last year created a favorable atmosphere for the revival of the partnership between the Turkic-speaking countries. The summit was held in Turkey in an atmosphere of pride, victory and success, which represented an important incentive for building new relations. No one within this region sets his sights on the territory of another country. On the contrary, two Turkish countries have cooperated to liberate an occupied land 30 years ago, and there is no doubt that this experience gave the necessary morale and motives for the formation of such a unit.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Turkish republics have represented a vital area of Turkish foreign policy, and a source of rekindling the spirit of national identity. But the hopes of unity and solidarity in this culturally interconnected region have not been realized on the ground, because the governments of these countries worked during 70 years under Soviet rule to separate the peoples of the region from each other, just as the Arab peoples were separated to exploit the wealth of the region.
But a questioner may ask: Were these peoples and states not having any previous opportunity to unite together? In fact, history has witnessed many wars and conflicts between close peoples. Tribal conflicts weakened the unity of the Arab peoples, and the Turkish peoples, in turn, fought several wars among themselves.
The Turkish leader, Tamerlane, was the reason for stopping the Ottoman advance towards Europe for a long time, and the Turkish Safavid state represented the greatest threat to the Ottoman Empire, and the conflict between them was a reflection of differences rooted in history. There are many other examples.
Certainly, today we live in a completely different reality, and any step towards coexistence and unity among Islamic countries would contribute to the formation of a new world order different from the one we knew in the last century.
From this logic, the Organization of Turkish States should not be seen as an alternative to Islamic unity. Rather, it is a positive step within this path, and may help speed up its achievement. Turkey does not see that any step for rapprochement between Islamic countries contradicts any other steps in this direction.
Turkey supports the unity of the Arab countries, and sees it as an important step on the path to the unity of the Islamic world. On the ground, Turkey is very close to the Arab world, as it is bordered by two Arab countries, and it has a large Arab community, including Arabs from the founding population of Turkey, and about 5 million have sought refuge in the country in recent years as a result of wars and conflicts, which makes Turkey part of the Arab world. Perhaps these historical data pave the way for the reunification of the Islamic world through interdependence between the Turkic-speaking countries and the Arab world.
Establishing such groupings among Islamic countries on the basis of geographical or linguistic ties, whenever possible, is much better than continuing a state of dispersal. It is important for the success of these entities that each country develops separately, but with the necessity of solidarity so that everyone becomes stronger.
But we must not imagine that the forces that stood against this rapprochement in the past have diminished, or that their efforts will cease. This resistance exists within every country, and it also comes from external forces, because Islamic unity threatens the cohesion of the world order that was formed in the post-World War I phase, and a new and more just world order cannot be formed without undermining the old order.