Psyche of global leaders differ a lot, of course. But in the case of Turkish leader Erdogan there is something remarkable. As a soccer enthusiast he has mastered the skill of dribbling the ball, but has failed to score any major goal so far except aggrandising himself as the uncrowned sultan. Geoeconomics is out there staring at him!
Perennially Turkey remains at the cross road. Ottomans made use of this bridge between west and east to last centuries as an empire. In fact, historically Ottoman motto was Devlet-i Ebed-müddet. "The Eternal State". Lasting from circa 1285 – 1923 AD, indisputably it lasted more than any known empire in history.
Today Turkey is just a middle rung power in military sense but displays awfully sorry figure in geoeconomics. According to Statista.com her GDP is USD 905 Billion ranking her as the 19th largest economy. Debt hovering around USD 232 Billion divided by the current population of 95 million means a single citizen carries USD 2. 522 million debt on his shoulder. Exports as a percentage of GDP is just below 23%. And the number of registered business enterprises amounting to 3.80 million have done little to uplift export figures.
Erdogan is swaying
between NATO as solid military set up and toiling with the idea of joining SCO a
near military group. Similarly he continues to have the desire of joining
EU after signing Customs Union agreement with EU in 1995. Moreover, she was even
officially recognised as a candidate for full membership on 12 December 1999. Yet
no goal scored. Now Erdogan is fiddling with the idea of joining BRICS
Alliance.
Domestic economy in shambles along with misadventures in Syria, Iraq not to mention suppressing Kurds in the south eastern part, Erdogan has not come out with an idea of solving problems within and outside its borders with neighbours. One consolation he has is the Iranian frontier remaining peaceful forever.
Turkey under the tutorship of Erdogan has shown no specific direction in its foreign policy. A colossal tragedy occurred on 24 November 2015, when Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M attack aircraft near the Syria–Turkey border. A knee–jerk response or action of revenge whichever the case may be Turkey found herself caught in the cleft stick when NATO declined to get involved. Putin kept his cool while insiders in the Erdogan cabinet urged him to reconcile with Putin, the latter was magnanimous on deciding to put the horrific incident behind.
Dribbling without any ending Erdogan listened to Barak Obama by sending his war dogs across Syria, which still smothering in hot fire. Ironically it was Barak Obama who engineered coup to oust Erdogan from power. Once again it was Putin who tipped Erdogan about the unfolding coup d’état.
Pressing situation around weighing over him Erdogan has to decide to stop dribbling and try to make at-least one goal before he hands over the baton to his successor. What is the goal to be? My take is, Erdogan must take his cabinet into confidence to move in the direction where geoeconomics is heading to: away from the west towards the east!
Cheers!
Muthu Ashraff Rajulu
Business Strategist
Mobile: + 94 777 265677
E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com
Blog: Business Strategist
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