The following are excerpts from an article by Patrice Hill, published in the Washington Times on January 23, 2011.
“While much attention has been focused on China and India, other quickly emerging nations are establishing themselves as powers to contend with in their parts of the world. Turkey is one of those nations. A decade of robust and largely uninterrupted growth has allowed the longtime U.S. ally to influence world affairs and become an ambitious force in its strategically critical neighborhood at the nexus of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
“It's quite radical, quite a sharp economic transformation," [Sinan Ulgen, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a partner at Istanbul Economics] said, noting that per-capita income in Turkey tripled from $3,000 to $9,000 in less than a decade while foreign investment flows jumped from $1 billion a year to $20 billion a year and trade with the rest of the world burgeoned to $200 billion. That has totally changed the foreign policy outlook," and along with the end of the Cold War made Turkey particularly keen to re-establish peaceful economic relations with neighbors with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Greece, Eastern Europe and Russia. Turkey has adopted a "zero problems" policy toward such neighbors, with which it previously had cool or hostile relations. Now, one of the objectives of Turkish foreign policy is to ensure that Turkish exporters get new export markets and that the country receives more foreign direct investment," Mr. Ulgen said.
“The Middle East, in particular, is seen as a new untapped market for its economic actors, but the nation also is making forays into Africa and as far away as South America and China in its efforts to expand its universe of trade and influence. While some in the West worry that Turkey is turning away from its Cold War-era ties with Europe and the U.S., particularly in aligning itself with Arab nations and against Israel on the Palestinian question, the nation's leaders insist that they seek only to supplement and expand their diplomatic universe. Turkey's newfound independence in foreign policy was perhaps epitomized in 2003 when the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But Turkey later showed its solidarity with the U.S. — as well as its entrepreneurial side — by becoming a major supplier of food and other necessities to U.S. troops in Iraq.
“Turkey, unlike Russia and Brazil, does not have natural resources to exploit. Its main economic strength is an entrepreneurial tradition that dates back centuries to the era of the Silk Road, when the Ottoman Empire gained its riches and power from taxing and dominating much of the critical trade route between East and West.
“Although the economic crisis temporarily set back trade with Turkey's main trading partners in the European Union, it did not do fundamental damage to Turkey's economy. In the U.S. and Europe, the overhang of debt continues to hold down growth, and explosions of public-sector borrowing has led to further financial crises in Greece, Ireland and other countries.
“Turkey's economic success as the "Anatolian Tiger" has lent itself to second thoughts about whether the country should go through with its long-standing bid for full membership in the European Union. Turkish leaders stress that they benefit simply by pursuing EU membership through a series of governmental reforms requiring the country to strengthen its system of democratic rule and open markets, while guaranteeing an independent judiciary, freedom of the press and human rights.
“Turkey now has an economic climate similar to China's, and both are dealing with issues of fending off inflation in economies that are attracting tens of billions of dollars in investment from abroad. Such a swell of investment can scarcely funnel fast enough into growth projects.
Investors from all over the world, disillusioned with the sluggish growth in the U.S., Europe and Japan, have swarmed to Turkey and other emerging markets to capitalize on double-digit rates of growth. Turkey, China, Brazil and the other emerging markets have grown so quickly that they now constitute nearly half the global economy. China surpassed Japan last year to become the world's second-largest economy — about the same time that the Financial Times came up with an acronym ("Civets") for the up-and-coming second tier of emerging powers, including Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa.
“Kerem Aydin, deputy secretary general of Tuskon, a confederation of Turkish businessmen and industrialists, noted that at Turkey's growth rate of 6 percent or more a year could make it the second-largest economy in Europe after Germany within 10 years should it succeed with its EU bid. With a population of 75 million and growing briskly, it would be among the most populous countries in Europe as well. "That's undoubtedly why some people fear our membership," he said, referring to opposition to Turkey that has surfaced in France and some other EU countries. Mr. Aydin expects Turkish businesses will be indifferent in the end on full membership in the EU. At this point, their European markets are stagnating and they see more opportunities for growth in countries to the east and south.”
