THE HINDU EDITORIAL : JUNE 27, 2018
THE HINDU EDITORIAL : JUNE 27, 2018
THE HINDU EDITORIAL – June 27, 2018 is filled with a topic which deals about the recent President Election in turkey and this editorial topic is important as this might come in the forthcoming SBI CLERK Mains, SBI PO Prelims , South Indian Bank PO and Bank of Baroda PO (Manipal).
a) Chronicle of a victory foretold
On Sunday, June 24, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) won both the presidential and the parliamentary elections. The elections were conducted in extraordinary circumstances. Hundreds of journalists are in prison, as are thousands of political opponents — including the leader of one of the main Opposition parties, Selahattin Demirtaş. The state-run media did not care to be neutral. Most state institutions, including the electoral commission, put themselves forward as the champions for Mr. Erdoğan’s re-election. But while Mr. Erdoğan and the AKP certainly won the vote — including the presidential election by the first round — he will have a hard time winning legitimacy for this victory. The state-run news outlet, Anadolu Agency, first announced that Mr. Erdoğan had won 70% of the votes in the presidential contest. Then, they adjusted the percentage downwards to 59% and eventually to 52%. The initial number was crucial. It created the sense of overwhelming triumph for Mr. Erdoğan. His margin of victory was slim, and even slimmer if we acknowledge that 11% of his party alliance’s overall support of 53% in the Parliament came from the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
Without the MHP behind him in the presidential contest, Mr. Erdoğan may have been forced into a run-off against the standard bearer of the old national guard, Muharrem İnce of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). But the fact of the matter is that in the end Mr. Erdoğan took more than half the vote. He was able to win votes in both his rural strongholds and in the urban areas. The way he positions himself is crucial — as a Turkish nationalist, including a protector of Turkish business interests, and as a Sunni internationalist. He remains able to mop up the votes of the Anatolian business communities of different sizes and of the pious electorate. It helped that he was in alliance with the MHP, the near-fascist bloc although it is startling to realise that in this election the Turkish people supported another right-wing party, the İYİ or Good Party.
The Good Party is led by Meral Akşener, a former Minister of the Interior with a controversial background in the deep state. It was even more remarkably in alliance with the CHP. None of this mattered to Mr. Erdoğan’s steamroller effect. He swept up his core votes and managed to go past the margin with the help of his own tethered far right-wing allies. Mr. Erdoğan had called for elections a year before they were due. This was a clever political move. Undercurrents suggest that the Turkish economy will implode before the year is over. It would have been perilous for him to go to the people in the midst of a full-blown crisis. Careful monetary policy has put off the crisis. It is what gave him the opportunity to establish his political authority before he tackles the economic weakness of Turkey. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, new money was created to break the unavailability of credit.
Turkey, like other middle-income countries (Argentina and Mexico), joined the larger economies in a low-interest regime to stimulate economic growth. When the U.S. Federal Reserve began to reduce money supply and to raise interest rates, capital withdrew from places such as Turkey and Mexico, which made their currencies lose value. Mr. Erdoğan’s financial managers prevented the Turkish central bank from raising interest rates to deal with this capital outflow. The Turkish lira dropped in value against the U.S. dollar from 3.75TL in early 2018 to 4.92TL by May. What this policy suggests is not that Mr. Erdoğan wished to stem the capital flight but that he wanted to protect his allies amongst the mid-level Anatolian business communities and the small artisans.
They would have been wiped out without this assistance. Twice the central bank rushed in to support these sections of the population, and yet the bank remains under pressure to do more to prevent the lira’s free fall. These new manoeuvres of international finance capital added substantial fragility to Turkey’s economy, which already accumulated substantial external debt of around $500 billion (mostly private sector debt). By the end of the year, Turkey will have to pay down almost half of this debt. To do so, Mr. Erdoğan may be compelled to enact policies that favour the business communities and disadvantage the working class and the peasantry. Higher rates of unemployment can be expected, as can inflation in essential goods. Mr. Erdoğan will likely deal with this situation in the way he has tackled it in the past — by finding scapegoats in Turkey’s Kurdish population or in unnamed ‘outsiders’.
He effectively uses a seam of Turkish anxiety about being targeted by outsiders, a symptom of having not properly come to terms with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and of the European Union’s (EU’s) awkward arm’s-length relationship with Turkey. In his press conference on Monday, Mr. İnce implied that his party had failed in its mission. Turkish republicanism poses an incoherent challenge to Mr. Erdoğan’s combination of Turkish nationalism and Sunni internationalism. It is wedded to the EU project, including Turkish membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and is unable to grasp the concerns and expectations of the pious sections of the lower middle class and the working class. Without a clear economic policy that would capture the imagination of the people, the CHP and its allies simply appear as an anti-Erdoğan force, one that makes his personality the core around which it has constructed its opposition.
What the CHP stands against — Mr. Erdoğan — is clear. What the CHP stands for, however, is unclear. The People’s Democratic Party (HDP), a combination of the mainstream left and Kurdish nationalist groups, went into the election at the greatest disadvantage. Its standard bearer, Mr. Demirtaş, had to run from prison. In his press conference, Mr. İnce said that he had hoped for a better result from the İYİ Party and the HDP. But, in fact, the HDP crossed the 10% threshold in the parliamentary elections and will once more have its parliamentarians seated. The HDP’s gains, however, came largely from western Turkey, where the Kurdish population voted to ensure that it would get it parliament. Faith that it can move an agenda against Mr. Erdoğan and the AKP is not high. At the start of the Arab Spring in 2011, Mr. Erdoğan was confident that Turkey would re-emerge as a major player in the region.
A foreign policy outlook named neo-Ottomanism commanded Turkey’s ambitions. A failed attempt to overthrow Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and the defeat of Turkey’s preferred Muslim Brotherhood from Tunisia to Egypt led to the desiccation of Mr. Erdoğan’s hopes for the expansion of Turkish influence. Tension with the West and the failure in the Arab world have driven Turkey back towards relations with Russia, China and Iran. Mr. Erdoğan’s re-election will mean only that Turkey will continue to stumble between its obligations to NATO and the West as well as its need for close links to Russia, China and Iran. Long known as the hinge between Asia and Europe, Turkey is now more than ever caught in that position.
Mr. Erdoğan will not be able to move an agenda out of this trap. He, like Turkey, is caught between two worlds, unable to choose, riding a tiger that he will not be able to control. E. Ahmet Tonak and Vijay Prashad work at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Tonak, an economist, recently contributed to ‘Authoritarianism and Resistance in Turkey’. Prashad, Chief Editor of LeftWord Books, most recently edited ‘Strongmen: Putin-Trump-Modi-Erdogan-Duterte’.
WORDS/ VOCABULARY
1) Legitimacy
Meaning: Conformity to the law or to rules.
Example: “Refusal to recognize the legitimacy of both governments”
2) Crucial
Meaning: Decisive or critical, especially in the success or failure of something.
Example: “Negotiations were at a crucial stage”
Synonyms: Pivotal, Critical
Antonyms: Minor
3) Overwhelming
Meaning: Have a strong emotional effect on.
Example: “I was overwhelmed with guilt”
Synonyms: Overcome, Move
4) Slimmer
Meaning: (Of something abstract, especially a chance or margin) very small.
Example: “There was just a slim chance of success”
Synonyms: Slight, Small
Antonyms: Good, Strong
5) Alliance
Meaning: A union or association formed for mutual benefit, especially between countries or organizations.
Example: “A defensive alliance between Australia and New Zealand”
Synonyms: Association, Union
6) Run-off
Meaning: A further competition, election, race, etc., after a tie or inconclusive result.
Example: “He won only 49 per cent of the vote, so a run-off will be held”
7) Bearer
Meaning: A person who presents a cheque or other order to pay money.
Example: “Promissory notes payable to the bearer”
Synonyms: Holder, Possessor
8) Strongholds
Meaning: A place where a particular cause or belief is strongly defended or upheld.
Example: “The seat appeared to be an impregnable Tory stronghold”
Synonyms: Bastion, Centre
9) Mop up
Meaning: The activity of dealing with a small number of people, problems, etc. that remain after most of them have been defeated or solved.
Example: “The war was effectively over, although skirmishing and mopping-up went on for some time”
10) Pious
Meaning:Making or constituting a hypocritical display of virtue.
Example:”His pious platitudes”
Synonyms: Insincere, Self-righteous
Antonyms: Sincere
11) Bloc
Meaning:A group of countries or political parties with common interests who have formed an alliance.
Example: “The Soviet bloc”
Synonyms: Alliance, Association
12) Startling
Meaning:Very surprising, astonishing, or remarkable.
Example: “He bore a startling likeness to their father”
Synonyms: Surprising, Astonishing
Antonyms: Predictable, Ordinary
13) Controversial
Meaning: Giving rise or likely to give rise to controversy or public disagreement.
Example: “Years of wrangling over a controversial bypass”
Synonyms: Contentious, Moot
Antonyms: Uncontroversial, Anodyne
14) Remarkably
Meaning: In a way that is worthy of attention.
Example: “You have performed remarkably”
15) Steamroller
Meaning:(Of a government or other authority) forcibly pass (a measure) by restricting debate or otherwise overriding opposition.
Example: “The government’s trying to steamroller a law through”
16) Swept up
Meaning: To win some set of competitive events completely and decisively.
Example: He swept up the running events and won four medals.
17) Tethered
Meaning: Tie (an animal) with a rope or chain so as to restrict its movement.
Example: “The horse had been tethered to a post”
Synonyms: Tie, Hitch
Antonyms: Unleash, Release
18) Undercurrents
Meaning: An underlying feeling or influence, especially one that is contrary to the prevailing atmosphere and is not expressed openly.
Example: “Racial undercurrents”
Synonyms: Undertone, Overtone
19) Implode
Meaning: Collapse or cause to collapse violently inwards.
Example: “Both the windows had imploded”
20) Perilous
Meaning: Full of danger or risk.
Example: “A perilous journey south”
Synonyms: Dangerous, Risky
Antonyms: Safe, secure
21) Midst
Meaning: The middle part or point.
Example: “He left his flat in the midst of a rainstorm”
Synonyms: Middle, Centre
22) Full-blown
Meaning: Fully developed.
Example: “The onset of full-blown AIDS in persons infected with HIV”
Synonyms: Complete, Advanced
Antonyms: Partial
23) Tackles
Meaning: Make determined efforts to deal with (a problem or difficult task).
Example: “Police have launched an initiative to tackle rising crime”
Synonyms: Address, Approach
24) Aftermath
Meaning: The consequences or after-effects of a significant unpleasant event.
Example: “Food prices soared in the aftermath of the drought”
Synonyms: Fallout, Trail
25) Artisans
Meaning: A worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand.
Example: “Street markets where local artisans display handwoven textiles, painted ceramics, and leather goods”
Synonyms: Craftsman, Smith
26) Wiped out
Meaning: An instance of being destroyed or overwhelmingly defeated.
Example: “A nuclear wipeout”
27) Free fall
Meaning: A rapid decline that cannot be stopped.
Example: “Her career seemed about to go into free fall”
28) Manoeuvres
Meaning:A movement or series of moves requiring skill and care.
Example: “Snowboarders performed daring manoeuvres on precipitous slopes”
Synonyms: Operation, Exercise
29) Fragility
Meaning: The quality of being easily broken or damaged.
Example: “Osteoporosis is characterized by bone fragility”
Synonyms: Frailty, Weakness
Antonyms: Robustness
30) Enact
Meaning: Put into practice (an idea or suggestion).
Example: “The pressure group’s aim was to see the proposals enacted”
31) Peasantry
Meaning: Smallholders and agricultural labourers of low social status (chiefly in historical use or with reference to subsistence farming in poorer countries).
Example: “the upper class exploited the peasantry”
32) Scapegoats
Meaning: A person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency.
Example: The captain was made a scapegoat for the team’s failure.
Synonyms: Whipping boy, Victim
33) Wedded
Meaning: Be obstinately attached or devoted to (an activity, belief, or system).
Example: “the government was wedded to budgetary orthodoxy”
34) Concerns
Meaning: A cause of anxiety or worry.
Example: “environmental concerns”
Synonyms: Affair, Issue
35) Constructed
Meaning: Form (an idea or theory) by bringing together various conceptual elements.
Example: “poetics should construct a theory of literary discourse”
Synonyms: Formulate, Form
36) Agenda
Meaning: The underlying intentions or motives of a particular person or group.
Example: “Miller has his own agenda and it has nothing to do with football”
37) Desiccation
Meaning: The process of becoming completely dried.
Example: He ascribed the desiccation to the gradual elevation of the western part of the country.
38) Stumble
Meaning: Make a mistake or repeated mistakes in speaking.
Example: “she stumbled over the words”
Synonyms: Stammer, Stutter
39) Hinge
Meaning: A central or pivotal point or principle on which everything depends.
Example: “this period can be called the hinge of history”
40) Trap
Meaning: An unpleasant situation from which it is hard to escape.
Example: “they fell into the trap of relying too little on equity finance”
Synonyms: Ambush, Lure
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