By Editorial
One of the best adverts in the recent past was the one pitting the world’s top footballer Lionel Messi of Argentina against the world’s top basketballer, Kobe Bryant. In the promo, the two are vying for the attention of a kid on a plane. The Turkey Airways advert became a massive you-tube hit, with more than 7 million hits on the first day. The advert put Turkey’s national carrier, once a loss-making outfit, on the world map, earning triple profits in 2012. This dropped in 2013 by almost half.
The dwindling fortunes of Turkey’s flag carrier very much represents the situation in that country.
Its currency, the Lira, has fallen, interests rates have sky-rocketed and its economy— until recently one of the world’s most vibrant— has fallen off the cliff. Its ascension to the European Union will now have to wait, disadvantaging its citizens further. What, you might ask, has Kenya and indeed the whole world got to do with Turkey? Bilateral trade between Kenya and Turkey was worth Sh11 billion in 2012. Turkish Airlines operates a three-days weekly flight from JKIA. In a nutshell, Turkey matters to Kenya in many ways. Ironically, the man at the centre of Turkey’s great story is the same man at the centre of its woes, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is a case study of how a nation can leapfrog to near-developed status through rapid reforms and modernisation of key institutions. Two years ago, Turkey’s was the fastest growing economy in Europe.
Something seems to be going terribly wrong in Turkey. Erdogan’s government suspended the social networking service, Twitter, for spreading links that implicate his ministers in corruption. The video-sharing website YouTube was not spared either. In both cases, Erdogan cut off his people from a billion-and-a-half of the world’s population who access the website. Both have gone to court to contest the decree.
A predominantly Muslim country, Turkey is seen as a fulcrum between the mostly democratic West and the hereditary and monarchist Islamic Arab. Being at the doorstep to Europe, Turkey has served as a bulwark against the spread of the virulent jihadism to the West. Those credentials are at risk now. After nearly 11 years in power, Erdogan is increasingly becoming a threat to one of the world’s greatest stories.
