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Turkiye: Role model for underdeveloped, developing countries

TURKIYE, as a member country of the G20, has been playing certain roles in this global forum.

Since the inception of her entry into this global club in 1999, Turkiye seems to have a clear vantage point to raise her voice not only for its own global recognition but also for a constellation of countries and nations.

Turkiye was picked to be a member state of the club on the basis of various unique factors.

In particular, historical phenomena including modernisation, affiliation to neo-liberal economic system etc. seem to have determined role in this selection. Obviously, it is observed that Turkiye has a representative power of Islamic countries in general and the Middle East in particular.

Precisely, Turkiye has experienced successive reformation processes, in particular, starting from the political conversion process of the Ottoman State to the laic Republican State.

Indeed, it was not only a change of the name of the state. But, that was a historical moment which has caused certain changes in both Turkish society and other Muslim communities in general as well.

This perspective reminds us that the Western powers — during their remaking of the trajectory of history in the beginning of the 21st century — have decided that Turkiye would have a representative role in the G20, because of her Western-oriented transformation processes in a holistic way.

Commencing from the early years of this century, Turkiye was able to make rapid and sustainable eco-political progress through the AKP (Justice and Development Party) governments. This process has been strengthening the position of Turkiye as a genuine role model for the underdeveloped and developing countries.

It is understood that few countries in the Middle East, such as Iran, have acquired almost similar or even higher economic developmental processes on the basis of certain technical parities were intentionally excluded from G20 membership.

This is a proof that the founding fathers of the G20 had certain ideological determinations on the way to establish this global entity for this century.

It is right here to revisit the major themes which were promoted during the Turkiye's G20 presidency in 2015. There were three issues which were "inclusiveness, implementation and investment."

These phenomena are actual global economic policy of Turkiye that promotes constant engagement of G20 members with low-income and developing countries to extirpate the poverty and to share the welfare with the whole world communities.

Although this target was distorted by the Covid-19 pandemic, there is no doubt that the importance of this global economic engagement is still prevailing. Even today, this need is enormously felt because of instability and uncertainty as the results of the Covid-19 in global scale.

This policy of Turkiye is precisely aligned with its discourse demanding certain reforms in the United Nations' decision-making processes. The discourse developed by Turkiye's leadership is not based alone on structural technicality of the international bodies.

Indeed, it is a genuine approach which prioritises the holistic welfare of the world communities. This approach is expected to promote opportunities for an inclusive collaboration among the member countries of the G20 for the actual integration of world communities.

Since the metanarrative in eco-politics has still been under the influence of the Covid-19 in the last couple of years, it can be expected that Turkiye would share its success story through the policy of the government and in particular, the strategic decisions held by Health Ministry of Turkiye during the Covid-19.

The latter has developed certain regional and global engagements in order to overcome the pandemic and was able to produce successfully its own version of vaccine.

Indonesia, as the host country for the recent G20 Summit, emphasised the holistic approach to the current global problems by the formulation of "recover together, recover stronger".

By this theme, Indonesian political elite aimed to disseminate an inspiration to global community which has been under devastating impact of Covid-19 pandemic.

This approach reflects the long-term policy of Turkiye in global affairs.

The writer is an associate professor at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation, International Islamic University Malaysia

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