Turkey, an economic country in becoming between heritage and future

Europe, the United States, the Arab countries, the BRICS, Japan, Russia. To which socio-political-economic framework will be the emerging Turkey belong? Turkey is a paradox: she is a more than a promising partner, but she is also a fierce commercial competitor, a country with still deep economic unbalances, a strong – but floating – political policy, a nest of strong contradictions and internal conflicts, an unsteady bridge between Islamism and western world.
The new Republic was established in 1923 thanks to its founder, Ataturk.
The will of the new Government was mainly directed towards the westernization of customs and traditions, but especially of the political-economic aspects. It made the country closer to more advanced and industrialized countries. From the early reforms, Turkey has carried out a political development, which, at least officially and on the paper, can be called democratic. It was issued a new code of law and put into effects a single judicial system.
At the economic level Turkey realized reforms that made possible to place the country in the 17th position in the ranking of the most industrialized countries in the world. One of the leading sectors is the tourism one that in recent years has brought 18 billion dollars into the fund of the state, and it has allowed the development of the industrial local crafts.
Other sectors that led the economic development of the country were the industrial one and the transport sector. The first, thanks to the funding state and state investment, the establishment of development banks, the increase in exports and trade with foreign countries, made Turkey able to compete on foreign markets and to achieve some points of excellence. The second sector, the transport ones, helped the development of the Turkish economy because it made better and faster the movement of goods and people, mainly due to the improvement of the railway network.
One of the objectives carried on by the Turkish policy is joining the European Union. Many conditions were placed and Turkey has implemented many reforms in order to achieve this goal but there have been a lot of resistance from the European countries and from the international organizations. Turkey is not yet considered a fully democratic country, because of the constraints to the freedom of press and expression, but also, at the political level, of the limitations to the freedom of opposition, the possibility to form political parties and to have democratic elections. Human rights are not fully respected due to arbitrary arrests against dissidents, as well as punitive actions in prisons. Another reason is the fact that, being a populous nation, she would have too much weight in decision-making. In addition, as one of the pillars of the community is the freedom of movement of capital and people, it is feared a strong migration of Turks to European countries. Finally, it was feared a waste of resources for levelling Turkey with other European countries and therefore a strong financial investment and a review and redistribution of the fund intended for all EU members.
In the last few years of the early 21st century, Turkey has slowed the effort and the will to join the European Union. Turkey has identified opportunities for the economy no longer facing Europe, but her neighbouring countries. She has enhanced relations with the countries belonging to the Caucasus region by the conclusion of economic agreements that have allowed the expansion and consolidation of trade, exports and imports, creating a new international market. Turkey is therefore taking example from those countries, who are trying, in many cases successfully, to enter the international market as independent players: such as countries contained in the acronym BRICS, as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but also emerging from the Asian Tigers and the oil countries.
Politically, the crisis of the Arab Mediterranean countries and the eruption of the religious conflicts, have certainly influenced the choice of Turkey to regard more to the Islamic world than to the western one. It remains still to identify where Turkey wants to arrive and what projects she wants to realize. Today Turkey is considered a fast developing country, a country that can compete with other world powers, a country that over the years and with the implementation of important reforms, both politically and economically, is consolidating her role in the international arena. The crucial point is to understand what further transformations, what further changes will be undertaken to improve her position, but it is interesting also to analyze what will be the political evolution of the geographical sector of Turkey, and which will be her final choice, either with the western world or with pursuing the objective of local supremacy. In the chosen alternative lies the future of Turkey, but also the political balance of the whole Middle East and of the Islamic world.