What will be the impact of $1 trillion in foreign trade?

The strategic plan, to which the final touches were made by high-ranking bureaucrats, private sector representatives, academics and politicians in a series of weekend meetings, focused on projections for 2023.

The plan is a roadmap for the projections for 2023. For Turkey to be listed among the top 10 biggest economies of the world, it must attain a target of exports worth $500 billion. “If the plan can be implemented without a glitch, we will reach the target before 2023. Everyone will enjoy and appreciate the progress we make piecemeal,” said an enthusiastic attendee of these meetings.

Another person who attended these meetings recalled that 13 years ago it was considered a dream to have exports amounting to $100 billion. “If the target set 13 years ago had been $100 billion and a similar roadmap had been prepared, we would today have exceeded $200 billion in exports,” he said.

The roadmap contains detailed descriptions for each sector and country and is not limited to work geared toward Turkish exporters. The plan exhaustively evaluates the commercial reflexes of 42 countries, giving the plan a realistic footing. It showcases a dynamic timetable with monthly and yearly targets.

According to the plan, strategic support will be provided to existing exporters so that they can enter new markets while institutional measures are taken to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their export efforts. Export coaches will provide guidance to novice exporters on foreign markets and how to successfully grow with exports. Eximbank will be given a role in solving the issue of loan support, letters of guarantee and other issues. Foreign trade consultancies and attaché offices, currently confined to purely diplomatic roles, will be taken outside of Turkish embassies. To this end, trade centers, which currently number only four, will be privatized and new ones will be established so that they can work with a new mission. The number of trade consultants and attachés will increase from 112 to 250. Trade centers, which will employ about 1,000 people, including auxiliary staff, will work like private offices for exporters.

An economy expert noted that the impact of Turkey boosting its foreign trade fivefold will be “great.” A Turkey which has overcome its problems with long-term economic growth and which has become the center of its region, he says, “will be what Germany is to Europe, or Japan to Asia, or the US to NAFTA -- a center which develops and grows and contributes to the welfare of its region. For this to happen, free trade agreements signed with Syria, Lebanon and Jordan will be made with new countries. Regional economic integration will change everything, both inside and outside the country.”

There will also be those who will be unhappy with the roadmap, he notes. The fact that there is now a slew of articles and commentaries on Turkey’s so-called axis shift and an increase in terrorist attacks, he adds, is nothing but an expression of this unhappiness and efforts to block this plan.

Whether Turkey will embrace and support this plan will be tested in the coming months.

Death throes of terror

Some discourse turns into a widely held conviction once the frequency of terrorist attacks increases. When the pulse of the general public is measured, we find that terrorist organizations and those who employ them as subcontractors are unsuccessful in achieving their goals.

For instance, with the terrorist organization taking to the stage at every critical period, its credibility regarding defending some ethnic rights is damaged. The discourse of Kurdish intellectuals in which they say that violence cannot be used as a means to protect certain rights is gaining wider acceptance.

Moreover, the discourse that nothing would destroy the friendship and brotherhood with the Kurds who avoid violence is spreading from the families of fallen soldiers to the entire society.

Indeed, not a single relative of a slain soldier has uttered any remark targeting Kurds -- even at the time of utter sadness. This is emerging as Turkey’s unshakable armor.

In the process, the opposition parties’ objections about the government’s democratic initiative lose ground.

Former Democratic Society Party (DTP) members who used to claim that democratic rights were won thanks to terrorism are having a hard time explaining the escalating terrorist attacks. It should come as no surprise if Turks choose to support the government against those who are attempting to create political instability through terrorism and other methods.

Ergenekon shadow on unity of Left

A member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) has claimed that Ergenekon’s shadow has fallen on efforts to unify leftist parties. Being an experienced politician, close to grassroots politics, he actually reveals the pulse of the streets. A major plan to rescue those charged with establishing or being a member of the Ergenekon organization in order to create chaos and political instability in Turkey involves the Supreme Court of Appeals stage of the trial. The release of Erzincan Chief Public Prosecutor İlhan Cihaner revealed these hopes and plans.

Defendants in the Ergenekon, Sledgehammer (Balyoz) and Council of State attack trials will reach the Supreme Court of Appeal stage as easily as Cihaner did. It seems difficult for the Supreme Court of Appeals to maintain its current structure during this period. First of all, recent constitutional amendments will ensure democratic participation in the high judiciary. To prevent this, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) must be removed from office. Since it is not easy to do this through anti-democratic means, it must be done through elections. So, they need a strong alternative to power.

So far, everything is OK. At this point, he said something I could not fully agree with, “By writing that the CHP’s votes will fall below the election threshold, you prevented [Deniz] Baykal and Mustafa Sarıgül from assuming leadership positions.”

I could not believe my ears, so I smiled, as if to say, “Yes, I wrote that, but what change can this make?” He responded seriously, saying: “Believe it or not, your arguments were accepted. You wrote that a dull CHP with Baykal will lose votes to the Equality and Democracy Party [EDP] and the Turkey Movement for Change [TDH], which was quite true. With this shift, the CHP may not fall below the election threshold, but it will be stripped of its potential to become an alternative to the government; so shadowy powers decided to take action and removed Baykal and Sarıgül. It is now time for the EDP. If the EDP also gets close to the CHP, then Ergenekon’s shadow over the left will become clearer.”