Upsurge in Pakistani-Turkish
Ties
By Dr Ahmad Faruqui
Danville, CA
Speaking at an iftar organized by the Turkish business
community for the earthquake victims in Pakistan,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted,
“Pakistan has a very special place for us
since the days of the Dardanelles Wars (World War
I). They did not abandon us and we cannot leave
them at such times as these either.”
He was expected to travel to Pakistan on October
20 and deliver a check for more than $50 million
that were raised at the dinner. Turkey’s rapid
response to the earthquake underscores the close
ties between the two countries. Within a day, Turkey
had rushed nine planes loaded with tents and blankets
to Islamabad. Subsequently, Turkish rescue and health
teams arrived to assist in search and rescue efforts.
This will be Erdogan’s second visit to Pakistan,
the first one having taken place shortly after he
was sworn into office in 2003. There is much that
is common between the two countries. Both trace
their evolution over the last millennium to Turkic
people who migrated from Central Asia to Persia
and set up empires that lasted for centuries, giving
them a rich imperial legacy. While their languages
are not alike, there are several Turkish words in
Urdu, which itself is a Turkish word meaning army.
Urdu was a means of communication between the multi-ethnic
Muslim armies that ventured into India several hundred
years ago.
Pakistan has strong Turkic influence in its culture.
The shared history goes back to the time when the
Seljuks, a Turkic people from Central Asia, poured
southward into Persia in 1037 and established the
Empire of the Great Seljuks. One branch of the Seljuks
ruled from Ghazni in Afghanistan, headed by Sultan
Mahmud who reigned from 997-1030. Mahmud’s
grandfather was a Turkic general from Turkestan
who had crossed the Hindu Kush mountains to seize
Ghazni, located strategically on the road between
Kabul and Kandahar. At its peak, his empire included
all of Afghanistan, most of modern Iran and parts
of Pakistan and northern India. During his time,
Ferdausi wrote the Shahnamah and Al Beruni wrote
his classic treatise on India.
In 1071, another branch of the Seljuk family moved
west from Persia. It engaged the armies of the Byzantine
emperor in what is now eastern Turkey and defeated
them decisively. After that, the Seljuk Turks flooded
into Anatolia, taking control of most of eastern
and central Anatolia. They established their capital
at Konya around 1150 and created the western (Rum)
Seljuk sultanate. During their reign, Maulana Rumi
penned his Masnavi and established a Sufi order
that has a large following globally and especially
in Pakistan.
Over time, the Seljuks in Turkey were succeeded
by the Ottomans who went on to establish an empire
that lasted for six centuries, from 1299 to 1922.
During the same time, Mahmud Ghazni had been succeeded
by other Muslim rulers in the subcontinent, culminating
in the rule of the Mughals. The movement to revive
the Khilafat after the defeat of the Ottomans in
the First World War received a boost from the Muslims
of the subcontinent. Even though the movement failed
in its political objectives, it did underscore the
desire of the two peoples to work together, as was
noted by Erdogan.
The two countries were established as modern republics
in the aftermath of world wars in the last century,
Turkey after the first one and Pakistan after the
second one. The military has played a crucial role
in the political evolution of both and to this day
regards itself as the guarantor of national security.
Both countries have had a difficult time dealing
with their minorities and have often used military
force to suppress their rights to prevent secession.
Both partnered with the US in the Cold War against
the Soviet Union and are active in the current fight
against terrorists. And most recently, Turkey’s
foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, helped broker the
first official contact between the foreign ministers
of Pakistan and Israel.
But they also have their differences. Pakistan’s
founder, an attorney turned politician, passed away
within a year of its birth but Turkey’s founder,
a war hero turned politician, lived on for 15 years
after its birth. Thus, Turkey experienced more stability
and continuity than did Pakistan in its early years.
And while Turkey’s military has been playing
an increasingly invisible one, reflecting the maturation
of its polity, Pakistan’s military continues
to be very visible, reflecting the weakness of its
political institutions. A final difference is that
while Pakistan’s military has a history of
associating with radical Muslim groups, Turkey’s
military does not.
Today, Turkey has a population that is half as large
as Pakistan’s but an economy that is three
times larger. So, even though the average Turk earns
a third of his European counterpart, he still makes
seven times more than the average Pakistani. Seeking
to improve the standard of living of both countries,
Erdogan expressed a desire at the 8th ECO (Economic
Cooperation Organization) summit to increase bilateral
trade with Pakistan from its current level of $200
million to $1 billion.
Between 1964-1979, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey formed
an economic bloc called Regional Cooperation for
Development (RCD). It became dysfunctional with
the fall of the Shah of Iran. However, RCD was reborn
as the ECO in 1985. After the fall of the Soviet
Union, it was expanded to include several Central
Asian states. It now includes Afghanistan, Azerbaijan,
Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan,
Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. ECO is aimed
at boosting economic cooperation, trade and communication
links in three important regions of the Asian continent—Central,
West and South Asia. Six summits of the heads of
member states have been held but the war in Afghanistan
and Pakistan-Iran differences have prevented the
ECO from reaching its full potential.
Turkey, an increasingly confident democracy and
a stable Muslim country, is being upheld by the
US as a role model for the Muslim world. But General
Musharraf’s attempts to import the Kemalist
model soon after he seized power six years ago backfired.
To his credit, the general has changed his position
and feels that the Turkish model would have to be
modified before it can be applied to Pakistan.
To understand what changes may need to be made in
this model, one has to first understand Turkey’s
strategic culture. This requires one to examine
the historical evolution of Turkey, explore the
fault lines that permeate its body politic and assess
its future prospects. These topics will be discussed
in future columns.
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