The recent protests in Turkey have drawn attention to not only the two decade plus era of President Erdogan, the most consequential Turkish leader since Ataturk, but also to resurgence of Turkey’s pivotal role in the region. Given this context, it would be useful to examine the historical framework of present day developments.

History, it is said, always comes full circle. 100 years after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, with its spoils divided among European colonial powers to reshape the map of the Middle East, Turkey is going through a Renaissance, a revival of its glory, prestige and power, emerging again as a vital player in the volatile Middle East.

After the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish war of liberation emerged victorious under the leadership of two great stalwarts, Mustafa Kamal Ataturk and Ismet Inonu, both Generals. Thanks to these Founding Fathers, from the debris of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey rose like a phoenix, they rebranded Turkey and transformed modern Turkey into a secular, democratic Republic. Turkey was also firmly placed in the Western camp as the only Muslim member of NATO.

However, during the past 50 years, the last quarter of the 20th century and the first quarter of the 21st century, Turkey has been witnessing an interesting turnaround, actually a Renaissance, in which the Turkish Republic has been galvanised around fresh ideas, issues and initiatives, this time through two great political stalwarts, Necmettin Erbakan and Racep Tayyib Erdogan, serving as the harbingers of this Renaissance. Erbakan spearheaded this initiative with his vision.

As one of the great Muslim leaders and visionaries of the 20th century, Erbakan ranks among the 5 of the greatest among all, alongside Dr. Allama Mohammad Iqbal, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, King Faisal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and Imam Khomeini of Iran. All these visionary leaders shared a common worldview with two passions: Pan-Islamism and intractable opposition to Zionism. Their impact was derived from their vision and ideas.

Nacmettin Erbakan started his political journey from the famous historical city of Konya, which is the final resting place of the immortal Sufi Saint, Jalaluddin Rumi, in 1969, when he won his first elections under the banner of the Nizam-i-Islam Party. He was the first prominent Turkish politician, who espoused Islam as a key component of the Turkish national identity, for which he had to pay a heavy political price as the parties that he founded and led like the Milli Salamat Party, the Saadat Party, the Fazeelat Party and the Refah Party, were banned in succession and he was also imprisoned as a political prisoner for his staunch beliefs.

However, to his credit, Erbakan never gave up and remained steadfast in his commitment and his worldview, based on promoting what he called “Milli Gorus” (National Vision of Rejuvenation). He pursued this vision with wisdom and patience in a peaceful, democratic manner. In the process, he also demonstrated flexibility and adaptability, while remaining loyal to his objective.

Nacmettin Erbakan, popularly known as ‘Ustad’ (teacher), will be remembered for three great achievements. First, in his role as Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey in 1974, he was the architect of the Turkish military operation which saved the lives of the Turkish Cypriot population living on the island of Cyprus, preventing their ethnic cleansing and stopping any possibility of ‘enosis’ (forced Union) of Cyprus with Greece. This was probably Erbakan’s finest hour.

Second, Erbakan helped discover and refresh Turkey’s Islamic roots and identity, pursuing his political goals, despite strong obstacles, with deftness, wisdom and practical approach, thereby ensuring Turkey would not become ‘another Algeria’. In Algeria, due to confrontation between the Islamic Salvation Front which won the elections in 1991, and the military establishment, there was almost a decade-long brutal civil war that shattered Algerian society, undermining peace and stability.

Third, thanks to the vision of Erbakan, he launched the initiative of the D-8, or Developing-8 countries, a forum established as a counterpart to the G-8 countries of that period who represented the developed countries. The idea of D-8 was, in fact, a precursor of the Global South which has now become the pivot of the new emerging global order where the centre of gravity, in terms of political and economic power, has shifted from the West to the East.

Chairman Mao once said that “an idea becomes a material force, once it is grasped by millions of millions of people”. In this context, due credit must be given to President Racep Tayyip Erdogan, who was a protégé of Erbakan, and who carried forward that vision by providing the material foundation for that great vision to flourish and become embedded in the Turkish national consciousness. In the first quarter of the 21st century, Turkey’s Renaissance and rise owe a debt of gratitude to the bold leadership and decisive role of President Erdogan, who has proven to be a worthy exponent of Erbakan’s legacy.

He helped reshape Turkish politics and realigned Turkey as a country that has roots in the East, but is also a bridge to the West. He has pursued a foreign policy based on empathy with the oppressed be it Palestinians, Kashmiris or the Rohingya or exposing Western double standards or building up a strong base of Turkey’s industry, especially defence production. Turkey today is a vibrant Muslim democracy and a voice in the international system that enjoys authority and respect.

While presiding over the Turkish Renaissance, President Erdogan is aware of the challenges, especially the legacy of history which often weighs down on Turkey, especially its relationship with the West. More than any other Muslim country, Turkey has had the maximum impact on the West, culturally, politically and intellectually, given the history of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over parts of Europe for centuries, starting with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453.Even today, on the hills of Budapest, there is the mausoleum of the Turkish Dervish, Gul Baba.

If you go to one of the centres of Christianity in the heart of Europe, the city of Krakow of Poland, there are big murals of Turkish soldiers, battling Christian armies. And in 1683, when the Ottomans were stopped at the gates of Vienna, Austrian bakers celebrated the defeat of Turkey by baking the croissant, shaped like the crescent, the emblem of the Ottoman army. It was after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, that Palestine was then handed over to the British who promptly converted Palestine to a ‘Jewish National Home’ through the Balfour Declaration of 1917, laying the foundation of Israel.

It was thus no accident that following the breakup and division of Ottoman Empire with Syria handed over to the French, when France’s General Henri Gourand occupied Damascus in 1920, he asked to be taken first to the tomb of the great conquerer, Salahuddin Ayyubi, where the French General arrogantly announced: “We are back, O’ Saladin’, recalling the eviction of the Western crusaders from Jerusalem under the leadership of Saladin in 1187!

In this context, as leader of the All Parties Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship delegation, which visited Turkey in August 2016 to express solidarity, in the aftermath of the abortive Gulenist coup attempt against the Turkish democratic order, I, along with my delegation, had an interesting 90-minute meeting with President Erdogan in his new presidential palace in Ankara. Since the meeting was being held in a very warm and friendly environment, I took the liberty of suggesting President Erdogan: “Mr. President, May I suggest that you stop wasting your time trying to join the European Union, because the European Union will never allow Turkey to be its member, as Turkey is a Muslim country, while the EU is primarily a Christian Club”.

President Erdogan retorted: “ We are well aware of that, but we want to test and expose the double standards in their principles and practices”. And then he reinforced his argument with an interesting story: once his French counterpart in a informal conversation told him that “We (the West) made the mistake of looking the other way while Pakistan was secretly making the nuclear bomb, because our focus was on combating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, but we will never again let any other Muslim country to become a nuclear power”. Such is the mindset of the West when it comes to the Muslim countries!.

No wonder that the European Union foreign policy chief, Joseph Borrell, had the cheek and the audacity to actually say on 13 October 2022 that “Europe is a garden, while most of the rest of the world is a jungle and the jungle could invade the garden in different ways and means”. There could not be a more racist argument about the ‘garden’ of Europe versus the ‘jungle’ of the Global South and that too coming from a country of Europe, the continent which has committed two genocides within 50 years. In the 1940s, when the Christians of Europe committed crimes against humanity against the Jews of Europe, and in the 1990s, when the Christians of Europe committed crimes against humanity against the Muslims of Europe. Ironically, while committing genocide against fellow Bosnian Slavs, the slogan ostensibly was that the Serbs were ‘cleaning out Turkish remnants’.

Given this context, the Turkish Renaissance in the 21st century has had three components. First, there is a rediscovery of Turkey's deeply embedded Islamic roots, which firmly anchor Turkey as a pillar of the Muslim world. Second, the restoration of the old glory of Turkey as a modern Muslim democracy that is now emerging as a major Muslim Middle Power, exercising influence through its role and economy and concrete achievements in science and technology (for example, Turkish drones have been tested successfully in conflicts in Azerbaijan and Ukraine, plus production of “Kaan” fighter jets). Third, Turkish Soft Power is the strongest of any Muslim country, which includes popular television serials about the Ottoman Empire, Turkish cuisine and culture, tourism, the vast reach of Turkish Airlines, and Turkey’s proactive diplomacy, ranging from Mogadishu to Malaysia to membership of BRICS.

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Given this context, as the Western-led world order unravels and a new alternative global order is yet to emerge, in the broader Muslim world, the principal contradiction and conflict is bound to be between Pan-Islamism versus Zionism, given the Greater Israel project that is now the biggest challenge for the Muslim world. Greater Israel’s goal is to decimate the Palestine resistance and annex the whole of Jerusalem, a city sacred to three divine religions.

So, President Erdogan faces two key challenges, one in foreign policy and the other in domestic politics. In foreign policy, Turkey, as the most powerful Muslim country in the Middle East, as well as being among emerging Muslim Middle powers like Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Egypt, will have to take the lead to resist and reject such an unacceptable concept as the notion of ‘Greater Israel’, otherwise this will be a recipe for disaster, leading to permanent instability and conflict in the heart of the Muslim World. In domestic politics, President Erdogan has to preserve and promote his biggest legacy, of stability, continuity and inclusiveness, which are the basis of the Turkish Renaissance.

He should build on his success in seeking rapprochement with the Kurdish separatists, whose incarcerated leader, Abdullah Ocalan, has agreed to give up armed struggle and join the Turkish national mainstream, after a 40-year futile rebellion. Erdogan should extend a similar olive branch to his political opposition to secure both Turkey’s stability and his own proud legacy.