Turkey and Pakistan – A Democratic Comparison under an Environment of Declining Relationship with the USA

Abstract

The history of political similarity between Turkey and Pakistan is hard to miss. Both countries have experienced military rule and military coups have come and gone with almost equal intervals. Military coups took place in Turkey in 1960,1971,1980,1997 and 2015. Whereas Pakistan experienced military interference in politics and resultant military rule in 1963, 1971, 1979 and 1999.Whereas politics under the civilian rule of two major political parties in Pakistan in the last decade or so has brought about little change in the lives of the common people the story of politics in Turkey under the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has altogether been different. He has been elected and re-elected by the Turkish people so much so that the results of 16 April 2017 referendum in Turkey now puts him in almost another political league–some consider him now as an all too powerful elected dictator.

On a contrasting note, democracy in Pakistan despite operating in

• Turkey like ‘civil-military tension-filled political environment' remained largely unsuccessful to give an overwhelming nationwide public support to politics. The two major political parties that ruled Pakistan in the last decade were sidelined by the people in the 2018 elections and a new party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf came to power as a result of people’s vote.

Turkey and Pakistan – A Democratic Another similarity between Pakistan and Turkey is the common decline of their relationship with the United States. This paper will attempt to find how the drawdown of the relationship of both these countries with the US will affect them. This paper basically attempts to discover why the Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan even when confronted with many challenges including a strong military not only succeeded in achieving wide-spread public support and approval but also successfully carried forward Turkey on its democratic journey. Why the political leadership of Pakistan when it had its chance from 2008 -2018 couldn’t achieve similar democratic success?