I started Superpower 2 with three clear goals in mind:
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[*]Communist Turkey
[*]Utter and immediate destruction of Israel
[*]Leaving NATO
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Then I took a look at the starting condition of Turkey. A country that produces nothing other than iron and steel, inflation over 30%, unemployment over 20%, massive public spending due to high population, budget deficit about 90 billion USD, corruption off the charts, and an ethnically fractured country. I realized first and foremost, I needed to transform the country into a manufacturing one and create the urban proletariat before I could think about communism.
In order to achieve that, starting from 2001 I did the following reforms as Democratic Left Party:
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[*]Immediately identified the need of laying foundations for manufacturing capacity, therefore I gutted public healthcare and R&D budgeting, then I transferred all budget to infrastructure and telecommunications spending (dual carriageways and ADSL)
[*]In order to combat inflation, I massively increased interest rates
[*]Trying to incentivize the bourgeois investment in manufacturing, I reduced all business taxes to absurd levels, while I increased taxes every six months by two points for individuals to fund public spending
[*]I sold all of the army equipment from the 50’s and the 60’s for dirt cheap to reduce military upkeep costs, the ones I couldn’t sell I scuttled
[*]When Syria declared war on Israel, I did not join them as I thought it would be impossible to take on the burden of a war with the current economic situation
[*]Watched Syria get destroyed by the international coalition
[*]Privatized all industries with the exception of profit-generating iron & steel manufacturing
[*]Removed all taxes from sales and purchases on the service industry to appease national entrepreneurs and reduce Turkey’s dependency on foreign companies
[*]I tried establishing close ties with Moscow and Beijing but lack of access to the European common market was killing my competitiveness, so I abandoned them quickly and moved towards European integration
[*]To appease public opinion after years of heavy taxation and unbridled privatization, I attempted an initiative for better rights for Kurdish citizens and declared Kurdish as an official language of the republic
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Basically, in a game I started with the clear and primary goal of elevating Turkey to the final step in socioeconomic evolution, I found myself, without any doubt, transformed into Erdogan. Funny thing is, all of this worked. By 2008 I was getting competitive in manufacturing, eliminated all inflation, and employment was on decline. For the first time in the history the budget of government of Turkey was in black, rather than red. The game did not tell me that I needed to follow AKP playbook line by line to resolve these structural problems, it rather presented me the facts and material conditions, leaving me on my own to solve these problems to the best of my abilities.
In the general elections of 2009, the people rewarded me with 43.8% of the votes (which is actually quite close to 46.8% AKP got in 2007 elections) showing that I had the mandate to do whatever I wanted to do to improve economic situation for five more years.
The problem at this juncture was very simple, I was in the black, but in the process of laying foundations, I more than doubled the public debt, with the total rising to more than 200 billion USD. I could not increase government investment in manufacturing before I cleared this debt, as interest payments had already become the largest source of expenditure in the budget. Recalling political theory classes I took ages ago, I resorted to the most terrible and most devastating weapon the humanity has in its arsenal on the peoples of Turkey. Not thermobaric missile barrages, not bioweapons, not nukes. I unashamedly and unrepentantly used shock therapy.
I was already following the neoliberal playbook for the most part, but this was the peak of my crimes against the peoples of this country. I reduced all government spending, meaning infrastructure, healthcare, education, bureaucracy, telecommunications etc. to below sustainability levels. Human Development Index ranking decreased sharply, average life expectancy plummeted, emigration and unemployment exploded within a very short time frame. The population, as a result, decreased to 61 million from 72 million, constituting almost an economic genocide but total debt was decreasing and in the long run I could not see any other option to follow the programme to its completion.
I spent three years doing nothing but watching the scythe separate the weak from the strong. In the end I was vindicated (of sorts) and the national debt was eliminated. I now had enough surplus to publicly fund manufacturing capacity to finally make Turkey an industrial powerhouse which creates all goods it consumes and public support, although tenuous, was still with me. I was slightly discomforted but felt that, in the long run, the end would justify the means.
After 2014, I took steps to make my immediate goals a reality:
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[*]I nationalised all raw material sectors, agricultural and industrial and invested all surplus for a better manufacturing base
[*]Especially focused on tobacco to make use of Turkey’s historic strength in tobacco production, aiming to generate iron & steel industry level of export income
[*]Left NATO and took steps to revive Balkan Pact and Saadabad Pact to ensure good relations with neighbouring countries
[*]To secure international independence, I once again established ties with Russia and China
[*]Heavily increased taxes on the services sector to make the bourgeoisie pay their long-standing dues to the society
[*]Started research on national weapons design to ensure my armies had modern technology in the upcoming war against Israel
[*]After a while, I became a net exporter in finished goods and started nationalisation process in these sectors as well
[*]Economic upturn saw my approval reaching more than 60% and I used this mandate to finally outlaw the legal arm of Grey Wolves
[*]With the export income, I invested heavily in public spending on services provided by the government
[*]Thus, HDI ranking exploded, putting Turkey on the level of developed countries and population started to increase once again
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Around 2024, all sectors except services (retail, construction, law) were under government control and finally Turkey became a self-sufficient, net exporter country with an industrial proletariat enjoying high living standards. I only needed more security in dairy and meat production to finally make the transition to a communist country. My finger became restless on the button that would see the transition finalized and legalized at last.
Unfortunately, it did not happen. The powers that be decided that Turkey, as the forward base of American hegemony upon the world, would never be allowed a communist government. I pressed the button and the game crashed. I reloaded and tried again, crash. Again, crash. I loaded a previous save and repeated same steps towards proletarian dignity, equality, comradeship and pressed the button, crash. I learned, as the saying goes, that “no success is left unpunished in this country” and Gladio was more embedded in Turkey than ever. In my head canon, I convinced myself that backdoor negotiations forced the Democratic Left Party to assume the role of a capitalistic success story like the Scandinavian social democracies and Turkey would never, ever be allowed to embrace its proletarian brothers in other lands.
I closed the game for good with mixed feelings, the shame of how easily I was AKP-fied, the pride of lifting the country from despicable conditions, the uneasiness of accepting the status quo. Even though I could not see my dream fulfilled, any game that would make me go through such an emotional rollercoaster deserves a recommendation.
Metamorphosis/10
