When I referred to the importance of the upcoming days in regards to the presidential elections, Okuyan calmly said: “Everyone has spoken. In these last few weeks [before the election], everyone including ourselves, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and the AK Party must seek a common ground. We’ve all communicated our messages. Now it is time for rationality and common sense to come to the fore. We need to find a common ground and people should stop pressuring the AK Party. The president should be from the AK party. No-one has the right to ask AK Party parliamentarians to vote for someone other than an AK Party candidate. [Defense Minister] Vecdi Gönül, [State Minister] Mehmet Aydın or [State Minister] Nimet Çubukçu could be nominated as candidates. Nimet Çubukçu’s nomination would silence the entire opposition and end the futile headscarf debates. She would be the first female to become Turkey’s president.” The best thing people can do to avoid tension from increasing is to use their common sense. I am one of those that believe Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will not be a candidate. I think he really meant it when he said, “it is going to be a surprise.” Mr. Erdoğan will not run for president because of his concern for his country, his party and the future of Turkey. Refusing to announce whether he will run is a smart move. The opposition is so concerned that Erdoğan will be president that when Erdoğan says “I am not a candidate,” they will not know what to say.
The biggest mistake of the AK Party opponents is making the presidential elections a basis for polarization. The formation of a chancellors committee by the Higher Education Board (YÖK) and the use of the “367 parliamentarians” quorum by legalists is a political stance. Those that remember the tragedy of the demonstration in Taksim on May 1, 1977, are naturally concerned about the demonstration to be held on Saturday April 14. On May 1, 1977, nearly 500,000 people from all over Turkey gathered in İstanbul’s Taksim Square. At the rally the term president of the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Unions (DİSK), Kemal Türkler delivered a speech. As he concluded his speech rounds of shots were fired from the roof of the Waterworks Administration building. The panicked crowd tried to escape the area, but more shots were fired from the higher floors of the Intercontinental Hotel. While trying to escape, 28 were crushed to death, five were shot and one was run over by a tank -- and nearly 130 people were wounded. The police took 470 people into custody for questioning, but released everyone later. Thirty years have passed since the Taksim Tragedy and we still don’t know who opened fire.
Now in 2007 the universities are being organized, buses are being rented and people are being pushed to protest. They want to organize a huge crowd to intimidate the government. We know very well, owing to our tragic history, the circles that support such an atmosphere. These circles, which perceive the presidential elections as the last fortress of the laic republic, are laying the groundwork they need to set traps for democracy. I pray that common sense will win, and that we as a nation will not fall into these traps.
