For God's sake, please take a look at the impression being made: The state's institutions, founded by the nation with a social contract and broad consent, are almost fighting with the nation. The loss of time and energy the country has been made to endure -- because of the state institutions under the control of the elitist minority, which has turned a blind eye to a problem of freedom, the solution of which is viewed as reasonable by 80 percent of the population and is of concern to that same 80 percent -- has reached such an extent that it is no longer possible to keep track of how much time and energy has been lost. The chief characteristic of rulings made by just courts is their ability to evoke a feeling of satisfaction with regard to both the plaintiff's and the defendant's senses of justice. Is it possible to say that the latest ruling of the Constitutional Court -- which annulled a constitutional amendment passed by Parliament with 80 percent support at the cost of violating clear constitutional rules -- created the same effect with regard to the public sense of justice. The Constitutional Court, which not only disregarded the will of 80 percent of the people who supported the constitutional amendment providing for the removal of the headscarf ban at universities but also seized Parliament's legislative powers, has damaged the social conscience and paralyzed democracy in addition to its disrespect toward Parliament.
The duty of eliminating this horrendous coup, meant to take all parliamentary activities under the guardianship of the judiciary, is undoubtedly incumbent on Parliament itself. However the fact that this duty falls upon Parliament doesn't mean that the political parties, whether they are represented in Parliament or not, must take no initiative and just sit back indolently. The parliament speaker and all the political parties should take urgent action and seek ways to repair the great damage inflicted by the judicial coup, which narrowed the scope of civil politics. Furthermore, they should take all measures that will prevent any future actions by the same anti-democratic institutions or powers predisposed to imposing limitations on the people's will.
The most recent ruling of the Constitutional Court -- which is obviously acting under the influence and manipulation of some powers that are completely disconnected from people's feelings and needs -- is a graver anti-democratic intervention than the closure of political parties, which are the most indispensable part of democracies. This anti-democratic and unfair judicial intervention that targets rendering Parliament -- the most important institution of democracy -- completely ineffective also seeks to exterminate the institution of politics altogether.
And it is the institution of politics which has to respond to this attack that has fatally injured our democracy. There are no signs suggesting that we could ever be hopeful about the Republican People's Party (CHP), whose fascistic approach is clear as day, and its supporter, the Democratic Left Party (DSP). For this reason, the responsibility of re-establishing democratic standards, despite all the devastating impacts of the CHP and the state's elitist institutions, is incumbent on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) and all other political parties.
Just as preserving Parliament's dignity is the parliament speaker's duty, with the support of all democratic-leaning political parties the complete eradication of the coup Constitution of 1982 -- which falls far short of meeting the country's needs, as it has become a huge bundle of patchwork -- is the duty of all the democratic-leaning political parties, and particularly the AK Party. The AK Party -- facing closure as the target of the current constitutional structure dominated by an anti-democratic mindset that is stuck in 1960 -- should shake off its deadly silence at once. It should do anything needed to initiate a new process to draft a liberal and civilian constitution that will save the will of the people from ever being interfered with in an anti-democratic fashion again. In order to do this, if it must negotiate with other parties, then it should do it; if it must fight with them, it should also do that; or if it must make a decision to hold early elections with an agenda of forming a new parliament to draft a new constitution, it should do that as well.
This new constitution should act without fear to carry our rotten judicial system, and primitive and archaic non-democratic state institutions, to the positions they normally occupy in a modern democracy. Every day that passes with inaction means drifting further away from the port of democracy. We don't have a single day to waste in regard to completely changing the Constitution on a rational ground of conciliation.
The successive chain of anti-democratic interventions made one after another at the cost of abusing a sacred institution such as the law imposes a historic responsibility on the AK Party and other democratic political parties. This is also a responsibility to evaluate as best as possible this emerging opportunity for a lasting solution for a real democracy by cleaning up the debris of the archaic system in question, now that the current anti-democratic system has hit rock bottom.
