The people of America overthrew WASP stereotypes and elected a black man as the most powerful man in the world. In the personality of their president, the people of France turned the classically anti-American policies of their country upside down. Helped by European leaders, the Turkish nation changed the values it demonstrated to Europe. Values were not only questioned, they also switched hands. The secular-Kemalist circles of Turkey that have traditionally been pro-West, pro-EU and pro-democratization turned out to be statist, anti-Western, cynical about EU membership and, most interestingly, fearful of further democratization. The opposite tendency was observed within the right-wing, traditional, religious circles. The leftists of this country have always been critical of the 1980 military coup d'etat and the 1982 Constitution prepared under the tutelage of army generals. Last year, the democratically elected government wanted to change this Constitution but the professed leftist Republican People's Party (CHP) blocked this proposal, claiming that the existing Constitution contained nothing wrong. The constitutional conservatism of the CHP reached such a point that it brought any attempts to change the Constitution to the Constitutional Court. The court, in turn, was shamefully ready to push the limits of its authority so as not to let the government bring about any meaningful change.
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government was ready to bow to the decisions of the Constitutional Court, but in a last minute move, the Council of State showed that the higher organs of the judiciary were actually ready to contradict the Constitutional Court.
The Ergenekon terrorist organization taught us that army personnel are not innocent by virtue of their position, that there may be people with bad intentions which have penetrated army lines, using army facilities and their military positions for their illegal ends. The bravery of the prosecutor of the Ergenekon case has taught us that there are still courageous judges and prosecutors in this country.
The AK Party government overthrew our established prejudices with regards to Kurdish-language broadcasting. TRT 6, a Kurdish-language television station, started round-the-clock Kurdish broadcasting today. Even the prime minister spoke a sentence in Kurdish, wishing good luck to the station and its viewers. The state station used the until now outlawed letters "Q," "X" and "W" in its broadcast. Trying to be cynical about this, several Kurdish politicians declared that the state channel broke the relevant law.
A recent study about social pressure in Anatolian cities also questioned the established values of this country. To some, it showed that secular-minded people were placed under a great deal of pressure by their neighbors and some were even pretending to be religious in order to find a place in society. To me, and many others, it showed that even established social scientists in this country were ready to lie and misinterpret the findings of their own study so as to be able to support their own baseless fears. But even this attests to the fact that a much smaller, but existing, section of our society is afraid of something. I am also afraid that these people will conduct another public survey and cheat us, together with themselves. Whatever view you have on this "study," it is certain that our values are changing and are being threatened.
The fact that the established values are being questioned is not necessarily dangerous. Great changes in the history of mankind have come true through such questioning. I hope 2009 will be a year of a settlement of values and a year of peace and reconciliation.
