Whether it decides to take the matter to the Constitutional Court or decides against an annulment case, the CHP will no longer be the old CHP. The decision made today will determine the fate of the CHP. Why is this so?
De facto leading powers are always dependent on coalitions or alliances. There has always been a de facto dual leading power structure in Turkey, a leading power gained by the bureaucracy with diplomatic immunity after placing the judicial bureaucracy and military bureaucracy by their side within the state. The CHP became the extension among democratic actors of this leading government. There were democratic leading powers which came out of ballot boxes and represented the majority facing the leading power within the nation. The political agenda and political rivalry came to be determined directly by struggle between these two powers. Turkey's hot, staggering agenda items were wholly shaped by the rivalry between these two powers. Everything that is abnormal and did not go as planned is the result of this situation. From debates on laicite to the Kurdish problem, from democratization to education, this situation was what caused every hurdle we were faced with to become deadlocked. Because this dual power structure is contrary to the oneness of the state, it exaggerated problems instead of solving them. The mistake was in the bureaucracy facing the democratic power after forming alliances.
The formula that can be written out as “CHP + the military = leading power” is the magical formula for bureaucratic power inside this dual structure. However, one should not overlook one very important property of the components of this formula. The holder of real power inside the state is the military bureaucracy, not the CHP. In this formula, the CHP acts as a platform that helps legitimize the power of the military bureaucracy and gives it civilian support. When one ponders the question, “Through which hands do the actual power holders exercise their power?” it becomes easy to see why the CHP appears to be the party in power while the government appears to be the opposition in most critical issues.
In this competition for power, what matters is not the principles, but the actual state of balance. There is no apparent reason for the CHP, which defends the abolishment of Article 145 of the Constitution, and the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (TÜSİAD), which has prepared countless reports on the need for civilian scrutiny over the military, as well as media outlets that appear to be pro-law to panic and object to this law allowing military officers to be tried in civil courts except for the “actual state of affairs.”
The power formula that includes the CHP is based on two historical assertions. One is the CHP's traditional role as the organic representative of the civilian-military bureaucracy that has been the driving force behind modernization since the establishment of the republic, in other words, the CHP's status as a state party. Second, the national democratic revolution theory, discovered by the left in the 1960s, has evolved this historical alliance over time to a left-wing ideology. The regime, which was founded through coups d'etat and which started with the May 27, 1960 coup, has naturally turned the CHP into the watchdog of this military order. However, both assertions have collapsed in our time.
Today, the CHP, which objects to the “CHP + the military = power” formula should confess that it supported the Feb. 28, 1980 process, the April 27, 2007 electronic memorandum and the support it lends to the 1982 Constitution. The new law which allows officers to be tried in civil courts is the last straw. The greatest difficulty the CHP has is that the military custody regime has become impossible to sustain. There are no national democratic revolution positions any more, nor is there any potent state power as in the past. The world has changed. Life has changed. Politics has changed. Today, defending the regime of military custody doesn't mean anything but defending the dominion of bullyragging and intimidation.
For the CHP, there remains no option but give up on the “CHP + military = power” formula and try to take its power from democracy -- that is, the people -- in a way worthy of a political party. Let alone staying a “left-wing party,” this is the only means for the CHP's survival as a political party. If the CHP's decision today is a decision to cleanse itself and start trying a new formula, “CHP - military = power,” it will not be a surprise. This formula would mean the emancipation of the CHP from the load it is burdened with.
