I do not doubt the bona-fide intentions of the minister, but by only looking at what happened to them, we can see that certain segments of our society, including many bureaucrats, do not agree with the minister, if we espouse the maxim that actions speak louder than words. In our country (and in all countries all over the world without a single exception), there are always some people who are more equal than others.In the Turkish case, leftists, socialists, Islamists, practicing Muslims, Kurds, Alevis, non-Muslims, Romas and so on have never been treated like first-class citizens, and the sad fact is that the state is only one of the culprits. A certain class of people who are also labeled LAST (Laic Sunni Turk), similar to WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), have been ruling the country with their authoritarian tactics for the last 100 years. Their tactics included provoking one second-class group against another. Islamists were not happy with the Alevis and fascist Grey Wolves liked neither Alevis nor people with a Kurdish identity. Depending on the conjecture, it has always been easy for the ruling oligarchy to abuse one group at the expense of others. Pre-Sept. 12, 1980 coup events are pure examples of this tactic where leftists and Grey Wolf ultranationalists were simultaneously manipulated, paving the way for an ultra-US-friendly regime. Similarly, some Alevis who suffer from Stockholm syndrome (for they are in love with the oligarchy that once butchered them in Dersim and which has always treated them with disrespect) have been used against practicing Sunnis and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, the Republican meetings of 2007 being a recent example. The Ergenekon Terror Organization indictments, thousands of pages in length, are a good summary of certain parts of this Turkish socio-political history from a criminological perspective.
The current fight going on in Turkey is not about religion, Islam, Ottoman reactionaryism, Turkey’s changing axis and so on. Despite the demagogy, it is not also about the AK Party trying to establish a one-party dictatorship (by the way, the ones who accuse the AK Party on these silly grounds never questioned the illiberal and authoritarian one-party rule of the Republican People’s Party [CHP] between 1924 and 1950). It is easy to send the AK Party to opposition seats at election time, and they are now doing everything they can to help their opponents achieve this. Did Deniz Baykal not boast a few days ago that the AK Party will only get 20-plus percent of the votes, contradicting his staunch but unintelligent supporters who claim that the AK Party is here to stay for good so the army should (please!) help?
The fight is between privileged “super Turks” and less equal so-called first-class Turks. Just like the soccer leagues. England has League 1, but above it, there is the Premier League. In the Turkish case, above the First League, we have the Super League. So, the minister may be right: The Roma are indeed first-class citizens, but I am sure that they -- and all others in their class, like myself -- would be delighted if they were not treated like first-class citizens next time. We all deserve to be “super Turks.” Alternatively, let us end that unjust “super LAST” citizen class and honestly give the figure “first” its due without trying to deceive anyone.
Our “super LAST” masters must now see that no power on earth lasts forever. A slave may be a slave but that does not mean that s/he is an idiot, and all slaves long for emancipation, especially if their masters are ignorant and cheating “cosmetic” operators.
