An overwhelming majority of people find this argument groundless and think that it is an indication of the discomfort felt by these circles about the nation’s choices.According to Radikal’s Oral Çalışlar, putting a government that came to power through the votes of the public in the same basket as military tutelage and describing it as “civilian tutelage” only serves to legitimize military tutelage.
“There is a serious hegemonic conflict between the civilian or political domain and the military domain. The political regime in Turkey, which experienced three-and-a-half military coups, has not yet gotten rid of military tutelage completely. The civilian domain-military domain conflict is a debate that has been a determining factor for the future of our country. As long as a military is influential in a political regime, that regime is that much troubled,” he suggests.
Yeni Şafak’s Ali Bayramoğlu says those claiming that Turkey is heading toward a single-party regime believe in the existence of danger. Recalling that the same circles brought forward similar allegations of threats in the past, he says this time there is a political party at the center, not religious fundamentalism or separatism. “But the essence of their discourse is the existence of threats and danger. This is a discourse that mingles with an anti-political understanding. This is a discourse that invited military coups before and took former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes to execution,” warns Bayramoğlu.
Radikal’s Akif Beki believes that those who claim that Turkey is on the way to being ruled by civilian fascism actually have a problem with the nation, not the government. “Let’s say the AK Party fell from power, will the nation that carried it to power evaporate? Don’t you think a similar AK Party will come to power? I call on you to put aside your nonsensical views and get used to respecting the nation’s will,” says Beki.
Star’s Ergun Babahan complains that those who collaborated with the military in the past and targeted politicians now talk about the existence of civilian fascism in Turkey. He says civilian fascism is the name of a system that has been created through collaboration between the military-civilian bureaucracy as well as the business world, and the media and politicians are like tools in this system. In his view, Turkey today places importance on the settlement of an independent and neutral state under the rule of law, the strengthening of individuals and secular democracy at the point it has reached today. “Those who talk of civilian fascism are the desperate few who long for the golden era of plunder. If you do not care about anything, just be embarrassed about the victims of the counter-guerilla,” says Babahan.
