Everyone at the stadium, including those who booed Erdoğan, were able to sit in that massive stadium because of Erdoğan’s efforts and initiative. But the continuous focus on that point and the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) president’s unpleasant way of bringing it up at the ceremony created an atmosphere similar to the one described in Ömer Seyfettin’s popular story “Diet.” While it’s important to keep the mood of that night in mind, it’s not enough to justify what happened.
Recent debates over “monstrosity” remarks, Süleyman the Magnificent and alcohol-related legislation has paved the way for a tense atmosphere in which people are forgetting basic rules of courtesy, customs and traditions. Erdoğan thinks differently to most of the people who were at the stadium. In fact, he sometimes verbalizes his thoughts in an unpleasant manner.
After the referendum, Erdoğan had said he was going to try and understand the 42 percent who voted no in the referendum. But unfortunately he has not lived up to his promise. In light of Turkey drifting apart from the European Union, his “we are enough for each other” speech at Kuwait and Qatar was as a direct threat to their lifestyle.
People in Turkey don’t just see joining the EU as a civilization project, but also as a way to guarantee a certain way of life. This is why more than 50 percent of the public support Turkey’s EU project despite Germany’s and France’s offensive attitudes toward Turkey.
Regardless of whether you think it’s real or fake, there are many people in this country who believe their lifestyles are under threat. There is a serious lack of trust between these people, who mainly live in coastal cities like İstanbul, İzmir and Antalya, and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). If the two were a couple, and each party suspected betrayal on the part of the other, they could go to a marriage counselor and resolve their issues or they could decide to part ways.
But social issues can’t be solved that way. The bulk of the responsibility relies on the government. Of course it’s not easy for a government to make progress when even its reforms are perceived as an effort to take over the state. And not only is there an apparent lack of effort to improve confidence but decisions that undermine confidence are being taken as well.
An example of this is the decision to increase the legal age of drinking to 24. Another example is how the same people who did not speak out during debates on Atatürk roared when the topic was Süleyman the Magnificent. There’s also the fact that Erdoğan’s close circle is comprised of mainly conservative people. You can say that we are a “conservative party,” that we “can’t change our thoughts and behavior.”
But then you’ll witness the country go into a Kurdish-Turkish division followed by an equally dangerous coastal-Central Anatolia or a secular-conservative division. I don’t think the recent incidents were caused by an imposition on a lifestyle. I think it was the fatigue of a party that has been in power for eight years and the disconnection with different parts of society that caused it. To top it all off, it is risking losing the support of wider segments of society because of its focus on the Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) 10 percent voter base. It is important to remember that conservative constituents don’t just look at the past, but also pay attention to current events, and that they don’t like tension.
They expect the ruling party to reduce tension, not stir it up.
