When we can ask our questions openly and benefit from the dynamism stemming from the diversity of our opinions, it will no longer be a challenge to overcome the problems our country encounters. I believe, on this issue, that those occupying the upper echelons of the state carry great responsibility.” Those were the words of Air Force commander Gen.Faruk Cömert last week when he spoke at his farewell ceremony. His speech attracted considerable attention as he said goodbye to his comrades with the note that the “greatest obstacle in front of us is our inability to melt our differences in the love for our fatherland and our inability to try to understand each other.”Indeed, he touched upon a key problem of our political culture: the inability or unwillingness to talk to the other side. We are too preoccupied with reiterating our own positions to our camps and standing strong there; the same preoccupation exists on the other side. The result is a very miserable existence as there is no communication, no dialogue and no compromise. This generation of politicians has the responsibility to break this vicious circle and help establish a workable dialogue on Turkey’s primary problems. I look forward to the constitutional reform process this fall as an opportunity for major actors and institutions to engage in a societal debate on what sort of country we want and what the guiding rules of the game should be. The election of Abdullah Gül, in my opinion, provides an excellent opportunity for beginning a new process whereby we can talk openly and with democratic maturity about the major issues which continue to suck the energy out of this country.
Turkey’s external environment is increasingly unpredictable and is likely to stay so for some time. Hence, we do not have the luxury of fighting on two fronts simultaneously. We need to work for a social and political consensus whereby no one’s lifestyle is threatened, whereby we all feel we are part of the same country and we can respect our differences. We need to start an honest and sincere debate on key issues so that we can structure a final compromise that will make up the foundation of our new republic for decades to come. We need to find the intellectual and political courage to fight for it, to propose a deliberative process which would seek participation from NGOs and other concerned parties as well as from ordinary citizens.
Gen. Cömert’s farewell speech touched upon key issues which continue to plague the very foundations of this country. Should we fail to engage now, we will miss a critical opportunity to define Turkey’s elusive social and political consensus. All concerned -- the armed forces, the opposition as well as the government -- need to take this seriously and own this process. We cannot leave the same sort of mess to our children, in all good consciousness.
History will record in future decades that Turkey started to open up in the 1980s and that a second major push in the direction of democratization and openness came in the early 2000s. It should register as well that in the first decade of the 2000s Turkey succeeded in defining a social and political consensus which finally put an end to decades-long squabbling, friction and division.
First, we must begin to try to understand each other….
