There is no void in the sphere where the AK Party carries out its struggle. A strategy that will focus on this area will eventually fail. Another reason for the lack of demand is that the people believe in the two-party system and see it as an assurance of stability. The greatest problem long faced by Turkish politics was its divided nature and structure. The coalition government before 2002 sickened the people. The two-party system discussed by academics and coercively formed by the Sept. 12 regime was voluntarily and naturally created by the people. The people have relied on an approach under which a third party is reserved as a substitute, as observed in the English system for two terms. Now the system needs to be revised in accordance with this. Meanwhile, we can say that the era where small actors are eager to get a seat in Parliament and become part of a coalition is over.
Coalitions do not work out in our country. Those who fail to make a two-party system work prefer politics with blocs. A bloc is actually a coalition prior to elections. Left and right parties create blocs under different names and enter the elections arguing that they are ready to rule the country. Most of the time even the ministries are assigned before the election actually takes place. Cooperation between similar parties endorsed by the people generally works out. What is wrong with us is that the coalition is formed before the election and that divergent parties get together to win the election, as observed in the cooperation between the Democratic Lefty Party (DSP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The experiment in which two mice whose tails are tied together try to move toward pieces of cheese in different directions becomes a reality.
Former AK Party deputies who seek to cooperate with Şener may be the harbingers of the stillbirth of the party. Most of them are individuals who came onto the political stage owing to the initiative of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. I do not understand why they do not accept the fact that the same person could simply eliminate them. As outlined in the story of Nasreddin Hodja and the pan, they believe it can give birth, but they don’t believe it can die. It is perfect when the chooser picks you, but it is bad when he eliminates you. Another problem with Turkish politics is that no project is devised when action is taken. Şener is making the same mistake. He has nothing to offer besides being a center of attraction for those who escaped from the AK Party. Of course, he would say he does have a lot to offer, but what matters isn’t what you say, it’s what you do. If you run a survey on what Şener is trying to do, the response you will get will be no different from what I say here.
Şener’s greatest problem will be Turgut Sunalp syndrome. The support extended by coup leader Kenan Evren to Sunalp’s party a few days before the election shifted the balances. Because of Evren’s support, Sunalp finished the election third, while he would most likely have won in the absence of this support. Şener has the image of a man strongly supported by the junta lovers and social engineers. The rumor that he actually attempted to turn the guillotine of his former political party into an election platform will be most harmful to his initiative.
One of the problems for politicians is the individuals around them who excessively commend and praise them. If you choose “My name has grown along with me” as the title of the book in which you express yourself, your job will be pretty difficult in a society where modesty is highly valued. I laughed a lot seeing the show hosted by Fatih Altaylı on Kanal 1. The survey showed that Tuncay Özkan’s party received 85 percent of the respondents’ support. I could not help thinking that our comedians set him up. It seems that they wanted to give him the courage to participate in the elections. If Tuncay does not believe, maybe he should ask Yaşar Nuri Öztürk and benefit from his experiences. For our collection of candidates who are ready to explode, he may take a look at the records of the Interior Ministry.
