I wrote in this column that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should focus on EU reforms instead of on the local elections that his party will win anyway. His insistence on focusing mainly on the elections -- coupled with the AK Party closure case (another one is coming) -- has almost stopped him from reforming the country’s political structure. What is new since 2005? Almost nothing. Erdoğan has to know that if he does not make Turkey closer to the EU, there will always be some losers that will constantly try to stage a coup against him, as the second Ergenekon indictment shows.The second indictment shows that pro-coup generals and their white Turk civilian supporters have tried to manipulate others to believe the AK Party has undemocratic intentions. Their neocon and pro-Zionist supporters in the West have still not given up on deceiving Turkish supporters abroad and continue to fabricate lies allegedly proving that the AK Party is trying to move Turkey closer to the Islamic East instead of the West. They are so insincere but equally staunch in their true beliefs that when reminded of the fact that many Turkish-Armenians voted for the AK Party in the last elections, believing that it is the only pro-EU party, these AK Party enemies got upset.
I know that about half of the CHP voters are also staunch true believers who would only be happy to see the AK Party dead, through whatever method. They now publicly claim that a coup is a legitimate right of the army. You cannot argue with them. But to tackle increasing polarization in the country, Erdoğan has to target the other half of CHP supporters, whom I believe are sincere but are also concerned. I am not saying that he should try to turn them into AK Party voters. They can stay where they are, but Erdoğan can convince them with his new EU reforms that steady democratization is the only game in town so they will, hopefully, transform the CHP into a democratic party, marginalizing the coup-lovers.
Saying this does not mean that Erdoğan is now doing things that legitimately cause concern, but he is the most powerful politician in the country, so it is primarily his duty to shoulder the burden. He is the one who gets 45-50 percent of the vote. He has to turn the country into a transparent, pluralistic and truly democratic country. He should also make sacrifices if needed, such as changing the unjust election system and out-of-fashion Political Parties Law that allow the iron law of an oligarchy in parties, while simultaneously changing militarist laws. If he continues to show that it is the people who are his first priority and not the so-called sacred state, bureaucratic oligarchy or business tycoons and now also some “tigers,” İstanbulite or otherwise, people will continue to vote for him. The people want more democracy, more freedoms and more justice. We all know that economic prosperity will follow.
There will naturally be several readings of the election results. But, Erdoğan should give priority to the one that highlights the people’s desire for more democracy and justice. People all around me, including my relatives and students, acutely feel the economic crisis, but most of them will still vote for the AK Party. There are a number of reasons for this, including the fact that they know the global economic crisis was not the AK Party’s fault. But the main reasons are that, first, they have seen the AK Party stand firm vis-à-vis the Ergenekon case and, second, they hope that this time Erdoğan will not delay EU reforms.
Erdoğan should not disappoint them this time and should not wait until another closure case or another kamikaze attempt of the bureaucratic oligarchy -- such as Doğan media starting a media campaign against religious people -- because this time he cannot claim that he was not expecting democracy’s enemies to not be so insane. If the first closure case did not show this to Erdoğan, the second Ergenekon indictment should.
