Some claimed that the survey, especially because it was to be held during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, would have been construed as a type of social pressure, meddling into people's lives and pitting one group against another. Mayor Gökçek, who is from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), has received widespread criticism for his attempted move. Analysts accuse him of wanting to make freedoms an issue on a survey, and they find it very unfortunate that Ankara has a mayor with such a mentality in this day and age.Bugün's Gülay Göktürk says the municipality's decision to hold this survey reminds one of the relationship between freedom and democracy as well as the problem-solving skills involved necessary when the issue is “living together.” Stating that such surveys and referendums are used as a tool to curb freedoms all around the world, she says freedoms are in a higher category than democracy and cannot be eliminated by it. Democracy is the best style of administration devised by humanity for the time being. However, it is temporary, while freedoms are universal, natural and eternal. “You cannot take one's freedoms to a referendum,” explains Göktürk. She thinks the reason for the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality's decision to hold a survey instead of looking for measures that would prevent residents of Bahçelievler from being disturbed by restaurants that serve alcohol while at the same time not restricting anyone's freedom to drink alcohol is because politicians are very eager to impose their political-ideological preferences on the public and assume that being in power grants them the right to shape others' lives. “As long as politics is not cleansed of this mentality, we cannot expect politicians to improve their problem-solving skills and come up with creative solutions that can address the diversity of this era,” suggests Göktürk.
Star's Eser Karakaş is very disturbed that Gökçek made a decision to hold such a survey, saying it is very unfortunate that someone who does not even know that basic rights and liberties cannot be an issue on a survey is administrating Turkey's capital. “There is a Melih Gökçek problem in question. Either Gökçek is reckless to an extent that he does not know what he is doing or he has some other calculations behind this move,” says Karakaş. In his view, by calling for such a survey, Gökçek may be taking revenge on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who kept him waiting for a long time before announcing his candidacy for the Ankara mayoralty in the March 29 local elections.
Hürriyet's Tufan Türenç is also very critical of Gökçek's decision to hold such a survey and accuses him of following the political doctrine of Machiavelli, who denies the relevance of morality in political affairs and holds that craft and deceit are justified when pursuing and maintaining political power. Questioning whether the motivation behind Gökçek's move was to seek the favor of his party or conservative voters, he says that if this was the case, the move has nothing to do with the AK Party's focus on democracy. “In what democracy is there interference with social lives? What Gökçek is doing is exactly Machiavellian,” Türenç says.
