Time will tell if Boyner’s democratic words lead to acts

    Boyner, who this past Monday presented the organization’s 2010-2011 program at a press conference, said a strong democracy was the precondition for a more prosperous society. She highlighted that one thing urgently needed to strengthen Turkey’s democracy is the replacement of the current Constitution, which was drafted under martial law, with a civilian one. Having front-page coverage in most dailies the next day, Boyner’s presentation also covered the impartiality of the judiciary.

Boyner, who succeeded Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ, the association’s chairwoman from 2007 to 2010, said the independence and impartiality of the judiciary absolutely needs to be strengthened.

On the record with her liberal statements, Boyner also touched on civilian-military relations and has called on members of the military to stop using threatening language that may distress the people -- a clear reference to the recent “warnings” by the military chief to politicians and the media.

Recalling that TÜSİAD has voiced Turkey’s need for a new constitution on several occasions, she said, “We have started working on our 10th democracy package, in which we emphasize our thoughts on constitutional reform.”

Boyner’s words were reminders of TÜSİAD’s legacy in 1996 and 1997, when the organization prepared and made public a democratization report, which included suggestions to change the military regime’s Constitution and solve the Kurdish problem. It created an uproar at the time and was not readily received within TÜSİAD.

Can Paker, who was then the head of TÜSİAD’s Parliamentary Affairs Committee and was on the board of directors of the organization, said TÜSİAD could not handle any more democratization for Turkey at the time.

“TÜSİAD was divided in two. Our board of directors was led by Halis Komili. In the history of TÜSİAD, we were the only board of directors that was not approved. It was approved in a later general assembly but not at that one. TÜSİAD could not take democratization at the time,” he said.

But can TÜSİAD handle more democracy in Turkey now?

“We will see,” Paker said. “Boyner’s discussion of the problems is right. But words are different from actions.”

In response to the same question, Komili said, “Yes.”

“My feeling is that most TÜSİAD members support Boyner’s messages. I would say many more members support such messages than in 1996,” said Komili, who was TÜSİAD’s chairman from 1993 to 1996.

“Boyner spoke in accordance with the current needs of the country,” Komili added.

Komili represented a new generation of businessmen who supported democratic change in the country against the status quo. In the background was the 1996 Susurluk affair, which exposed links between the Turkish state, the criminal underworld and the Turkish security forces.

‘Turkey’s growth potential can be achieved only with democracy’

A long time has passed since the Susurluk affair but the country has not settled its past accounts, neither regarding Susurluk nor the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup. Then came the trial of Ergenekon, a neo-nationalist gang believed to be the extension of a clandestine network of groups with members in the armed forces accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

Boyner did not fall short of touching upon the case. Pointing out that the Ergenekon trial has extensive popular support, she indicated that the units conducting the investigation should be provided with additional resources and personnel so that the judicial process is expedited, and she demanded that all political groups refrain from making remarks that cast a shadow over the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.

Turkey is going through a time when the political environment is dominated by a deepening row between the government and the opposition which involves the judiciary, the bastion of anti-government hard-line secularists.

There has also been one document exposed in the press after another detailing alleged military plots -- including the “Ayışığı” (Moonlight), “Sarıkız” (Blonde Girl), “Kafes” (Cage) and “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) plots -- to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

When the conflict between the judiciary and the government became heated last week, the Turkish lira and stocks went down due to fears that the government might call a referendum on constitutional reforms.

The ruling AK Party previously attempted to change the Constitution, but the opposition, which suspects that the government is seeking to impose Islamist rule, blocked it.

Government officials deny any such ambition and say that they have carried out liberal political and economic reforms, in addition to ending the secularists’ decades-long grip on power in 2002.

Observers think that the business world can no longer afford a politically, economically and socially vulnerable Turkey that has been integrated into the global economy.

Turkey’s economic performance so far this year has been praised by many international observers despite the rough time the world’s economy has been going through, and Turkey is considered a key part of the EU’s global competitiveness.

İbrahim Öztürk, a professor of economics at Marmara University, recalled that the 1990s were called the “lost decade” because those years were dominated by unstable coalition governments, military aggression, terrorist activities and bad governance, and as a result there were several financial crises.

“Turkey’s own recent history has shown that on the road to achieving its potential, the most dangerous threat is Turkey’s antidemocratic system, based upon an underdeveloped Constitution enforced by the Sept. 12 military coup,” he said, adding that Boyner rightly pointed out that Turkey’s problems are not periodic but structural.