5 March 2010 / YASIN DOĞAN YENI ŞAFAK,
Turkish political life made progress a couple of times through waves of democracy while it went into decline a couple of times with waves in the opposite direction; the waves caused by military interventions debilitated politics and democracy in particular.
During the term of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), we have been experiencing even bigger waves of democracy than we experienced during the terms of former prime ministers Adnan Menderes and Turgut Özal. In this term, when the content of democracy has been improved rather than its shape, changes are experienced for the first time to free the national will from a pro-tutelage mindset and to enroot the national will even more. It definitely is causing a serious fluctuation and even some agitation. It is inevitable that the democratic improvement will have a traumatic effect; it shakes the status quo and changes the balance of power. Feeling uncomfortable about it, seeing it as a danger and defining the process as harmful do not fit with democratic minds. What is experienced is not chaos, a crisis or a disaster. Instead of applauding the breaking down of pro-tutelage, imposing, Jacobean and pro-status quo perceptions, predicting disaster and saying the developments are destructive means supporting the antidemocratic tradition.
