Women’s votes to shape outcome of referendum

Senior Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) members, who are primarily trying to prevent a referendum and have plans to turn it into a campaign to undermine the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) if they can’t prevent it, are on edge. The two parties, which advocate holding early elections, are losing sleep over the possibility that the AK Party will be successful in the referendum. That is because they know that success on the part of the AK Party in the referendum means they won’t be able to defeat the AK Party in the general elections. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will have the final say on the details of the referendum. He is setting the milestones that need to be reached in order to be successful in the referendum. It is for this reason that AK Party members are confident that the outcome of the referendum will be in their favor.

Women are a very important part of Erdoğan’s formula for success. Inserting compelling articles in the package such as affirmative action policies for women, children and disadvantaged groups, Erdoğan hinted at the government’s future plans during a discussion panel titled “Empowering Women” in Şanlıurfa. Emphasizing that the government has and will continue to strive to enable women to reach the level they deserve in social life, economic activities and especially in politics, he implicitly called for support for the referendum. “We have launched a historic struggle against the problems faced by women. We are going to pursue this struggle to the very end.

We have, we are and we will continue to do whatever is necessary to ensure that the women in the country can continue their lives without being subject to discrimination, ill-treatment, exploitation and restrictions. Without a doubt, we are going achieve this with your support. I ask all of the women of this country to support this struggle and lend a hand in our efforts to solve these problems,” the prime minister said.

During the panel discussion, in which General Directorate of Women’s Status head Esengül Civelek and Education Minister Nimet Çubukçu also participated, Erdoğan urged women to stand up for their rights, advising, “Do not wait for someone to give you your rights.” He went a step further and called on women to “take over and control the process” to obtain their rights.

Changes to the law and new legislation regarding women’s rights will be introduced after amendments are made to the Constitution through the referendum. These are the changes that will facilitate women’s participation in politics and the business world within the scope of affirmative action.

During his speech, Erdoğan also admitted an important point. “We wanted women to be actively involved in every aspect of politics. We encouraged our sisters to become deputies, mayors and assembly members. We weren’t concerned with purple prose. We put forward a sincere and strong will and wanted women to participate in every aspect of life. There are many more steps we need to take and a lot of distance we still need to cover. That is because it is not easy to change mentalities. It’s also not easy to take away some authority from men. This takes time. I saw this in the last elections. As a chairman, I saw how this principle was ignored even though it was one of our principal decisions. I am talking about this openly because unfortunately this happened in my own party as well. But we are going to overcome it,” he said.

I asked senior party members their thoughts on Erdoğan’s comments. They explained the reason why he made such a confession in Şanlıurfa and noted that Erdoğan’s discourse on women will increase in the days ahead. It’s not difficult to predict the outcome of a referendum in which women will participate.

No agreement with IMF, economy to become more dynamic

The decision not to make a new stand-by deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after the previous deal expired two years ago has attracted great attention from both the political and business world. AK Party economic experts note: “Turkey no longer needs someone else to provide the water for its watermill. A half century later, we have finally saved the country from being dependent on the IMF.” Economic actors and the markets have responded positively to this decision. With the decision boosting society’s morale like the one-minute incident at Davos, it is expected to have a positive effect on political and economic stability.

Opposition parties’ economic experts also support the decision. What’s important is that the global financial crisis was managed successfully. Turkey did not sign a deal with the IMF, but followed a strategy as if it had and prevented all kinds of negative developments from occurring. Even though the opposition is pleased that Turkey will follow its own route, it has two main criticisms. The first is regarding unemployment, and the second involves low wages and the retirement age. Reliable sources have indicated that the government has plans to address these criticisms as well. While economic experts continue giving the impression that a deal might happen and that talks are under way, Prime Minister Erdoğan has given the signal that a new period has begun. Erdoğan, who feels there is no need for a loan from the IMF, certainly must have the upper hand. So what lies ahead?  The government could create hundreds of thousands of new jobs; it could reduce the retirement age and take steps to balance the disparity between retirement benefits.