Closing down parties has never been the solution in Turkey

Zaman daily's Mustafa Ünal calls on the members of the Constitutional Court to reconsider whether closing down a political party is a real solution, emphasizing that the political engineers who strategized the AK Party's closure had better consider what party closures have brought Turkey so far. "As a country, we have a lot of experience with party closures. In this regard, Turkish politics is a good laboratory. Looking at the parties which have been closed down over the past decade from a critical point of view is enough to understand that closures of these parties just produced the opposite of what was expected. Closing parties that have public support produces neither a legal nor a political benefit apart from pleasing the opponents of that party for a short time," explains Ünal. In such cases, Ünal states that it is not the political party which is dealt harm but the country and political system in the short, medium and long term.

Milliyet's Taha Akyol discusses the thesis of supporters of party closures who claim that if the Nazi Party had been closed in time in Germany, a big disaster would have been averted. They suggest that parties are not closed down in Europe because secularism and democracy are well established there while they still need to be protected in Turkey and that it is necessary to close parties to protect the regime. Akyol finds this argument, which is put forward by the supporters of the AK Party closure, problematic because the AK Party has no resemblance to the Nazi Party, which had trained militias and formed totalitarian organizations. He thinks the circles that support party closures should take a closer look at what purpose party closures have served in this country. "Party closures have hindered the parties' institutionalization and resulted in chronic instability, hence leading to the emergence of a 'democracy unable to govern'," he suggests. In consideration of this, he says closure of the AK Party, which received votes from every region in Turkey, would deal a heavy blow to Turkey's stability and political integration.

Interestingly enough, Hürriyet's Oktay Ekşi terms the warnings from EU officials regarding the risks a possible AK Party closure would bring as blackmail. He argues that the EU officials and others who oppose AK Party closure on the grounds that it will destabilize Turkey, discourage foreign investors and paralyze the Turkish economy are trying to place pressure on the Constitutional Court so that it will rule against closure. "Turkey has been exposed to such pressure many times in the past. There are many examples of our politicians surrendering in the face of such pressure; however, there has not been a single time when our judiciary surrendered in the face of such pressure. The judiciary takes judicial principles into consideration, make its ruling in accordance with that and disregarding all else. I hope the Constitutional Court will pass this examination," says Ekşi.