Many think that although the Turkish Republic has covered a significant distance since its founding, it has unfortunately failed to crown its achievements with a real understanding of democracy. According to the Star daily's Eser Karakaş, a republican regime is a meaningful and more desirable system when it is accompanied by the universal principles of the rule of law and democracy. As such, he says calling the regime in Turkey a republican regime when it is not endowed with these principles seems to be an insult to the real meaning of a republic, akin to demoting the republic to a regime in which a father hands over power to his son. "What makes a republic a republic, that is to say, a regime that is desired and cared for meticulously, is its openness to universal judicial approaches by purifying itself from local ideologies. A republic that takes local ideologies as a guide for itself instead of universal law does not seem to be the ideal in this era," Karakaş explains. Referring to two reasoned decisions recently released by the Constitutional Court on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) closure case and the annulment of a reform package that would have ended a ban on the headscarf at universities, he says the debates that were sparked following the announcement of these two decisions showed how far the Republic of Turkey is from such universal values.
Making a brief evaluation of the past 85 years, Sabah's Ergun Babahan says Turkey has covered a significant distance in many fields, from education to the arts and from science to sports. Babahan thinks Turkey's republican regime played a big role in developing Turkey's strong and confident place in the Western alliance, unlike other countries in the region that are driven away. Nevertheless, he also agrees that Turkey has some shortcomings in its democracy, which are based in the republican regime. "The discrepancy between the republic and democracy, which we tried to cover rapidly in the last decade, appeared before us in different forms. We are sure to experience more problems like this in the upcoming years. The important thing to do is to make a good assessment of the past 85 years, to see the shortcomings and mistakes and to take lessons from them. A republic crowned with democracy will have the power to achieve this," Babahan suggests.
Milliyet's Hasan Cemal complains that there is a widespread tendency in Turkey to avoid criticizing and questioning the republic. "Actually, there are not only positive things regarding the establishment of the republic, but also shortcomings, mistakes and excesses. Despite the 85 years that have passed, we still close our eyes to these. Since we refuse to see them, we fail to see how the mistakes made at the beginning are blocking Turkey's way today," Cemal laments. In his view, the perpetuation of these mistakes to this day is responsible for Turkey's unsettled democracy, inadequate protection of freedoms and failure to maintain the rule of law. "The way move forward in Turkey is to introduce first class democracy and law to Turkey's republic and settling the long-standing Kurdish issue and problems related to secularism. This is the general picture at the end of 85 years. It is not very bright," Cemal concludes.
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