The latest congress of the Democrat Party (DP), a small grouping that does not have any say or weight in Turkish decision formulation or decision-making, elected Hüsamettin Cindoruk, a former and aging politician, as its leader. The aim of the DP is to grow and stand as a strong alternative to the AK Party with its planned merger with the Motherland Party (ANAVATAN), another minimal and weak political grouping.
The DP and ANAVATAN used to be strong political parties in the 1950s and 1980s, respectively.
The DP emerged as a vigorous political party back in 1946, the year that the first elections were held after Turkey introduced a multi-party system. In 1950, the DP won the elections, ending the years-long rule of the Republican People's Party (CHP), currently in opposition.
But DP leader and then-Prime Minister Adnan Menderes together with some other senior politicians were hanged following the 1960 coup.
ANAVATAN (formerly ANAP), meanwhile, emerged as a strong political party following the 1980 military coup with its leader, Turgut Özal, serving as prime minister and president for many years.
Once ANAVATAN was taken over by a group supporting Mesut Yılmaz, the decline of the party became inevitable, and the voters buried it in the November 2002 elections together with the two other parties ruling the nation in coalition.
Now the DP and ANAVATAN have been looking into ways in which they can re-emerge as strong political entities. Do they have a chance to become a strong alternative to the AK Party with their old and anachronistic mindset running contrary to a world dictating new faces and dynamic leaders to run their countries?
If the AK Party is not careful and does not re-focus on serious pending military and civilian reforms, primarily on changes to be made in the military-dictated 1982 Constitution, unfortunately both parties can re-emerge stronger again. This is because the planned merger of the DP and ANAVATAN has strong backing from the military-led, staunchly secular establishment, which successfully maintains their power through fear-based policies.
It was no coincidence that Aydın Menderes, son of hanged Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, recently resigned from the DP, when it elected the aging Cindoruk as its new leader. He accused Cindoruk of supporting the April 27 e-memo issued by the Turkish Armed Forces [TSK] in 2007 as well as for not respecting the DP's past.
Ongoing plans to strengthen the DP are not acts to enrich democracy, but rather part of plans to weaken the government, which has not been possible through direct military coups.
The psychology in Ankara among some deep circles is so problematic that they could forge any crazy and unthinkable method to further destabilize the country for the sake of preserving the status quo that they themselves alone enjoy.
A recent statement made by a chief prosecutor set another example of deep but dangerous calculations being made in Ankara to turn the country into chaos.
Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, who initiated the closure case against the AK Party over charges that it has become the "focal point of anti-secular activities" (the Constitutional Court instead fined the party last year), appeared in the media early last week with his controversial and bizarre speech.
According to Yalçınkaya, as the conservative parties (he means the AK Party) gain power and come to the forefront, the emphasis will be put on economic recovery, thus reducing the importance of secularism! What a strange remark he made...
These absurd ideas will be floated in Turkey on and off...
Attempts to bring back to the political scene some worn-out political figures in addition to strange and bizarre remarks made by prosecutors or by some other figures regarded as senior personalities are in reality part of attempts to destabilize Turkey.
If another coup is not in the making, local actors trying to turn Turkey into another chaotic atmosphere are at work again nowadays, as Ankara is engaged in “deep calculations.”
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