Democracy culture in the neighborhood

The restaurants and café shops of Bahçelievler are cheaper and cozy compared to the ones on Arjantin Street or Tunalı Hilmi.

I also have many nice memories of Bahçelievler. When I was a student at Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ), like many university students in Ankara are doing now, we would meet in Bahçelievler.

This beautiful neighborhood is also a place for me to be inspired; if I want to write something but I'm suffering from a lack of ideas, if I want to be alone, if I need to think, I like to go there, sit in one of the cafés and wait for the ideas to come. I remember very well that once, for the “social change” course at university, I decided to look into the social change of Ankara since it was proclaimed the capital of the republic while I was sitting in a teahouse in Bahçelievler.

My thesis for the homework was the history of the republic, how its politics and diplomacy were shaping Ankara including its trends in leisure. So when Bahçelievler suddenly became the focus of the “regime discussions,” I was not surprised and closely watched the discussions.

The row began when the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality decided to conduct an official survey in the Bahçelievler district, since one of the questions to be asked of residents was whether they are against shops that sell alcohol and places that serve alcohol, including bars and restaurants.

The metropolitan municipality is claiming that there was a staggering amount of complaints from citizens about restaurants that serve alcohol in the neighborhood, and this is why they were asking the additional questions in the survey. Many, however, argue that the subject is not as simple as the metropolitan municipality portrays, that there are bigger issues at hand. Some claim that the survey, especially during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, will be construed as neighborhood pressure and considered as interference in people's lifestyles, pitting one group against another.

After heated discussions on the subject and many articles, the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality finally gave up asking this question. In any case, the results of it would not be binding but would just give an idea of the preferences of the residents in the neighborhood.

For me, the problem was not a secular/anti-secular discussion, it was more than that; it was the misunderstanding of democracy.

Democracy is definitely not limited to asking people yes or no questions; democracy means being able to think about all the options and reaching a compromise.

During the last week, I was frequently in Bahçelievler, talking to the residents, including those I don't know. But it was very nice to see that the residents were discussing the issue.

I think the ideas which claimed that the survey would end with a ban on alcohol that would later to be extended the whole country were an exaggeration and did not have any basis, but only served to prove once more that the country is still ready to form camps which are separated from each other by bold lines.

But on the other hand, many residents of Bahçelievler were able to act and use their common sense. I heard this same approach many times:

“Well, it is not nice to listen to noise coming from the bars, but the same noise comes from the restaurants, too. As long as people do not disturb each other, there is no problem in it. But to be asked if we want it or not, is not nice.”

One resident of Bahçelievler actually put this idea in a very open way: “I drink tea, someone else drinks alcohol, if we are not disturbing each other, if we are not forcing each other, what is the problem then? This is what makes Bahçelievler colorful.”