One day, we will thank Turkey’s Tayyip

I have never been disrespectful of the president. I have never addressed him by his first name, “Tayyip.” I have never used a condescending expression like “RTE,” the initials of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The reason why I use his first name, “Tayyip,” is to differentiate his last period from the period of 2002 – 2007, when he was Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Let me talk about the title.

One day we will thank the Tayyip period.

Because:

-We thought we had a strong democracy and he proved this otherwise; it was on a thin rope.

-We thought democracy had strong institutions; he showed that an authoritarian personality can turn these institutions upside down in three years.

-We thought the principle of separation of powers had taken deep roots in Turkey. We learned that a determined person can turn that into the “union of forces” in three days. 

-We thought we had some kind of a working justice system; we understood that we did not have one.

-We thought the state had a police force; we saw that upon the touch of a finger, it can immediately become the police force of the party and the leader.

-We thought we had national intelligence; we realized that it can become the detective of the palace and its family in a matter of few days.

-We thought we had a powerful army. We understood that we were actually delusional.

-We thought we had a solid foreign policy tradition formed by Atatürk, the founder of the Republic.  We understood that it could be eliminated in a matter of minutes by a book called “Strategic Depth,” written by Turkey’s current prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu.

-We thought a bourgeoisie in the Western sense was going to be formed. We understood that we have a brotherhood of auctioneers.

-And we thought we had a constitution since 1982; well, actually, it was a pile of paper between the lips of a president. We learned it by living it.

What I want to say is this: All of us have learned these lessons thanks to the recent 5 year-long “Tayyip Period.”

If one day we can clean the wreck, I say this with all my honesty, we will owe him a big thanks.

Leftists need to get rid of their MHP fears

-Devlet Bahçeli, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader, has always acted with common sense on the big issues of the society.

-While Western nationalist parties used to lacerate ethnic issues, the MHP never acted provocatively about the Kurdish issue.

-It has always paid attention to the sensitivities of the society.

-It stood tall in front of corruptions.

-It included among its cadres names like Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu (former head of Islamic Conference Organization) and Durmuş Yılmaz (former Central Bank governor) who give confidence both to Turkey and the world. 

-The MHP has a strong coalition tradition proven by its strong sense of responsibility.
Therefore, I suggest that our leftist friends get rid of this MHP phobia.

The victims of the past are now in the parliament

Erdoğan read a poem and served a sentence for three-and-a-half months.

He is now the president.

Merve Kavakçı tried to enter the parliament with her headscarf after having been elected. She was a victim of the February28 period. She was stripped of her citizenship. Her sister took an oath in the current parliament with the headscarf she wore.

Leyla Zana was always victimized. She served jail sentences for years. She is now a parliamentarian.

Tuncay Özkan and Mustafa Balbay were the victims of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) regime. They served prison sentences up nearly five years. They are both parliamentarians.

Deniz Baykal…

He was also the victim of the AKP. He was the subject of the smear campaign of the government media. He was again chosen to be a parliamentarian.

This is the parliament with the highest representative power in the past 13 years.

The stumbling block, the 10 percent threshold that was a military coup’s legacy, has been abolished, while more than 90 percent of the votes casted are currently represented.

Rights have been given back to all those who were victimized in the course of the past 30 years. 

All the colors of the society are there. There is only one thing left to be done. 

To make a constitution that our nation deserves. 

This can best be done by those who were “beaten” by all the regimes of the past 30 years.