Turkey: The making of a black hole

Some giant stars, after using up their fuel, implode or collapse. The essential fuel of the star is hydrogen. Hydrogen atoms merge to make helium, thereby releasing energy.

This nuclear reaction continues releasing energy until a core of iron is produced, but in the end, since more energy is needed to merge the newly formed atoms, the star cannot release any more energy.

Meanwhile, the gravity at the center of the star increases so much that the star slowly starts to collapse and eventually that gravitational power reaches such a level that even light or any particle moving at the speed of light becomes trapped, unable to escape.

Then a black hole is formed.

Turkey, unfortunately, because it can never be able to make the necessary changes and transformations, is a country that uses up its own energy with a tendency to implode and become a black hole.

This trend is not irreversible, but the current situation is not at all hopeful.

It is possible to see our 1,000 year history as first shining like a star and then collapsing inwardly because it is not able to adapt to the spirit of the time. 

The Seljuks imploded; the Ottoman Empire was formed from its ashes. Then it too collapsed inwardly. Now, there is Turkey.

As I wrote last year at this time, what we have been going though in Turkey recently always reminds me of this implosion.  

We are aware, for the past 60 years, that our system is not sustainable; our democracy is not a democracy, our justice does not do justice and the most basic rights of our citizens are not guaranteed.

This system, maybe, was bound to implode from the first day it was founded; denying the most basic rights of its own people and oppressing them continuously should yield this result.

I think that the only thing that could prevent us from imploding is accepting that we are a pluralistic society and acting accordingly; so that we set up a democratic state and adopt the rule of law.

Political fights and political struggles are, as the name implies, done through political options.

Democracy is the name of the system that provides these options. However, we have our political fights over whether to set up democracy and the rule of law or not. The reason for this is that we have not internalized pluralism; we regard our political fight as a way to destroy each other.

When this is so, then law, corruption and morality all become tools for us. In any case, the goal is to destroy the enemy.

Well, this is exactly what imploding is.

PR wars since 2013

There has been a huge public relations war ongoing in Turkey since the Gezi incidents started in June 2013; it is a cutthroat war where psychological war techniques are used. 

It is a war between the government and a wide opposition front where the Fethullah Gülen Community is at the center, but also involving the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and from time to time the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The current winner of this war is the government front. They escaped the local elections relatively unscathed and then won a huge victory in the Presidential elections. Now, the last act will be played in this war at the general elections in June.

The government has made almost half of the Turkish society believe that certain powers have been mobilized to topple them. They will explain the recent laundering at Parliament within this framework to the people.

However, not only the government but also the opposition front has gotten carried away in this war, so much so that they are not aware how far from “normal” and “real” things have become.

I do hope “normal and reasonable” come back after the elections and we begin a “restoration” for what was lost in this war-like atmosphere.

Implosion inevitable if Turkey wastes four years

After the elections in June 2015, there will not be another election until 2019. In other words, there is an opportunity for the majority in Parliament and the government to work for four years with no excuses.

There is quite a lot of business to be done in those four years, but I suppose the most important thing is the building of a pluralist society, democratization and establishing the rule of law.

It will be the duty of the government first of all to transform political war into political competition and create a reconciliatory atmosphere in the Parliament for a Constitution that everybody would accept.

If we do not use these four years for “normalization, restoration and taking steps for the future,” then I’m afraid we won’t be able to stop Turkey from imploding and collapsing.