When we wake up on the morning of June 8

My wish for the last couple of weeks is that we all go to bed in the evening and skip all the time in between in order to wake up on the morning of June 8. 

That morning we will wake up and realize that life will continue exactly the same. Regardless of who has won the elections, or whether the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will continue its rule or not or if the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) crosses the threshold or not, it will have very little effect on the flow of life, and our concerns and hopes. 

Our country, along with each one of us, will be at the same place on the morning of June 8 because it is rare that election results completely change life in a country. The number one question in terms of our country and us will still be whether or not the economy will grow; in other words, whether or not the pie we share will grow.

If you are not like me and you take the political parties and their pledges seriously, you should have started worrying a long time ago. Because, from the AK Party to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), to the HDP, all political parties talk about increasing public expenditures to boost welfare; they make pledges.  

Increasing public expenditures means, sooner or later, increasing taxes but before that money is printed, debts would increase, with their costs’ reflected as inflation, which is the most unjust of taxes.

What Turkey needs is not an increase in public expenditures but an increase of investments in the private sector with public guidance, creating jobs through this. 

According to the Turkish Statistical Institution’s (TurkStat) February data, in the past one year, 850,000 new jobs in the non-agricultural field have been created; however, the number of unemployed has increased by 400,000 people. This means that in order to decrease unemployment and create jobs for new generations, every year at least 1.5 (though preferably more than 2 million) jobs must be created. The public cannot do it; it can only be provided by the private sector. 

Those who will go home unemployed on the evening of June 7 will continue to look for jobs on the morning of June 8. There are many plans of political parties on how to create jobs but have you seen a program that gives the impression of a convincing, well-thought one? 

Whoever takes power on the morning of June 8, what they do about economy should not only enlarge the pie but make the distribution of the pie more just. 

The road to a more just distribution of the pie is through education. Did you hear one mention of education during election campaigns? Even if you have heard a little about education, have you seen a political party promising to eliminate inequalities in education? Let alone pledges, have you seen any political party that at least made you feel like it focuses on the subject? 

It is exactly for these reasons I am saying that there will be no difference between the Turkey of the morning of June 7 and the morning of June 8. At the most, the names of those people who talk to us in loud voices will change; that’s all. 

Future of the resolution process 

Obviously, whether or not the HDP crosses the threshold will create significant effects on the future of the resolution process. 

Independent from these effects, one should not neglect the stance of those parties that represent the segments of this society that would not vote for the HDP (roughly 90 percent.)  

If we want to live in peace with the Kurds, we should first save them from the discrimination they experience, make them feel equal to us and liberate ourselves together with them. If we do this, then the disarmament of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), coming down of the guerillas from the mountain and their entering legitimate politics will be much easier.

Can you see this perspective in the political parties that roughly represent 90 percent? 

It is indeed extremely important for the HDP to cross the threshold but more important than this is whether or not those parties claiming to represent 90 percent will cross the intellectual thresholds in their mentalities that dictate inequality and regard Kurds as second class.