The PM’s health is very important

MEHMET ALİ BİRAND

The prime minister’s discharge from the hospital right after his surgery has relieved both the markets and the public to a great extent. The rumor storm that practically the whole country participated in the past few days is also calming down.
I mentioned the importance of transparency in the prime minister’s health in my column yesterday. Whether we oppose or accept his policies, we all need to monitor his health closely.
Let’s not forget, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan manages this country by himself – he is able to direct all developments on his own. Up until now, we have not come across another leader whose authority is felt all around the country, let alone his mastery over his own party. We are governed by a prime minister who can control Turkey’s entire bureaucracy and who has control over the Turkish Armed Forces. No step can be taken in the economy without asking him. Similarly, all decisions in foreign policy are made with the prime minister’s approval.
We are faced with such a strong personality in our leader and he has been governing this country for nine years. He has won the last three elections with increased votes. Moreover, he is the only master of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and does not face any rivals within his party.
Accept it or not, despite all his deficiencies, Erdoğan has created stability. The economy has strengthened; domestic and international equilibriums have changed. The world’s view of Turkey has changed immensely.
Now, the health of a leader who is responsible for all these developments surely concerns you, doesn’t it?
Let’s look at the world around us…
- A very important process is unfolding on the Kurdish issue.
- The black clouds of the euro economic crisis are coming. When they reach here, we could lose what we gained over the years.
- The Middle East, particularly Syria, is running toward chaos.
In such an environment, if you are not concerned with Erdoğan’s health, good for you!
I’m sorry but I definitely care about his health. For this reason, I am among those who are happy that he is discharged. Again, I wish him a speedy recovery
[HH] Who will apologize for the shame of a thousand days?
Journalist Mustafa Balbay has been detained for exactly 1,000 days.
If he was found guilty and sentenced by the court, nobody would have anything to say. But Balbay’s trial has not even started.
Balbay isn’t the only one. Dozens of other journalists, like Tuncay Özkan, Ahmet Şık, and Nedim Şener, are in the same situation. Hundreds of others who are not journalists are in the same situation, being held in prison unjustly. Some of them have been held in detention, waiting their days in court for thousands of days.
Those who run the Turkish justice system and wrote and passed these laws bear the shame for these injustices. The prosecutors and judges also participate in the shame by interpreting these laws in the widest form.
If imprisoning these people for years on end without a trial is not the biggest violation of human rights, then what is?
Many of them could be found not guilty and freed. Then, who is going to be held accountable for years of detention? Who will apologize to these people?
Since an apology will not bring back the lost days, who will pay for this shame?