Cacophony politics

Festivity is continuing in Diyarbakır. Old foes, new buddies embrace each other while instead of a mass burial for victims of genocidal attacks from the gang; a mass wedding ceremony was held for scores of brides and bridegrooms; instead of bullets, golden bracelets, coins brought in luggage from northern Iraq were distributed…

The time of terrorism is over… This is the time for peace and raising new religious generations who would not go to mixed schools, stay in mixed dormitories or boys and girls staying in the same private houses… Well what measures would the state take against lesbian or homosexual preferences? Would the state deploy “libido-meters” at all-boys or all-girls hostels? Or would the state, like once upon a time Soviet hotels employing “secret agents,” would the state deploy plainclothes, boys or girls, at hostels as “custodians of morality” in accordance with the “conservative Islamist culture” of the ruling political clan?

But, were there mixed hostels in Turkey? Yes, in separate buildings but on the same campus. But could that mean we have mixed hostels? Can the state indeed pass laws to interfere with who stays in a private house? Can society be converted into spies reporting their co-ed neighbors? Should we deploy “morality police” at the entrance of every apartment building to check for couples’ marriage certificates? After all, when this writer and others complain of fascist tendencies in this advanced dictatorship, pardon democracy, we are accused of being prejudiced. Though they are not mixed at all, I sense that all this discussion is part of an effort to find a way of acting on the “Brother houses” or “Sister houses” of the Gülen brotherhood, which has recently begun to be considered as a threat by the AKP government. Erdoğan must have been of the opinion that he has won the Kurdish vote without losing much of the nationalist vote and therefore no longer needed to share power with the Gülen brotherhood.

The “tribal leader” of yesterday was the “honorable guest” of today. He paid for it, of course, not only with luggage full of golden gifts for the newlyweds or by inviting a famous Kurdish singer who did not visit his homeland for more than three decades… Out of courtesy for his host, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, he refused an appointment to the Peace and Democracy Party – the legal political party extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist separatist gang. Erdoğan and his men are long meeting discreetly and publicly with the imprisoned PKK chieftain as well as the gang leaders in northern Iraqi mountains, but this is election time and there was of course no merit in sharing the political award of the event with the BDP.

Naturally, if no Turkish citizens fall victim to terrorism over the nearly yearlong period is sign of great and promising news. How the Kurdish opening was being handled by the government might be criticized but the success is there: No one died in terrorism-related violence in the past eleven months.
Can this success be translated into votes as over the next two years there are three important elections (local, presidential and parliamentary) in front of the government? Even if, at the end of the day, the separatist chieftain is released from prison, if this government manages to bring a comprehensive resolution to the Kurdish problem within Turkey’s national and territorial integrity, even I will vote for it in the next election. But, can the government really sacrifice the Gülenist support, thinking the Kurds’ and floating votes like mine, would substitute?

P.S.: While celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, news came that veteran Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides (94) has passed away. My condolences to his family and friends. He was a great statesman.