A petition of a Turk who has not voted for AKP

I am not Kurdish. I am a Turk born in İzmir. I carry an identity card in my pocked given by the Republic of Turkey with a citizenship number. I carry it right over my chest, bursting with pride.

I have done my military service. I pay my taxes on time. I have not been convicted of any crime up to today.

I was born in a poor neighborhood to a father who worked in a publishing house. I attended state schools. I was able to complete my Ph.D. abroad with a state grant. 

My first employer was a state university. My second one was daily Hürriyet.

I spent the biggest part of my life working for and working with a boss who has been the tax champion of this company for years.

I worked here bursting with pride. Whatever I possess today is through the money earned here, all taxes paid.

Up until today, no party that I have voted for has come to power. I have never voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

However, I did not disregard the good things they did.

I am writing this with these good feelings and I am expressing whatever is going on inside with all my heart and with all my sincerity.

I believe the biggest accomplishment AKP has done so far is the resolution process and I support them from the heart.

I want you to believe that I wrote the following with these same feelings:

Because I was not a politician and was not among the ruling front, I was at the İmralı Island table, but I want to believe this.

The ruling party is conducting these negotiations on behalf of all of the citizens of this country. Because I think so, the two cents worth I will cite now comes from inside, not outside, and I submit my own demands to that table.

If today, a historic İmralı consensus is being signed that will affect the future of all of us deeply…

Then, with my Republic of Turkey citizenship number 46..., I have a one-sentence statement and I am saying this statement with no restrictions, without any censorship, as it comes to me:

“Whatever you give to the Kurds, whichever right, whichever assurance you give them, I want the same…”

In the 10-article memorandum of understanding, you say that “legal and democratic assurances for free citizenship will be introduced…”

Now, I too want to live in a free and democratic country. 

I want to write my views freely; I want to live in an environment where my lifestyle is not intercepted, where the forefinger of the mighty state does not turn on me because of a piece I wrote that does not contain any insults or slander, where Finance Ministry inspectors do not knock at the doors of my workplace because of a piece I wrote, where the state does not poke its nose into my private life and where my life is not forced to fall apart because of fake and fabricated evidence.  

You also say, “The democratic resolution will be defined at national and local levels.” I demand the same right, not only for the regions where Kurds live, but for all the regions of Turkey.

You also say, “A new constitution that aims to adopt democratic moves and transformations…”   
I want to contribute also in the writing of this constitution so that it is not a constitution for the “43 percent plus the Kurds,” but for the entire Turkey.

If the text you have signed there is not an “AKP-PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] pact,” but a Turkey consensus, then, as a citizen, I want this petition of mine to be processed.