The prime minister should clarify his words

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the separation of powers system was wrong and blocked the development of the country. I could not figure out what his words meant. He also had some very true points in his Konya speech. For example, he was right when he complained about judicial decisions and the bureaucratic oligarchy. However, if it comes to the point of eliminating the system, then we should stop there.

For a person who believes in democracy, it is unthinkable that this person would want to eliminate the separation of powers. Removing this principle is equivalent to wanting everything that comes out of the mouth the person who rules Turkey to become law. More explicitly, it means, “The person who is the president or the prime minister should become the sole ruler.”

I don’t even want to believe that the prime minister would want a one-man system.

After the prime minister delivered his speech, his ministers tried to gloss it. Even though they said, “The prime minister did not mean that; he meant this,” they were not very convincing. If there is no clarification on this, then concerns and suspicions about the presidential system will increase further.
He is right in complaining about the bureaucratic oligarchy. He may be bothered by the obstacles from the opposition. He may question the blockages of the judiciary. Instead of eliminating the system, you can make reforms to upgrade the judiciary from being the “protector of the secular state” or “mixing the old school of being the state and today’s economic facts.”

The prime minister should absolutely explain to us his true intention.

Test questions on religion

When I heard that questions on religion will also be asked in examinations prepared by the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM), my first reaction was this: “Here, another attempt to look cute in the eyes of the prime minister.”

What is the point? Even if there is one non-Muslim student taking the tests, then who is going to defend that person’s rights?

What answer would you get when you ask, “Who do you recognize as the last prophet?”
I could not understand why Ali Demir made this decision. These stances fuel the view in the secular segments of the “Ak Party [the ruling Justice and Democracy Party] is hypocritical. They are slowly implanting their own ideology.”

Are you aware of that? If you are aware of it and still go ahead and do it, then that’s different. Then this conclusion will be reached: “Therefore, those warnings during their initial years were true.”

No handshakes

We cannot accept that the prime minister and the opposition leader do not shake hands and that they cannot even look in each other’s eyes. No matter how different their ideas are and however much they criticize each other mercilessly in town square meetings and parliamentary group meetings, they must shake hands as two civilized leaders when they come across each other.

They should show it to young generations that what they do is not fight but engage in a political battle. No matter how tough and opposing their views are, they should demonstrate that after that business is over, friendship continues.

When they illustrate this image of being cross with each other and not talking to each other, then they set an example to other fighters in the society. When the society sees the fight between leaders, then they take sticks and weapons and attack each other.