Turkey the day after elections

It appears the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has won another term in office. It is the first party in the last 50 years to have won three consecutive elections. This is a phenomenal success that has to be studied by political scientists.

However, Turkey post-elections will be a better country. The ballot box is the best cure for any kind of political or social disease, provided that all parties accept the rules of the game. For any reasonable community, there is no better alternative than upholding the will of the people. Let’s hope this election will be a turning point in coming to terms with the rules of the game. No one can question the mandate given to a political party disregarding its ideology, identity or program.

I think what the people are best aware of in this country is their power to determine who is to govern them. It is important to note that the people of this country have experience in determining who is to rule through the ballot box. This power has been in place since 1950. So it is better not to doubt the wisdom of the electorate.

Political parties have also behaved themselves despite the occasional tension and polemics. Campaigns conducted by all political parties reflected their priorities. Whatever they are, no one can argue that political campaigns are constrained in any way. Election campaigning in languages other than Turkish was possible for the first time. Therefore, Kurdish candidates from all political parties were able to use Kurdish to convey their messages to the people.

Polemics were commonplace among the political leaders, which is almost inevitable in an election campaign. It is hoped that these polemics will remain after the elections and that political parties will settle their differences on important issues.

Anyhow, I think what marked this election is the absence of ideological quarrels. We have not discussed the future of secularism and republican values being threatened by Islamization under the government of the AK Party.

During the second term of AK Party rule, one would have expected that Islamization of the state and society would have gone further, and thus the quest to defend secular values would have intensified. But this has not happened. On the contrary, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) has almost abandoned this issue, never mentioning such things either in its election manifesto or during public meetings.

What has changed since then? The sensitivity of the CHP towards secularism, or the intentions of the AK Party to undo secularism and the republic? What has happened to the “hidden agenda” of the AK Party?

If secularism and the republic are not in danger today, then they were also not in danger four years ago. So, what was the idea behind this? I think in the post-election period this will be discussed.

Nonetheless, it was good to experience an election period in which real issues were raised and discussed, and pledges were made concerning these real issues. This is certainly an indication of Turkey’s normalization.

Yet, the thing that will institutionalize Turkey’s normalization is to resolve the Kurdish question and to make a new, liberal, democratic and pluralistic constitution. And this is under the responsibility of the AK Party once more.