A look at the anti-opposition tradition in Turkish governance

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, only one and a half months Turkey’s municipal elections are left, and from now on, Erdogan and his political partner, Baghçeli, have once again started a big smear campaign against the opposition.

Political analysts believe that The accusation of “betrayal” and “dependence on the enemy” during the 2023 presidential election affected a wide range of Turkish people, and while people were expected to abandon Erdogan due to the unprecedented economic crisis. This did not happen and his opponent was defeated.

Why? Because Erdogan has repeatedly announced that Kemal Klichdaroglu is a candidate supported by the opposition coalition, a national traitor and a politician approved by Turkey’s foreign enemies and internal separatists of this country.

Speech against the opposition, It is not a strange act, but in Turkish political literature, Ash is so passionate that the work goes beyond the level of sarcasm and the work leads to legal charges and criminalization.

Rajb Tayyeb Erdogan, the leader of the Justice and Development Party and the President of Turkey, and Dolat Baghçeli, the far-right leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, who both formed the presidential coalition together, are again criticizing the opposition parties, abundantly using words such as traitor, mercenary, Dependent, enemy and anti-religion are used. But the evidence shows that this behavior is from their predecessors and has become a behavior of political stability.

, has pointed out that considering the opposition political groups as traitors in the Turkish governance structure is a political-intellectual tradition whose age is even longer than the hundred years of the republic.

In a situation where Erdoğan intends to marginalize his opponents in the upcoming elections by securitizing the political-social environment, we take a look at Ak Yul’s analytical article to see what the hostile stance of the established government against political parties in Turkey is. It has dimensions and backgrounds:

Turkey and the political concept of “traitorous opponents”

One ​​of the contagious and troublesome diseases in Turkish political culture is that the head of the established government easily accuses his opponent of being a traitor. But a review of historical documents proves the fact that such a thing has a long history and is not a phenomenon that is only a product of the past years. Ever since the formation of the political movement known as the Union and Progress Committee at the end of the Ottoman Empire, the authoritarian, totalitarian and powerful governments in Ankara have continuously accused the opposition of being traitors.

In societies whose political culture is not developed and does not pay attention to polyphony and diversity, leaders’ speeches do not proceed using clear concepts and the simplest and most effective way is to accuse opponents of betrayal and being traitors. .

What is easier than to relate everything to the conspiracy of “foreign forces” instead of being responsible for economic and legal problems in the midst of inflation and economic crisis? Should we call the opponents their internal arm?

Attack on political opponents in Turkey from yesterday to today

Two days before the declaration of the existence of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, Ahmed Shukri Bey, one of the respected and respected journalists of that period, wrote an article in Vatan newspaper.

He wrote about the consequences of Talaat Pasha’s view and pointed out how the crushing of the opposition by the alliance and progress had bad consequences for the country. Undoubtedly, Unionists were a patriotic people. But the idea that they are the only patriots of the country and the rest are nothing more than traitors, had very bad consequences.

Ahmed Shukri continued to say: “Now, the People’s Republic Party, as a The party formed by the patriots has come to power instead of the Union and Progress Committee. Now, parliamentarism is about to be established in our country. We wish that the Union and Progress Committee will get rid of its mistakes.” (Watan, October 27, 1923).

But unfortunately, this wish did not come true. Because in those days, the party founded by General Kazem Karabaker was recognized as a national traitor, and the shutter of the party was pulled down!

Those who did that black act They had only one excuse: the necessity of preserving the revolution! But Esmet Inonu, who became the leader of the People’s Republic Party after Mustafa Kamal and saw the consequences of those harshness with his own eyes, openly admitted the wrongness of that action and said: “By shutting down that party, we made a big mistake”. /p>

However, the leaders of the People’s Republic Party continued their work and accused the nascent Democratic Party (DP) of treason and called them Russian mercenaries.

Adnan Menderes (the Prime Minister of Turkey who was executed in 1960 after the coup), had to say in all his speeches: We are not traitors. We do not have anything to do with Russia. “/>

This pretext for attacking Menderes was formed when the Prime Minister Ismet Pasha himself took a photo during an official meeting with Stalin in Moscow in 1932 and after The execution of Menderes, this photo with a wide circulation, with the title of national leader and Stalin’s friend, was proudly distributed among the people! He had America in his hand. But the fact is that when President Johnson entered Turkey, Inunu was holding both Turkish and American flags. But later they removed the photo of the Turkish flag from that photo to show that Inonu was also a traitor and a mercenary of America! It published a montage film that seems to be Kılıçdaroğlu receiving orders from the leaders of the PKK terrorist group in Qandil Mountain! But the montage was very clumsy and obvious. .jpg”/>

A few days ago, when the Democracy and Equality Party or Dem Party announced its candidate for Istanbul Municipality, Baghçeli called it a treacherous tactic and said: “Choice Communist and Kemalist candidates separately is a treacherous custom and an insidious game. The opposition is a traitor!”

Now we are in such a situation. Erdoğan and Baghçeli call the opposition traitors, and the Democracy and Equality Party, on the orders of the leaders of the PKK, was lost from the hands of Medhat Sinjar and moderate figures and handed over to the Stalinist communists, and this situation is worrying for Turkey. /p>

I still think, the words of Finance and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, who announced that Turkey’s policy should be restored, is the only solution. He does not only talk about the economy and points out that the current routine of politics must be changed.

Achieving prosperity and power and achieving development is not easy. Giving opportunity to analytical and logical thinking is a must. Only in this way will Turkey be able to overcome all its problems.

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