Cemile was not at AKP meeting

According to Turkish European Union Minister Ali Haydar Konca, during the week-long curfew in southeastern Cizre at least 20 people lost their lives, though the prime minister of the country apparently wanted to believe no one was hurt. The premier, fighting for his own political survival, was obviously uninformed of the saga of little Cemile.

Her mother claimed 10-year-old Cemile was playing on the doorstep of their house when a sniper shot her in the head. Their call for an ambulance was left unanswered and family members and others were scared of carrying her lifeless body to the morgue at the hospital as there was a curfew, nor could she be laid to rest as everyone was scared to go out because of snipers on rooftops. For more than 48 hours her lifeless little body was kept in the deepfreeze until “big people” in Ankara intervened, deputies contacted the government and she was carried to the morgue.

Whatever the problem might be and irrespective of how determined the security forces were to clean the city from separatist terrorists and the civilian extensions who declared “self-rule,” the state ought to be affectionate to its citizens, particularly to the Cemiles and other juniors. Now that the week-long curfew is over and people are able to tell their stories, the entire country is listening to firsthand accounts of the dirty war in the city.

From the moment the curfew was lifted, separatist terrorists became active in the city again, staging heinous attacks as if the week-long ordeal could not eradicate their devilish capabilities.

Back in Ankara during the weekend convention of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), neither 10-year-old Cemile nor the architect of the frozen peace process were present. Cemile was absent because she was finally laid to rest, but the architect could not be physically present due to some archaic laws of the country, but was “spiritually” there with all his might, and men…

Yet, Cemile will be with all of us, all the time as this nation is now indebted to her, as well as to all the other kids who were cut off from life. Was it indeed important how Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and his master, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, fought behind the doors, and how the prime minister surrendered to the mighty will of his mentor, agreeing to establish an AKP cadre composed of all Erdoğan’s men just for the sake of maintaining his seat as premier and party chairperson?

Would it make much difference to Cemile or the living Cemiles whether the name of the person sitting in the prime minister’s seat and AKP chair was Davutoğlu or Binali Yıldırım? For even the craziest of Turks, is it not obvious that this is a shadow game and one man is speaking and acting for all those seen on the stage?

Wrongly people are talking about democracy as a regime where governments come through fair and free elections. The AKP has shown us how deficient that description is. Indeed, democracy is the name of a system where governments go through fair and free elections. Got it? Even if the Turkish administrative system might not be in full compatibility with the international description of democracy, up until the AKP this country had its own peculiar democratic governance system. Deficient, a little bit autocratic, some degree of power worshipping, whatever, there was a peculiar democracy in this country. Now, it has been discovered by many of us that we were all fooling ourselves, as while even the military governments could have been removed from office by a free and fair vote of the nation, a political party has insisted on remaining in power through all kinds of political tricks and backstage politics.

Did the president ask anyone but his appointed premier to form the new government after the June 7 vote in which the AKP lost its absolute majority? No, the president publicly declared he would not designate anyone who challenged the legality of his palace built in violation of laws as premier. Since the election, at every opportunity the president and his men have been confessing that the post-election problems as well as the Turkish Lira losing its value were because the AKP did not get a sufficient majority to move Turkey to a super-president governance.

Worst, the youth branch chairperson and deputy who organized the attack on the daily Hürriyet newspaper building was a member of the convention board of the AKP this weekend. Everyone must receive the strong message: Erdoğan insists on playing the game his way…

Hopefully Cemile did not lose her life and was not compelled to stay in a deepfreeze for nothing.  Even if she was absent from the AKP convention, her saga might illuminate some dark hearts and help Turkey discover democratic governance in full awareness that our differences are our richness.