Do not go where Ahmet Hodja takes you
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu visited his party’s headquarters in Istanbul for the occasion of Eid al-Fitr and delivered a speech, which moved party members. They then chanted slogans as such, “Ahmet Hodja, take us to the Ottoman times…”
Upon this, Prime Minister Davutoğlu replied, “Hopefully, we will bring the Ottoman order, the Ottoman justice to these days…”
These guys have a deep admiration for the Ottomans. They almost feel bad that the Ottoman reign has been demolished and a republic has been built instead of it. Their minds and their imaginations are all set to go back to the Ottoman times.
But, which period of the Ottomans they want to go back to is not so clear.
I am assuming that they want to go back to the period of the Mehmet the Conqueror and Suleiman the Magnificent, because these periods look brighter when viewed from a distance. Also, they like Mehmet much more due to his conquest.
However, interestingly enough,“justice and order” were regarded differently at those times when compared to today.
Beheading brothers and having your son strangled for power purposes could be seen as “just acts” in those times.
Worse was while Europe was going through a huge revolution with renaissance and reform, the Ottomans looked as if they remained at a time one century before.
They had not been able to renew their army; they were not able to use new methods in production and there was no question of decentralization, with a central authority stepping back for its citizens so that all the above would come true.
Capitulations were not because of Suleiman’s generosity; it was because of being left behind Europe, which was in a state of constant change.
Later years are even worse.
While Europe was undergoing the Industrial Revolution, the Ottomans were still stuck on production methods of the previous century. In fields such as education and law that could change and transform a society, they were very much behind their times.
As a matter of fact, they remained behind more and more and inevitably, they collapsed. The reform movements that were attempted to keep the Ottomans afloat were blocked, each time, by religious bigotry.
What I am saying, dear members of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), where you want Ahmet Hodja to take you is not a desired place.
Though, sometimes I wonder and wish to say, “What if Hodja rounds up all of you and takes you so that the remaining ones, us, can turn to the future…”
Murders will be systematic
The chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals asked for a reduction because of the provocation of a police who caused the death of a demonstrator by firing his gun at a demonstration.
If the high court agrees to the prosecutor’s demand, from now on, those police officers who cause the death of demonstrators at incidents will benefit from the provocation reduction and get away with minimum punishment.
If the high court makes such a decision, there will be only one result: It will be a “systematic” act for police to kill people by using their guns.
Turkey is unable to prevent torture and maltreatment because first their supervisors, then the prosecutors and judges protect police who have committed a crime.
This protection is in the form of changing the category of the crime, punishing from the lowest limit, etc.
Even by installing surveillance cameras at police stations and introducing special clauses for detentions and arrests, tortures could not be prevented. With this attitude of courts, torture has already become a “systematic practice” in Turkey. Now, with this added, it will be almost as authorizing police to “kill easily.”
Our justice system is already extremely reluctant to try and punish police officers who have caused deaths in similar incidents. When such a case law is offered to them, see how they run.
The human rights record of Turkey, which is already gloomy and has a substantial portion of files on “violations of the right to live,” will now reach new records.
