But you got wet together on these roads
At the beginning of the 2000s, I supported Erdoğan.
While we were approaching the 2002 elections, I visited the headquarters of Justice and Development Party (AK Party). I believed in the scene I saw there; the Tayyip Erdoğan I spoke to there. I found him sincere.
I trusted his words in his speech when he started the full membership talks with the EU, because I was not prejudiced.
I don’t believe him anymore… Because there are three “balcony” talks he delivered that ended in frustration. I don’t believe him anymore because I have left behind me all those injustices, torments, inequalities and remorselessness done to those people who “walked together [with him] in these roads.”
I do not believe him anymore because there are traces of partnership in crime that stemmed from those rains “that got them wet, together.”
I do not believe him anymore because there are injustices, torments and remorselessness done to this country’s major tax payers.
I do not believe him anymore because there is a wreckage of a country behind me, where there is an army of silenced journalists, intellectuals, a nation that has been terrorized, intimidated, separated, polarized and torn, losing its features.
Now, the prime minister is explaining with heartbreaking effort how he is struggling for “democracy.”
When there is this past behind me and when I listen to these scary speeches every day, when there is this endless rage, this hate that never ceases, how can I believe in what?
Power has spoiled him. We, the people, who believed in him at the beginning; we did not betray him. He betrayed us...
He is the one who deceived us by not even keeping any of the promises he made in his balcony speeches.
There is only one thing I believe now: For 12 years every day, every Tuesday, Erdoğan cried, almost bursting our eardrums, “My police, my justice, my MİT (National Intelligence Organization).” Maybe he does not consider them as his own anymore…
I wonder what he would do to us if those institutions were all his?
Do you have any assurance? Not even that, do you have the smallest hope?
I, unfortunately, do not have any…
On the other hand, I know this very well:
He gave all of us major discomfort; but now he also has discomfort...
And now, just like Chavez, even if he receives 60 percent of the votes, he will not be able to govern this country as he did before…
Because the wall of fear has been crossed…
Because if he has warriors who are ready to die wearing shrouds…
Well, we have the determination to live this life beautifully and in dignity.
Not even an indictment
I am looking at the [Sarıgül] file the prime minister is holding in his hand. The folder has a cover on which “Claims” is written on it. It is not even an indictment… That means it is not written by a prosecutor. Well, who prepared it? The financial police? No…
Upon some complaints coming from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) members, inspectors from the Interior Ministry have started acting. Well, what? He has been acquitted on every legal level in the country.
Did you ever ask yourself, what is it that has put the prime minister in such a mood?
You may be able to convince your religious and revengeful generation, but you cannot convince the non-vengeful people of this country.
How do we explain this situation of Tayyip Erdoğan who should be the best person to know how it is to be the victim of mud-slinging that he resorts to this pitiful situation?
I cannot explain it by any logic, wisdom or intelligence.
Ertuğrul Özkök is a columnist for daily Hürriyet in which this piece was published on Jan 28. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff.
