President: ‘you are responsible,’ PM: ‘you are not authorized’

The dialogue in the title is a shadow show, but the origins of the shadows are real. The situation is like this: The president spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Syria. Again, the president negotiated the refugee crisis with the European Union. When Russian natural gas company’s executives came, he sat at the table alone. 

On the other hand, he left the stage to the prime minster after the massacre where 99 people died. He was silent for four days. There was only the prime minister. Then he came out and said, “There is an intelligence weakness.” 

This was not enough. He said, “I assigned the State Supervisory Council to work on it.” What does President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan do; what does he mean by taking it in his hand at every incident? 

Very simply, he is telling the prime minister, “Hey, pal, you are the responsible person.” 

The president is absolutely right because Article No. 105 of the constitutions says this:  

“All Presidential decrees except those which the President of the Republic is empowered to enact by himself without the signatures of the Prime Minister and the minister concerned, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and other laws, shall be signed by the Prime Minister, and the ministers concerned. The Prime Minister and the ministers concerned shall be accountable for these decrees.”  

Now, if the president comes out and says this: “Pal, who does the undersecretary of the National Intelligence Organization [MİT] report to? To the prime minister, right? Then you are the one responsible…” 

For the shadow dialogue to be completed what should the prime minister do? What does he need to say? 

That is also very simple. He should tell the president openly and clearly, “Yes, pal. I am the responsible person.” And he should complete the shadow dialogue, for the good of the parliamentarian system, as follows: “Look pal, if I am the one responsible then you will withdraw to the boundaries of the jurisdiction the constitution defines for you.” 

The women of my country 

Are you aware how many women died in last Saturday’s massacre in Ankara? How many women’s funerals were held? How many women held the funerals?  

Also, how many scenes we have seen in the past week that we had never seen before? We were so ashamed; we were so ashamed of our manhood… 

How much we loved the “chic” bicycle ride in İzmir? 

How sad we were and at the same time how proud we were when we saw the funerals held only by women? 

How nice it was to remember the honorable resistance of female supporters of the Fenerbahçe football team? 

How sad we were when the newspaper led by a woman editor-in-chief was attacked in İzmir? How often the heroes of Gezi Park, women wearing red, passed through our eyes? 

How hopeful we are to see our women setting out in every field of life? 

Without the police 

I liked it when the president visited and laid flowers at the massacre square. Especially, because he did this after the sad incident that occurred before the national football team match in Konya, I loved it even more. 

I had also loved it when the prime minister took part in the Charlie Hebdo march. I liked it more when he laid flowers on the massacre square with his wife the other day. But what I liked the most was that he went there quietly without the escort of an army of policemen. 

New deep state  

French newspaper Le Monde wrote earlier this week that with only three weeks left until the elections, “the deep state made up of police and the secret service has reappeared…” 

Well, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been ruling for 13 years. The military tutelage era has ended. The police, justice, intelligence are under full control of the AKP, which has turned the country into a party state. Well then whose deep state is this? Or could it be that a parallel state of the AKP has also been formed?