Turkey’s path

All hell has broken loose. Everyone is angry.

It is impossible to hear a calm voice, an approach based on common sense, these days. All sides have taken up arms and are fighting.

As the 2011 elections were approaching; I wrote that I was scared.

“Plans, projects, election promises… What we need first and foremost is restraint and common sense. Turkey’s ship’s only compass in the approaching storms will be restraint and common sense. Losing the compass… I am scared…”

Today, I fear that my fears might come true. The fighting got fiercer; there is neither restraint nor common sense.

I was worried Turkey would enter a wave of turbulence. As of today, Turkey is much tenser than two or three years ago.

I was crystal clear that ministers (implicated in the graft probe) could not go on to stay for a long time.
Wouldn’t it be better had they resigned without delay the day the investigation news came out.

Staying 8 more days in the ministries after Dec. 17; has it increased the confidence in justice or has it decreased the tension in the society?

On the contrary, the delay increased the tension and fueled suspicions of intervention into the investigation.

What does take place in matured democracies when corruption claims come around? There are resignations; storms do not break out in the political domain and economies are not disrupted since the issue is considered to be the work of the judiciary. Had we done it the same way, I don’t think our economy would have been affected that much. But the opposite took place.

The World Muslim Scholars Union took its place in the fight with a statement (calling for the Turkish nation to stay tight around the government.)

Obviously, I am not going to ask “what is it to you?” We live in the age of globalization. There are calls from the West not to interfere with the investigation. Stefan Füle (EU Commissioner) even said Turkey’s European Union membership could be at risk. I will object to the World Muslim Scnolars Union, asking, “What do you know? Did you see the dossiers, which we have not seen and indeed the prime minister even complained of not being informed of?!”

This is not an issue that requires Islamic, philosophic, sociological, nor theoretical legal knowledge; it requires only knowledge regarding the dossier to talk about it.

Those that do not have knowledge about the dossier, therefore, should wait for the legal process just as had been underlined by President Adbullah Gül.

When we see the indictment, if the charges are baseless, then obviously we can talk about a plot; it will even be possible to talk legally about the prosecutors’ misconduct. Yet, if there is evidence for sufficient suspicion of crime, what will those who dismiss allegations of a plot say?

For me; the law prevails over politics and ideology; I only say the “safety of the investigation” and “principles of a fair trial.”

I write to leave a note to history; if the fighting sides don’t recourse to common sense and moderation, the path for Turkey, unfortunately, does not look good.