Ertugrul Ozkok: Crucial words from head of Turkey’s top court missed by all
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The chairman of the Constitutional Court, Hasim Kilic, telephoned me last Thursday.
As two people "searching for reason" we had a pleasant conversation.
"I read your column today. You seem a little pessimistic," he said .
I responded in agreement, "Yes, I am being pessimistic.
"Don’t be so pessimistic. A way out will definitely be found," he said.  Â
And he told me that he would make an announcement the next day.
* * *
The next day Kilic made the announcement as he had mentioned.
Naturally, we all hung on his every word in which spoke of, "an ongoing campaign being carried out against the members the
Rather than the obvious, I noticed something else in his statement.
What he said was very important and revealed where the true foundations of the ongoing political crisis lay. Â
* * *
Â
"In the modern world, regarding political issues concerning the society, it is best for related bodies and authorities to seek solutions in democratic fora, and solution of these problems at courts is not desired."
We can translate what he is saying into a more simple language as this:
"My friends, you transformed everything into a complicated situation and then you start to fight. Later, you come to us and put the issue on our table ask us to solve it. And after we come up with a solution, you started to insult, threaten and blackmail us."Â Â
This is the meaning behind what he is saying.
Â
***
Â
It is now time to stop and rethink.
Is chairman wrong at in what he says?
Have the intellectuals of this country, who call themselves "democratic" and "liberal", ever asked this question to themselves or their religious communities?
For example, at anytime did they ask themselves if they had come together to do anything to find a political solution that would end the 25 deaths a day during the 1980 coup in
Of course not...
They did nothing to stop gangs from blocking the roads, rioting houses and killing teachers and politicians.
* * *
I now realize that they have the same attitudes that were shown in the past.
Not one has stopped to ask: "How did we reach this point?"
What’s more, these uncontrolled gangs accuse anyone who attempts to ask this question of being "immoral" and threatens them.
At this point I pose the question, how are we to overcome the ongoing political crisis if we refuse to learn from our past mistakes?
In other words, if tomorrow the Constitutional Court rules in favor of not closing the ruling AKP, are we simply going to say, "Now, where were we?", and the arrogance continue as if nothing happened and the power given by the 47 percent majority remains.
Are we going to asses such a ruling as a green light to implement the programs that had previously caused concern during the AKP leadership?
Or we should see this as a huge opportunity to understand and learn from previous vital mistakes.
I am not only referring to the ruling AKP when I speak of past mistakes.
I am referring to all of us, about all of ours mistakes.
In my view, this is the
Â