Ertugrul Ozkok : First anger, then call for constraint

Do you now understand what did those hands rose for? I wonder what all those people who insulted and made hundreds of conspiracy theories about us, Hurriyet, think now. Â

 

Yes I repeat with the same belief: 411 hands rose for chaos that day and we have proof of this today.

 

* * *

Please do not think I am happy with the Constitutional Court’s decision after reading what I have just written; because, I am not happy.

 

Today I am just as concerned as on the day that we ran that headline. However as a journalist I believe I need to repeat a couple warnings I made in the past.

 

I had said do not try to solve the headscarf issue by playing with the constitution. If you attempt do so, then you turn this matter into a regime issue.

 

It is now harder to resolve the headscarf problem in the universities; but not impossible.

 

Now we should question whether we would be able to save this matter from being a regime issue and turn it into an issue of "some people's beliefs," or not.

 

I underline this sentence and write it more frankly.

 

"We should take the headscarf issue from stubborn Islamists and return it to naive believers."

 

 

* * *

Unfortunately we were not able to use the period between the day that 411 hands rose in parliament and yesterday.

 

We could have used this period to unite everybody in Turkey, to save the religion from the dirty hands of politics, to rescue freedoms from a specific group and personal ambitions, and to create a common ground for this nation.

 

We could have started to prepare a new constitution.

 

We could have come together at a point in which that retains Turkey’s secular, democratic state of law forever, and does not harm the fundamental values of the Republic.

 

Believe me lifting the headscarf ban in universities would be included.

 

And no person or no institution in this country would object.

 

However, ambitious and furious fanatics did not let this happen.

 

We all hid in the bunkers instead of being attempting to be more understanding, more compromising.

 

In the end we burdened the shoulders of a constitutional institution with the problem, and it fulfilled its duty in line with its standpoint.

 

* * *

Now let's look at the future.

 

The biggest mistake would be sticking to the decision of the Constitutional Court.

 

The AKP should prove that it does not have any problems with the fundamental values of the Republic and it is not the prisoner of a fanatic minority who seek revenge.

 

The most dangerous action at this point would be stubbornness.

 

Everybody would benefit from coming together on a profound democracy that joins rights with responsibilities, and national will with self-control, and is in harmony with the country’s constitutional institutions, the army, and some segments of the nation, non-governmental organizations, universities, the business world, and the media.

 

We should start with improving the climate of Turkey. This climate created incidents such as forbidding headscarved women from entering a hotel or rejecting to serve alcohol to Muslim’s while servicing alcohol to foreigners seated at the same table.

 

The sole and first mission of those political parties who claim to be representing the nation is to end this unnamed, non-bloody civil war and ensure peace.

 

* * *

 

In conclusion...

 

411 hands rose for chaos.

 

But did the decision of the Constitutional Court end the chaos?

 

No, it did not.

 

The only way to end this chaos is to follow the logic that would give power back to the majority in the center, closing our ears to the cries of the wild minority.