Ertugrul Ozkok: Mixed messages from the demonstrations

Will this mean that a "sharia regime" has come to Turkey?
 
While we're at it, let's also consider the opposite. Consider whether or not if, on the morning of July 23, it appears that the AKP has emerged with fewer votes.....will that mean that we are free of "the threat of an Islamic regime"?

What would I do personally if a "sharia" regime came to this country?
And by that, I mean a regime which would change the course of my, my wife's, my daughter's, my mother's, and my siblings' lives.Â
 
Either I would abandon this country. Or, since I have never borne arms before, I would enter into a life and death struggle to protect my life style.
 
Will I be forced to make a decision like this on the morning of July 23?
 
Well, on that particular point, I separate from many of the people in my circle.
 
Turkey will not awaken to any such risk on the morning of July 23.

* * *

But if that's the case, then what's the problem? What is it that all the people at the demonstrations are representing?
 
I have been trying now for the past 3 years to explain the answer to this question to every effective leader I could find in the AKP. The people demonstrating in the city squares have "regime worry." These are people with real, sincere fears. And this country's prime minister, its parliamentary speaker, its president, are obliged to try and understand these worries. Former prime minister Erbakan commented on the people who were turning on and off their house lights [out of protest over his regime] "They are doing the 'gloo-gloo' dance."

And he brushed off the Susurluk worries of the nation, dismissing it as "Faso-fiso."

But this was very wrong on his part.
 
As the general editor of a newspaper, I watch closely the reactions of our readers. I don't scan for a handful of angry expressions of worry. Instead, I look out for the general, sincerely expressed, realistic feelings.

This is what the leaders of Turkish political parties need to do too.
 
Yesterday, two newspapers published the results of two polls. One was the Vatan newspaper, which asked readers: "If the elections were tomorrow, who would you vote for?" The answers they received were as follows: AKP=29.6%, CHP=19.2%, DP=15.3%, MHP=10.3%.

On the same day, the Yeni Safak newspaper also printed poll results, with the responses to the same question Vatan asked as follows:

AKP=38.3%, CHP=14.7%, DP=7.9%, MHP=5.3%.
 
As you can see from above, the difference in the percentage of votes going to the AKP is a full 9%. And more importantly, the Vatan newspaper poll portrays the AKP as sliding backwards, while the Yeni Safak poll portays the AKP as emerging a single party victor.
 
So, what WILL we awaken to on the morning of July 23?
 
That I cannot know, but I would like to remind the "secularists" who see the AKP and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a party and a politician who will "darken their lives" of something:

Even in the Vatan poll, when people were asked which politician and which political party could solve Turkey's problems the best, the vast majority (40.3%) answered: Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP.

In contrast, only 9.3% pointed to Deniz Baykal and the CHP.

* * *

Which means, it's only the fear created by the idea of the AKP that will make them lose votes, if any. And thus the CHP is to gain votes on the basis of these fears. So what needs to happen? The AKP and Erdogan need to follow a profile and a course which will calm the people in the city squares, without belittling their fears. And the CHP needs to prove that they can "guide the country at least as well as 'those' people." Don't be angry with me for pointing this out. In the end, no matter what emerged from the ballot boxes on the morning of July 23, we will all be making these calculations.