BY TARHAN ERDEM
RADIKAL- I think most of us have learned a lot in recent days. The presidential election beginning with one candidate, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) challenging the first round of the election in the Constitutional Court, and the statements of the General Staff and the government are all unusual aspects our political life.
Yesterday's large, successful protest rally also had an unusual justification: secularism and democracy . The masses gathered at Istanbul's' Caglayan Square added another theme to that expressed at a similar rally two weeks ago in Ankara, namely opposition to the government. Although other themes were also voiced, they weren't fully embraced. Politicians and parties alike should learn from these two rallies, and Ankara should consider its policies accordingly. Here I would like to summarize what I learned:
1. Many people in our country are skeptical of how secularism and democracy are being treated nowadays. The statement read out by Justice Minister and government spokesperson Cemil Ciçek saying, `Our government is much more sensitive about and party to Turkey being a secular, democratic and social state of law' failed to satisfy those skeptics. The ruling party should take a lesson from the woman at the rally who told reporters, `I'm scared. I'm here for my grandchildren.' It's clear that stability will be damaged and the public will be split.
2. The reason many people demonstrated should be understood correctly. I believe that these people didn't gather to listen to criticisms of the government's economic and foreign policy, etc., but rather its anti-secularist policies.
3. These rallies also showed a split in the opposition. Those agreeing with the opposition parties in their claims that the government is anti-secularist haven't joined forces with those parties. The main opposition CHP in particular should take lessons from this.
4. No anti-democratic slogans were used in the rallies, and the protestors didn't resort to anti-democratic means.
5. After secularism, the second important theme of the rally was democracy. People chanted slogans about the right to representation as well as the election threshold. Holding general elections without abolishing the threshold would only make things worse. There's still enough time to do this. The ruling and opposition parties should come together and make that change.