Is This The ‘Islamists’ Victory’?

BY TURKER ALKAN
RADIKAL- Many foreign media sources reported the outcome of Sunday's general elections like so: `Islamists' victory against Kemalists!' But this wasn't the case at all. As far as I can see, nobody categorized the Justice and Development Party (AKP) as `Islamist.' Both the AKP and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made great efforts to fight this label. The new candidates brought in and showcased for the elections were the products of efforts to erase the Islamist label. The AKP acted carefully in order not to mention such issues as religion or headscarves during the campaign. If things had been otherwise, if the AKP leaders had waged a campaign based on Islamic principles or attacked secularism, could they have won like they did on Sunday? I don't think so!
So in this case, I don't think it makes sense to talk about a victory of Islamists over Kemalists. Erdogan's post-victory speech aimed to dispel concerns over this issue. Erdogan carefully said that their administration is based on the basic principles of the republic including, of course, secularism. In evaluating the elections, we should consider these words carefully. Erdogan also called the opposition leaders to tell them that we should forget the past and turn a new page. These were good, appropriate gestures, and I hope they will continue. The AKP's first election victory in 2002 could have been seen as a passing thing or a fluke. But after Sunday, nobody can consider the AKP a passing thing.
On the contrary, we are facing a political party well established in the center and in a process of institutionalization, one which perhaps will be influential in Turkish political life for years or decades to come. The clearest sign of the party's institutionalization is it no longer being dependent on particular people. The True Path Party (DYP) collapsed when its leader Suleyman Demirel left, and the same happened to the Motherland Party (ANAP) with Turgut Ozal stepped down, because these parties couldn't be institutionalized. A party can't be institutionalized in a short period of time. European political parties consist of organizations and traditions which have generally existed for a long time. These institutional structures have a large role in the workings of democracy. In Turkey, political parties often can't manage to last for long and thus become institutionalized and this situation leads to hurdles, surprises and crises in the workings of democracy. Actually, this Sunday's elections were very interesting and colorful in terms of the diversity of candidates. Our society's rising individualism must have contributed to this situation. I wonder how these colors will be reflected in Parliament.