BY YASEMIN CONGAR
MILLIYET- I was speaking with two European diplomats at a cocktail party at the US State Department. While talking about last month's general elections and what Abdullah Gul's presidency will mean for the European Union, the two diplomats said that they were amazed at our society's pace of change. In the first stages of the reform process which started in 2001 and stalled in 2005 after making swift progress in the first two years of Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule, the EU and the US wondered if the Turkish people would digest these rapid reforms. Today, as the AKP starts its second term, they wonder if the AKP will be able to bear this process properly. They no longer question if our society wants reforms or not. They wonder how far Parliament will go and if the bureaucracy will adopt it. So we can say that those looking at Turkey from abroad see a country whose base is changing even as its upper levels resist this change. The April 27 General Staff statement (just before the last presidential election was aborted) and last month's general elections crystallized this picture and reflected the difference between the pulse of society and statist circles, showing that neo-nationalism prevails among statist circles, but not society at large.
The difference between the habits of our state and the desires of our society is directly related to the EU process. The pause in 2005 was partially a result of this difference, and a new International Crisis Group report on Europe and Turkey blames it on both Europe's enlargement exhaustion and a neo-nationalist wave in Turkey. Analysts from both the EU and the US relate this neo-nationalist reaction to the state rather than society. They think that the voters gave a mandate to the AKP to continue with the reforms. They expect the AKP, which stumbled to a statist stagnancy in 2005, fearing the possible effects of transforming steps ahead, to go ahead and take these steps. Abdullah Gul's upcoming presidency comes out of the victory of society's choice over statism. It's very positive that Gul said he would embrace all walks of society, but we shouldn't overlook what the Financial Times urged a few days ago: In this balance, he shouldn't go to the extremes. Surrendering to anti-democrats makes Turkey stumble. A government continuing our EU bid along with a president supporting this is a great opportunity. We should be aware of this.