BY M. ALI KISLALI
RADIKAL- I can't remember the presidency of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk or Ismet Inonu, the first two presidents of the Republic of Turkey. As a journalist, I witnessed most of third President Celal Bayar's term. I met fourth President Cemal Gursel when he was still the Land Forces commander. I watched Cevdet Sunay both as the chief of General Staff and later the fifth president. I also had the chance to interview him. I watched sixth President Korutürk from a distance. I met Kenan Evren closely as both the chief of General Staff and the seventh president and interviewed him. I experienced the same during the terms in office of Turgut Özal and Suleyman Demirel, the eight and ninth presidents. I can neither lambaste them nor sing their praises. But I think I can heap onto Ahmet Necdet Sezer the highest praise of my career.
Sezer was a president who set a good example for us, one unlike what we had seen before. Using his Kemalist approach, he tried to block the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which he feared would impose its program based on Islamist national opinion. He gave confidence and courage to both people and the constitutional institutions by forming close ties of solidarity with them. He never closed the door of Cankaya to people from these institutions. He never tried to win praise with popularist approaches. He didn't make use of the privileges and opportunities of his post, unlike some of his predecessors. Those who couldn't stomach him told how he reimbursed Cankaya for the electricity used during his son's wedding ceremony and also sent one of his family members for a haircut in a civilian car. They found it strange that he didn't run red lights.
What affected me the most about him was that based on his profound knowledge of and belief in law, he didn't hesitate to use all his powers to block proposed AKP laws and appointments he found conflicted with the core values of the constitutional regime. With these acts, he not only safeguarded the legal balances of the country but also served the AKP by preventing its government from going too far. His Kemalist legal approach always made me say, `Thank God Sezer is there!' When he repeated such approaches his predecessors had not adopted, I also thought that we would miss Sezer very much.
Now as a new president has assumed the office, I wonder what kind of a shape the order which has taken part in the protection of the constitutional regime and which we have been accustomed to for seven years will take.
I hope Sezer will write about the efforts he took to protect the basic principles of the republic founded by Ataturk with the inner peace of a person who has done his job properly.
And I hope the republic shaped according to a proposed new Constitution won't experience a disturbing transformation in new hands lacking Sezer's qualities.
I hope we won't feel his absence too acutely in the days to come, and I extend my best wishes to him.