BY TUFAN TURENC
HURRIYET- After the death of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Alparslan Turkes in 1997, Devlet Bahceli came silently onto the stage to take the party helm. Actually, nobody could have guessed at that time that such a silent politician would come to play such an important role in the country's fate. But Bahceli's decisions and positions ended up changing the country's fate at critical junctures. Obviously history will judge Bahceli.
Bahceli was so respectful that during the 1999-2002 coalition government, he didn't smoke in the presence of then Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. So he was a harmonious partner. But when Ecevit fell ill (only to die a few years later) amid rumors the MHP would be kicked out of the coalition, Bahceli forced early elections. Despite Ecevit's pleas, he held firm and early elections were held in November 2002. The elections amounted to suicide for a coalition government which has just survived an economic crisis, because the measures and reforms it took had just started to yield results. The economic situation was getting better, but this hadn't reached the level of the people yet. Bahceli didn't heed Ecevit's warnings, and the elections caused the coalition parties to collapse. Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP) and Mesut Yilmaz's Motherland Party (ANAP) didn't pass the election threshold. Bahceli's MHP suffered the same fate. Meanwhile, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), a religious party which was established six years ago, became the ruling party. Obviously, Bahceli is the main actor who caused the AKP to unexpectedly become the ruling party.
The second incident where Bahceli steered the country's fate is last summer's presidential election. AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party members announced that they would elect a religious president in order to establish a regime dominated by Islamic elements. Their candidate was then Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. In spite of all the AKP's efforts, Gul's bid fell short and general elections were triggered. Afterwards, Bahceli came to the help of the AKP, anxious that it again wouldn't be able to elect Gul. He gave surprising support, and so the religious president was elected with MHP help. So Bahceli was the lead actor in this election, which was very dangerous for the regime's balances. Now Bahceli is again the actor playing the key role in the headscarf issue that we face. A constitutional amendment was necessary to lift the headscarf ban at universities, but the AKP lacked the supermajority in Parliament to change the Constitution. Just then Bahceli appeared on stage to help the AKP lift the ban. Under MHP leadership, girls will be able to wear headscarves at universities as of next week. All the warnings made by opposition parties, the judiciary, non-governmental organizations, professional organizations, the media and most importantly universities had no impact on Bahceli. Bahceli was the lead actor in lifting the headscarf ban, which sets into motion a breaking point for the secular democratic republic entrusted to our nation by Ataturk. Obviously, history will write about the events I tried to summarize here and make its own judgment of Bahceli.