BY MAHMUT OVUR
SABAH- There are two issues on the civilian politics' agenda. One of them is yesterday's claims of fictitious export during the live debate between Dengir Mehmet Mir Firat, deputy leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, deputy parliamentary leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). The other one is the debate between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Dogan Media Group owner Aydin Dogan which started on the basis of the fraud case involving the Lighthouse Foundation. The politics which has become polarized for the last four years is getting tougher.
Actually both parties seem to be very pleased with this situation, because we're experiencing a period in which the politics can't find a solution to the country's basic problems. For example, we should get rid of the Constitution of September 12, but we can't prepare a new constitution. Politicians who don't meet for this purpose also don't want to settle their accounts with the coups. There's no effort to amend the Political Parties and Elections Law, either. Think about the Alawi issue. The two parties can gather together about this issue in the easiest way. Isn't it meaningful that they hadn't taken a common step about this for many years? Finally, I wonder what the leaders of these two parties think about the request of Kurdish people to be educated in their own mother tongue.
There was a duel between Firat and Kilicdaroglu at Parliament yesterday. What was the result? Nothing. But the political class was perhaps pleased with this result. The CHP has been closely following recent discussions about the corruption issue, because its opposition isn't based on such values as secularism and republic, but on documents for the first time. The CHP wants this process to continue.
As for the AKP, it also seems to be very pleased with this. Although the corruption related with Saban Disli, deputy leader of AKP, and the fraud case involving the Lighthouse Foundation shook the AKP a little, the fight against the Dogan Media Group provoked the party grassroots so much that the speeches made by Erdogan at district branch congresses each weekend created great expectations, compared to the past, and received considerable support. So these debates provided the party grassroots with dynamism and the duel which started at the Parliament is a part of this process. Everybody knew that it would yield no result, but nobody has objected to this duel. Although the people appreciated that two important politicians, Firat and Kilicdaroglu, gathered together, it wasn't considered politically meaningful. So why did they do this? They did this, because this was the only thing that the civilian politics could do at a time when even the Parliament wasn't operating.