By Yusuf Kanli
TDN- Everyone must understand that be it a small company, a gigantic conglomerate, a small island-state or a republic with centuries-long state experience, resistance to innovation, change, reform -- or whatever term one uses to describe them -- cannot be avoided.
Change… What a dangerous word for those who have established a system with which they are quite happy. Doing away with die-hard taboos -- unimaginable, unacceptable and should never have been tolerated... They should not be given way to because if they start tearing apart the established taboos, tomorrow they will start demanding more rights and liberties.
This is the uphill task faced in this country in trying to reform the “protective” and “authoritarian” understanding of the “state” administration and in implementing new reforms.
We have to understand that resistance to change is nothing but normal and is not peculiar to Turkey. This is a universal phenomenon common to all mankind. Except for some adventurers, none of us like to experience radical changes even in our private lives. Change, on the other hand, is a must for progress.
Nowadays we are hearing about two different discussions that indeed add up to nothing more than an effort by some conservative elements of the state to resist attempts aimed at stripping them of certain rights that indeed could be used with the premeditated intent of violating the rights of some individuals or groups in our society.
The first discussion stems from a rather painful development in Mardin’s Kiziltepe district, where even though a local court refused to issue a search warrant for the house of 35-year-old Ahmet Kaymaz, citing security concerns for his 12-year-old son, Ugur Kaymaz, the father and the son were killed by “security forces” in the ensuing “unauthorized” operation. Prior to the EU-harmonization reforms Turkey has implemented with accelerated speed over the past four years, the police did not need to obtain an authorization for a raid on the residence of an individual. The laws have changed, but there is still sometimes such a need. However, despite being denied a search warrant, security forces staged an operation that could easily be branded a summary execution and gross and excessive use of force.
Can’t such things happen anywhere else? Sure they can, but nowhere else could such gross violation of the law and unauthorized use of force be left unpunished, even if everyone in that country is pretty sure that what was done was to demonstrate resistance to reforms enacted by the legislature. Now we expect the Interior Ministry to act quickly on this issue through effective administrative, punitive and legal action against the culprits of such a “terrorist” action by legal forces of the state before some people start accusing Turkey of conducting state terrorism.
The other discussion was because of the demands to include a sentence in the Code of Criminal Trial Procedures (CMUK), which will undergo serious reform to conform with similar legislation in the EU.
The draft reforming the CMUK is an essential part of Turkey’s EU harmonization drive. The European Commission report that recommended the start of negotiations with Turkey also asked that this bill become law before the heads of state and government of EU members meet to consider Turkey’s negotiations on Dec. 17.
During the debates on the CMUK reform draft in the parliamentary Justice Commission, representatives of the state security apparatus demanded that the police be given authority to inspect documents and dwellings in emergency circumstances without obtaining permission from a judge.
Thank God, the members of the commission were aware of what was going on and the real intent behind the request and did not allow a loophole to be inflicted on the new CMUK that would legitimize future sad incidents like the slayings at Kiziltepe last week.
Should Turkey abandon the reform drive because of such resistance? Definitely not, because otherwise we would betray the decades-old efforts by Turkish intellectuals of all political leanings for broader democracy, more individual rights and liberties, full respect for the principle of equality of all before the law, the supremacy of law, constitutional rule and all other norms that aim to pull this country to the level of the modern world.