CUMHURIYET- Columnist Mustafa Balbay comments on the political parties and their early campaign propaganda tactics. A summary of his column is as follows:
The grist to be used by political parties during the elections has begun to appear, or at least preliminary signs of it. However, it is abundantly clear that the rhetoric and propaganda will get even tougher with time. Before Parliament passed the EU harmonization package, I wrote, ‘The Motherland Party (ANAP) actually doesn’t want these laws to be passed and the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) does, including the lifting of the death penalty. Because if these laws are passed, the MHP will take advantage of the situation by declaring itself the most nationalistic party, and if they aren’t, ANAP will use the situation by campaigning under the premise that only its leadership can make Turkey an EU member.’ We all see that Turkey has come to this stage. When the EU laws were passed, it seems that MHP based its elections policies solely on this situation. MHP leader Devlet Bahceli charged that all the parties except the MHP were supporters of the PKK. The philosophers say that you can’t step into the same river twice, for the water never stops flowing, but Bahceli is trying to set two tables with the same meal. The MHP based its elections policies on terrorist PKK leader Apo during 1999 elections, and now it will do the same thing in this year’s campaign. The MHP is showing signals of its opposition to the other parties by saying, ‘If they push us to the opposite camp, we cannot be responsible for this situation.’ We hope that this point of view will not deepen and that domestic peace won’t be harmed. True Path Party (DYP) leader Ciller uses the opposite of the words uttered by the MHP by saying, ‘They rescued Apo and I rescued Turkey’s EU membership.’ Clearly the DYP and the MHP are very much opposed to each other. In addition, the Felicity Party (SP) and Justice and Development Party (AKP) have started to harshly quarrel with each other. Necmettin Erbakan will tour 50 provinces with SP leader Recai Kutan. During these tours, he will speak as the guest of honor. It seems that the first target of Erbakan is the SP. Nothing has changed on Erbakan’s side: the most important propaganda material for him is still religion. If we scrape away the polished facade of Erdogan, these messages appear, ‘I don’t care if the election system is fair or not, but I will benefit from it as I wish. I haven’t changed, but I have developed myself. I only changed the way I tell or do something. If one must be in conflict with the system, I can do that. In the polls, the number of those who say that they would definitely not vote for the AKP is low. You can’t add up those people who don’t vote for us and say, “This number of people doesn’t want you”.’ I think these words are bad signs. As ANAP is right now only interested in its own problems, it hasn’t shown how it will attack the other parties yet. The DSP will use the left. It seems that New Turkey’s (YT) search to express itself has caused the DSP to rediscover the left. Its politics of ‘secularism respectful of faiths’ has given away to the politics of ‘the AKP, the most dangerous party.’ Let’s say our last word on Dervis and those who will search for a future with him. The dose of news concerning Dervis changed with his resignation. He is not a minister for the economy anymore, but a person who wants to go into politics. With his latest moves, Dervis seems to have become the center of attention, as well as the main bull’s-eye. If he says yes to politics, his situation as a bull’s-eye might weigh heavily...