MILLIYET- Columnist Taha Akyol comments on the results of the elections held on Sunday. A summary of his column is as follows:
How much do our opinions have to do with the truth, and how much do they merely reflect fantasies, paranoia and dreams? In May 1999, Prime Minister Ecevit established a coalition with the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the Motherland Party (ANAP). During that year’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) general assembly, Hasan Fehmi Gunes, one of the party’s candidates for leadership, said, ‘I know them [the nationalists] from the period before 1980. They committed acts of murder. They said that they have changed, but actually they’re still the same. Their supporters will now attack leftist students. The CHP should establish focal points of resistance to protect them, and we have to lead the anti-fascist front.’ Replying to Gunes, Zeynep Gogus wrote, ‘If we leave these issues to Mr. Gunes, there will soon be a civil war. On the one side will be the MHP’s army and on the other will be the CHP. Youth doesn’t want projects of strife from us, but rather projects of peace… I leave open the question as to why the CHP has been unable to pass the election threshold’ (Sabah, May 24, 1999). When the MHP comes to power, did the supporters of the MHP attack the leftists?! Gunes’ words had nothing to do with political and social reality. He was parroting a prejudice that had stuck in his mind, that was all…
We know the prejudice that if the Justice and Development Party (AKP) comes to power, the regime will be in danger. The words ‘The AKP won the elections, so thank God there’s the army’ reflect this reflex. But the old patterns don’t hold in Turkey’s new, pluralist situation. Turkey is rapidly changing and liberalizing, thanks to modernizing dynamics such as urbanization, the market economy and our opening up to factors from abroad. Those who don’t adapt themselves to this change are becoming marginal both in the state and in society. For example, Erbakan’s being turned back by the nation is an indicator of this.
The new Turkey is developing new ways. The most clear-cut example of this is how the relationship between Erdogan and Baykal took the place of an old ideological and personally hostile mode. Baykal’s old ‘angry’ image played a role in the CHP’s receiving only 19% of the vote in Sunday’s elections. What would happen if Baykal acted like Hasan Fehmi Gunes? Then the CHP would be very unsuccessful. Now Baykal is receiving accolades for his constructive attitude. Now he’s contributing to concrete solutions to problems. Meanwhile, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is positioning himself as a ‘conservative democrat’ and lending hope to those who think he could become a statesman. If these modern ways continue even long after the election season, and if Turkey can get a date from the European Union for membership negotiations and solve its economic problems, not only will we have improved our situation, but also we will have found two alternative leaders who complement each other.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION