TÜSİAD's penny drops...

Things got messy following TÜSİAD's criticisms of the government. Tayyip Erdoğan first issued a warning and then gave a subtle adjustment.

Let's not ask "why did my brother-in-law kiss me when there's no wedding or holiday," because the timing of the bosses' move is extremely meaningful!

They can feel that the honeymoon they have had with the government since 2002 is now nearing its end.

In other words, it's not as if a revelation suddenly descended from the heavens, nor did they experience an enlightenment regarding the country's troubles.

They already knew Tayyip Erdoğan, his cronies, and the political Islamist mentality very well from the very beginning.

That is to say, given the current state and conditions of the country, there was no situation that was unknown or unpredictable from their perspective.

In 2003, when Tayyip Erdoğan took the Prime Minister's seat, they were practically ready to dance with joy.

They were that happy...

The founding values of the Republic of Turkey, democracy, human rights, fundamental rights and freedoms, and perhaps more importantly, secularism...

To them, these were the delusions of an outdated, enlightenment-era mentality that could not understand the 21st century and remained stuck in the 1920s and 30s.

Moreover, it was a good thing that Ecevit was gone.

They never liked him anyway. They hadn't seen eye to eye since the 70s.

Ecevit was on the side of the worker, the laborer, and those who earned their living by the sweat of their brow. Despite having many failing grades on his political report card, his priority was always the supreme interests of my country's people and the nation.

Ecevit's signature was on the vast majority of regulations made in favor of workers in the history of the Republic.

For the bosses, however, what mattered was money.

After Tayyip Erdoğan came to power, they added wealth to their wealth.

Not just a little...

So, what happened now that TÜSİAD suddenly remembered the country's troubles?

Let's open a brief parenthesis here.

During the years when Turkey was struggling with the Ergenekon, Balyoz, and the "opening" and "scattering" issues, I had the chance to interview Thorbjørn Jagland, who was the Secretary General of the Council of Europe between 2009 and 2019, five or six times.

He thought that democracy in Turkey was slowly disappearing under the AKP government. Moreover, he was tired of the arrogance of AKP member Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who was serving as the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Every time, he would give the headline "We are very worried for Turkey" and explain that they had issued the necessary warnings to the government.

He would say that Turkey should not give up on democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, and specifically pointed to the importance of the separation of powers.

Most recently, I had the chance to talk at length in İzmir, where he came at the invitation of Ahmet Davutoğlu.

I asked him clearly, do you think Turkey has a chance to get rid of the political Islamist government without stepping outside of democracy?

He paused for a while...

Then he said, the big capital owners in Turkey are behind the AKP. Erdoğan and the AKP protect them and ensure they get richer. When capital withdraws from behind Erdoğan, that is when the government in Turkey will change...

I tried to say something about democracy, separation of powers, law, and so on.

No, he said; Turkey is not yet at the stage where it can establish and maintain a healthy relationship between capital and democracy. For this, your democracy needs to be institutionalized. This is a difficult situation even in Europe. Capital in Turkey is not very interested in democracy or the legal order.

What I heard had surprised me.

But he said, whenever a single person in a country takes all the power into their own hands, that is when they create a capital group that has pledged allegiance, and they eliminate the very capital that keeps them standing...

Exactly 13 years have passed since these words of Thorbjørn Jagland.

The government not only created a capital group unconditionally loyal to itself, but also turned this group into a very good resource to finance its politics.

From this point on, it doesn't matter whether TÜSİAD's bosses are there or not. As long as they don't cast a shadow.

But now they understand that with the constitutional amendment aimed at keeping Tayyip Erdoğan in power until his final hour, both the country's core will be shaken, and they will no longer be needed at all.

But more importantly, the government's hand will be much stronger to seize their assets and property.

The wealth they have acquired over 23 years will be at the mercy of one person's whim.

It is no secret that they are already preparing for this.

They know very well how the government can lose its sense of reason.

This situation is what caused the alarm bells to ring for the bosses.

If their concern were truly democracy, the economy, law, the judiciary, and so on, they would have already taken a position accordingly. Until now, they wouldn't have been waiting, hanging on Tayyip Erdoğan's every word.

Let us end our article by saying that fear will no longer be of any use against the inevitable.