Who did this to us?

With the "Law on Amendments to the Parliamentary Election Law and Certain Other Laws" published in the Official Gazette on April 6, 2022, the rules of the game were changed one year before the 2023 general election, forcing parties to reposition themselves according to this new situation. According to the 14-article Law No. 7393, in short, judges serving on election boards were to be determined by their professional class rather than seniority and by drawing lots, the election threshold was lowered to 7 percent, and most importantly, a practice that reduced the influence of smaller parties within the alliance system was put into effect.

Prior to this change, if an alliance exceeded the 10 percent threshold, the political parties that were members of the alliance could receive a share of the seat distribution without being subject to the threshold. Moreover, alliance member parties were able to benefit from both the alliance as a whole and their own votes. With this change in the election law, the rules were changed while the match was being played, and the newly established Future Party (Gelecek Partisi), DEVA Party, and Felicity Party (Saadet Partisi), along with the Democrat Party, found the solution in entering the election under the CHP umbrella.

Now you might ask, it is neither a holiday nor a special occasion, so why do we have to remember this? I am coming to the core of the matter immediately...

At that time, I was among those who argued that it would be much more beneficial for these parties to enter the election with a separate logo within the alliance. I supported this thought with the argument that the Felicity Party candidate entering from the second spot on the CHP lists in Konya in the 2018 elections did not bring any added value, and in fact, caused the CHP to lose votes. The CHP, which received 9.91 percent of the vote in Konya in the June 2015 general elections, fell to 9.7 percent in 2018. These results were enough to show that the formula of right-wing parties entering from CHP lists did not and could not work effectively, even in a conservative city like Konya.

But it did not happen. No one listened to our voice or our words, and the reality that this legal change was a trap and that they were forced to enter with a single list was acted upon. On the other hand, not many people paid much attention to how the People's Alliance (Cumhur İttifakı), which had likely been making these plans and calculations for a long time, would enter the election. Yet, they were the ones who changed the law! Under the People's Alliance umbrella, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the New Welfare Party (Yeniden Refah Partisi), and the Great Unity Party (BBP) entered the election "autonomously" within the alliance with their own logos. In other words, even parties like the New Welfare Party and the Great Unity Party, which were subject to the same legal change, saw fit to enter the election with a separate logo. So why did the Nation Alliance (Millet İttifakı) make such a decision?

American history professor Bernard Lewis, who conducted very important studies on the Middle East, says that leaders in the Middle East and the Islamic geography usually ask "Who did this to us?" when something bad happens to them. This question pattern actually brings with it the constant search for an external enemy. He even distinguishes Atatürk's leadership by saying that he was one of those who could ask "Where did we go wrong?" In other words, he says he was a leader capable of self-criticism.

Now let's come to why I am writing about this today... I think a similar and even more critical legal change could be made while heading toward the 2028 election. We have grown tired of asking "Who did this to us?" every time. Let us now say "Where did we go wrong?" and learn lessons from the past.