The Depth of Politics

Despite the seemingly robust appearance of organizations in various fields in Turkey, the AKP has shown us—almost as if rubbing our noses in it—how they have failed to institutionalize even after all these years, and what paper tigers they truly are.If we start with the events as they unfolded and the rhetoric frequently used by politicians, we should look not at how well the slogan 'one nation, one flag, one homeland, one state'—which also evokes the depths of history—aligns with the actions taken, but rather at what policies it is used to cover up. First and foremost, the political backbone of the 'one state,' the parliament, has been rendered de facto dysfunctional. Unfortunately, the way the parliament was sidelined was achieved by creating divisions between the government and the opposition, contrary to the 'one nation' rhetoric. Especially with the formation of the AKP-MHP partnership and the Presidential System—also known as the Presidential Government System—which came into effect on July 9, 2018, following the 2017 referendum, the system was established by adding a 'single leader'(!) to the aforementioned 'ones.' With this strange system, unprecedented in the world, governing the country became extraordinarily easy. That is fine, but in whose interest was the country's governance made easier, and why has it been dragged into such a deep crisis? 

In the first stage of this “learned,” ingenious system that the AKP imposed on society as a legal structure, it was necessary to render the parliament dysfunctional as if it were being bypassed, but this measure was not enough. One could have proceeded with just a presidential system or, even if only for show, a presidential-parliamentary system, but as long as they remained active, public institutions could have intervened in the processes. Above all, the justice system continued to loom like the sword of Damocles. The Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation, the Court of Accounts, and all lower levels were layering the legal filter. In this case, widening the holes of the filter or bypassing the justice mechanism where possible and necessary to bring it under absolute control also required strengthening the presidential system. 

While the destruction of the country was taking place through the instantaneous collapse of institutions, views were so adjusted to short-term perception that the consequences of darkening the biological and sociological future of today's people in the long term, or even the types of collapses it would lead to in various areas, were not considered for a moment. Nutrition, health, and education! These three areas are the service sectors that form the biological and mental fabric of the country's future human capital. The collapse of agriculture condemned the country to food shortages, the collapse of health to the physical degradation of the country's people, and the collapse of education to mental regression. 

If global economic and political conditions are worsening and there is a brain drain due to the loss of confidence in the future following the collapse of institutions, can all these and similar negatives be blamed on the failed governance of a 22-year administration? The answer to this question depends on our perspective. Yes, since the results are negative for Turkey, it can be argued that the policies are against Turkey. Let us also look at the situation not from the country's window, but from the window of international capitalism. If global capitalism, which is in decline, can extract resources from the country's economy through many different channels without being caught by any public filter—especially in terms of intellectual capacity—could the policies be seen as positive from a very different angle that we do not want to think about? Why is a country's justice system dismantled? Could it be that the government does not want to be held accountable to anyone for its decisions and actions! And why, pray tell, are young minds being dulled by an education system that is being turned into an 'imam hatip' (religious school) model with a curriculum that is out of step with the times and stifles the human brain? 

Dear readers, it is obvious that some things are going wrong or developing in reverse. The interesting thing is that while things are going wrong, the political power is either unaware of it, or perhaps we are the ones thinking incorrectly. Did we not elect this political cadre? When the political cadre we elected settled firmly into their seats, did they not change the structure and style of politics by gradually heating up society? If we rewind this questioning, we would find that we wanted this style of politics and we built the political cadre suitable for it. This is our fine point: Did we want all these processes, or did we approve of all these processes and accept them happily? With this situation at hand, can only the AKP and MHP be held responsible for what has happened? However, it is the politicians who have built the system that darkens our present step by step, and it is the lawyers who have done the work of turning the desires of the masterminds into a system. The fine point is that state structures are perceived by society not at the formation stage, but at the implementation stage. Today, as we complain, we understand the system by seeing the functioning of the state structure that was created step by step, and we do not adopt it. Perhaps the very important issue we are overlooking is that another factor, perhaps even more influential than our votes or opinions in some points, is dominant in our political structure. If we examine this point we are overlooking, we can understand whether the political power we thought we elected hollowing out public institutions and/or destroying our education and social life is for the ease of implementing national programs, or for the ease of implementing programs imposed to facilitate the entry of imperialists into the economy.  

I do not know what conclusion dear readers will draw from this article, but while the AKP's 20-plus years of performance will go down in the Turkish political science literature as a disgrace, it seems it will go down in the world imperialism political literature as a serious success.