'Engineering' on Turkey and the CHP!...

When the 10-month prison sentence given to Erdoğan in 1998 on charges of “inciting the public to hatred and hostility” for his speech in Siirt was upheld, he lamented: “The institutions of our beloved Republic should not have been worn down so mercilessly... They want to drag our country to a state even worse than banana republics.” Now, in the 23rd year of his rule, he described the kind of Turkey they have created just last February as follows:

“We have never dropped the trust placed in us by the nation to this day. We have always acted as a shield against every kind of attack directed at the nation, the nation's trust, and the nation's sovereignty; against democracy and the law. We have built a system in our country where 85 million people, regardless of their origin, disposition, sect, or political view, are equal in the eyes of the state, are seen as equal, and have equal rights and obligations. I would like to express with great pride that the only party that has made Turkey 'without others' is the AK Party.”

But in the meantime, he added: “While building the 'Century of Turkey,' we will not refrain from fulfilling our duty to transform the opposition step by step. We will do this, as always, in the arena of politics.”

Yes, since that speech, we have all been witnessing the process of the “transformation” or the termination of the main opposition party, the CHP!...

Journalist and author Mehmet Y. Yılmaz, in his article titled “Only free elections remain” on T24 on Friday, emphasized the following while stating that we are living in a “coup” environment:

“The coup plotters are not using tanks or rifles this time. Instead, they prefer weapons that ‘make less noise,’ and the justice system is fulfilling this task.”

The Mission Assigned to Jurists 31 Years Ago

Is it a surprise or a coincidence?

No. Here is an important page from the history books that we have forgotten or do not want to remember; back in 1994, when he was the RP Istanbul Provincial Chair, while saying, “We are coming by making it digestible,” had he not set this goal for the fate of the law:

“We cannot be the protectors of this order, it is impossible. Those who prepare this law will be the tools for the dismantling of this order.”

Exactly so; “by making it digestible,” they have signed off on the collapse of everything from education to the economy, from health to foreign policy, and from state institutions to the structure of the nation.

The longest-running “digestion” process took place in the law, the sole reason for the state's existence, and finally, we have reached the point of putting a period to the book of injustice.

It was not long ago, at the opening of the Judicial Year two years ago, that it was Erdoğan who said the following while explaining that “they would resolutely continue their efforts to make the century of Turkey the 'century of justice',” that “the rule of law is our common goal and red line,” and that “they would never compromise on the principle of the supremacy of law”:

“One of the most effective ways to divide a society and split it into camps is to weaken the belief in the justice system. A society whose belief in the justice system has weakened also sees its trust in its state and institutions eroded. The emergence of such sedition only pleases the enemies of the nation and the country and serves their interests; it causes Turkey to lose. Whether a politician, a media member, or an ordinary citizen; no one has the right to do this evil to the country.”

Isn't that exactly what we are experiencing?

We have moved from the process of weakening the belief in the justice system to the point of ending that belief... The society's trust in its state and institutions has been razed to the ground.

It is also clear who those seditions please and who is doing this evil, these evils, to the country!...

Turning Turkey into an “Engineering Board”

There are still those who attribute the ongoing destruction to “incompetence, lack of planning and programming, lack of merit, or one-man rule,” or who count it as “arrogance, power drunkenness, or a struggle to remain in power.”

However, at every opportunity, they speak of a “destination.” This means that the destruction is being carried out within the framework of a plan and program.

Let us open another forgotten page from history.

Korkut Özal, the brother of the late Turgut Özal—whom Erdoğan also considers an “elder brother”—and one of the pioneers of the “cult-commerce-politics” mentality, said the following in an interview with Neşe Düzel from Radikal on September 8, 2003, just 10 months after the AKP came to power, while explaining how the AKP would change the state structure:

“Let us now open the way for this nation. We cannot go anywhere with certain bureaucrats of the state. They are trying to herd the nation like sheep. The AK Party must complete this project within a year. Now they are occupied with local elections. They are trying to go soft so there won't be an image problem in the election, but the AK Party will abolish the centralism in the state structure and enable the decentralization of Turkey. I have a draft of this, I am reading it. They have prepared a very beautiful local administration bill that gives tremendous power to municipalities. The AK Party is already approaching Turkey's problems with the principle of gradualism.”

Upon Neşe Düzel's question, “I didn't understand, how is it approaching?”, Korkut Özal explained the “principle of gradualism” as follows:

“Engineers have drawing boards larger than a square meter. An engineer made a bet with his friend, saying, 'I will eat this drawing board.' His friend said, 'You cannot eat it.' The engineer divided the board into 360 pieces. Every day, he crumbled and swallowed one piece. At the end of a year, he had eaten the entire drawing board. If you cannot solve a problem all at once, you approach that problem decisively, step by step, and eventually, you solve the problem. This is the principle of gradualism...”

What has been inflicted upon our country and our nation in 23 years is nothing other than the “principle of gradualism”!...

Will Those Who Did Not Close the HDP Close the CHP?

Our subject is the pincer movement the CHP is facing, formulated as “while building the century of Turkey, we will not refrain from fulfilling our duty to transform the opposition step by step,” but not in the “arena of politics,” rather in the arena of the courts.

While the developments in question are interpreted as “settling the score with the opposition” or a “legal matter,” the future of our remaining democracy, whether elections will be held, and even whether the CHP will be closed are being debated.

Many parties have been closed in Turkey. Most recently, until a year ago, the closure of the HDP was on the agenda. Despite hundreds of insults and even the threat that this place would also be closed, the Constitutional Court dragged its feet. In the meantime, those who worked day and night for the closure of the HDP turned around and formed a “Turkey without terror” partnership with them, so the file at the Constitutional Court was forgotten and went away.

But the meaning of what is happening to the CHP and the talk of its closure is very different and very important.

Because it is an institution that our Great Leader Atatürk considered “one of his two great works.”

Given that the state of his other work, the Republic of Turkey, is obvious, is it any wonder that the CHP is also being targeted?..

Erdoğan saying “the biggest radish is in the saddlebag” and the emphasis by the member of the judiciary who is carrying out the operations against the CHP on the “corruption file of the century,” while century-old corruption has been committed in 23 years, are signs that should be underlined.

US President Trump, with whom Erdoğan gets along very well, implemented many things in 7-8 months similar to what was done in Turkey in 23 years. For now, the only difference is that Trump deployed the National Guard to city centers, especially those under the administration of the opposition.

Let us be thankful that we do not have a mechanism like the National Guard to bring the opposition into line!...

Müyesser YILDIZ

September 8, 2025