Critical warnings from Azmi Karamahmutoğlu: Reaction to electronic voting and the Foreign Agent Law

Zafer Party Spokesperson Azmi Karamahmutoğlu made statements regarding the long-debated Foreign Agent Law. Stating that the law has not yet been canceled, Karamahmutoğlu alleged that the government would revise the law, bring it back to Parliament, and use it as a tool of pressure against opposition groups. Karamahmutoğlu said, "The law will target not only the opposition but also social opposition and intellectuals."

Karamahmutoğlu also expressed the following:

There was a Foreign Agent draft law that we have been dealing with for a long time. The law was removed from the omnibus bill. However, when we look at the statements made, when we look at the statements coming from the government channel, it is understood that it has not been shelved or canceled, that it will be revised, that the foreign agent law will be brought to Parliament again, and that it will be used like a stick on the backs of not only opposition parties but all social opposition segments, intellectuals, writers, and journalists.

Another issue is the danger of electronic voting, which would mean 'open voting, secret counting,' reminiscent of the single-party era. As is known, once you enter the electronic environment, the internet environment, you leave a trace. It is not possible to leave without leaving a trace there. In other words, a vote cast in an electronic environment is a voting model where it can be very easily determined who cast which vote if desired. States, developed democracies do not resort to, attempt, or apply this path. This means open voting. And again, votes cast in an electronic environment can be directed and manipulated in any way desired. The location of the cast vote can be changed. This means open counting.

Now, work has begun to determine the new minimum wage. Unfortunately, a wrong step was taken at the beginning. It was said that a minimum wage increase would be given based on the target inflation. Upon the objections received, a step back was taken from this. We would like to draw the government's attention to the fact that the current inflation figures provided by TUIK are not reliable for us either. The rate that should be taken as a basis is household inflation, and household inflation in our country today is 71%. The salary of a minimum wage earner should not be below inflation and should not be crushed by inflation. For this reason, the 71% household inflation should be taken into account.

I had previously made an appeal to the President and said that our young lieutenants in military schools are not just the children of their parents. They are the children of this nation, of this country. I addressed you as the President of the country, saying that these are your children too, and I told them to approach the oath-taking ceremony crisis with this understanding and sensitivity. Although the President made embracing and soft statements at the beginning, it is clear that he must have remained under the influence and direction of political Islamist, ummah-ist, and poisonous ideological cadres nested within the AK Party, who have a score to settle with the Republic, Republican Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and Turkishness, as we now see that objectionable, sad, and devastating steps are being taken regarding these foundations.

The dismissals to be made with this excuse, that is, the dismissals to be made through these five lieutenants and three commanders with these excuses and pretexts, are a warning to the remaining officers in the Turkish Armed Forces who support Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and will follow in his footsteps.

As Turkish nationalists, we clearly see that the work initiated by Bahçeli, the current chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party, through the pardoning of terrorist leader Abdullah Öcalan and, on top of that, honoring him by having him speak in Parliament, is now being discussed in other political schools and other political parties, and that Turkey is being led toward federalism and federation debates via the National Pact (Misak-ı Millî).

I want to say a few things to wake up the eyes that have not been able to see yet and to open those eyes early; it is a shameful situation. They are even saying that Abdullah Öcalan is a nationalist. As the dust cloud over it clears, it is beginning to be seen that these efforts are being made to bring the autonomous, garrison, Kurdish terror state in Syria under protection. That we are and will be the patron of the Kurdish state in Iraq, and that we will also be the patron of the Kurds in Iran and Syria, was expressed just a few days ago by the mouth of the current Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

While federation debates are coming before us, I want to record one thing as a heading in broad strokes. Because it is clear that we will discuss this issue more from now on. Successful applications of federation or confederation have been seen in history. Unsuccessful applications have also been seen. There are still successful applications in force. There are also unsuccessful applications. There are successful examples as in the case of Germany, as in the case of the USA, as in the case of Canada. In the past, whether it was the Soviet Socialist Republics or the Yugoslavian example, there have been unsuccessful applications.

Whether successful or unsuccessful, all applications throughout history point to a single method, dear friends. When a federation is established, it goes from parts to the whole. All federation applications that have been established to date, even if they are not alive now, are like this. There is no application that has gone to a federation on its own by separating while it was a singular, holistic piece. There is no other example of this. There is not even an example that has happened today. This unexperienced example, this unique, unprecedented example, is now being imposed on the Republic of Turkey, which is a unitary national state. This is injustice. Political parties that will accept this humiliation will lose their right to exist in the eyes of the Turkish voter. No political party, no political party that will accept this humiliation, will have the right to exist in the eyes of the Turkish voter.

Bahçeli, by saying 'It is the right choice for President Erdoğan to be elected once again', using his own words, has begun to fill in the blanks for the pardon he wants for Abdullah Öcalan and for Abdullah Öcalan to be allowed to speak in the supreme parliament. He said, 'It is the right choice for President Erdoğan to be elected once again.' He continued, 'President Erdoğan is the only option.' Yes, he is talking about an election and yet he is imposing a single option on us. This must be the gentleman's understanding of democracy. And he continues his words... 'In this context, a constitutional amendment should be made. President Erdoğan is the only option. In this context, a constitutional amendment should be made.' Oh my God. Bahçeli continues. Now he says these words targeting the national state, the singular structure, the unitary structure of the Republic of Turkey: 'Just as the Ottoman Empire kept ethnic communities within its structure and established peace and tranquility, we can experience the same,' he says.

Since they know they cannot make the constitutional changes they want through a referendum, they need a constitutional amendment for President Tayyip Erdoğan to remain in office. But because they know they cannot get the public to accept this through a referendum, they are trying to handle this business in parliament and that is why they are entering into negotiations. For this, they have even risked giving bribe concessions to the party of separatist ethnic politics. They have entered into a bribery negotiation for the construction of an artificial nation. In the construction of this artificial nation, in order to meet the political demands requested by the terrorist organization on the other side, to persuade the people inside, to win the consent of the people, they sometimes try to scare Turkey with Israel, they try to scare it. Sometimes they try to convince it with lies that there will be economic improvements. In other words, if the head of the terrorist organization Abdullah Öcalan is released, if he is taken out, the unemployed will find jobs. That is how a politician explains it in yesterday's press conference. 'The unemployed will find jobs. Foreign currency will fall, the economy will improve,' he says. In other words, not only our safety of life and property, but our economy will also improve. Everything depends on this. Now, even if we were to accept this joke, which is too pathetic to even be worth laughing at, as true, when we look at the other side, there is a terrorist organization there, a political movement that uses terror as a means of doing politics. There is a separatist, ethnicist political movement. Is the only demand of this ethnicist, separatist political movement the freedom of their founding leader, the terrorist head? Is this the only political demand of the PKK and the DEM Party? The only political demand of the PKK is for Abdullah Öcalan to gain his freedom. Is there a statement that if this is provided, we will end our existence? Or are there different, more than one, very diverse separatist political culture demands reaching from autonomy to federation; from there to semi-independence and then to full independence? Since this second one is valid, why are you trying to mislead the Turkish people? Mr. President Tayyip Erdoğan, are you throwing the country and the people into such a fire and showing deviations just so that you can sit in your palace and you can sit in your seats at the party headquarters? The political deviations experienced by those who have given their politics and political will to blackmail and threats, and who have held this hostage, make us blush. As long as the Catholic marriage that the cadres, who have long since lost their ability to represent Turkish nationalism, have made with the political ummah-ist ruling party continues, they have no advice or direction to give to Turkish nationalists.

Those who experience such a mental blackout that they honor the head of the PKK terrorist organization by pardoning him and, as if that were not enough, having him speak in parliament, are trying to market the political deviation they have fallen into to the voter as 'state wisdom.' However, we understand and know very well that this wisdom is not the wisdom of the institutional state.

It is obvious that the state mentioned is not the state that is a legal entity. There is a political deviation here that embarrasses Turkish nationalists, a completely different political orientation. It is clear that we will experience different deviations and orientations that we will talk about more in the coming weeks.