Akşener and our bad luck with female politicians

We often complain that women in Turkey are held back in their fields.

Looking at the political arena, this claim does not seem very realistic.

Because in this country, a woman became prime minister 30 years ago, and the only sentence we remember from her is her praise for killers: "Those who fire bullets for this country and those who take them are honorable." Years later, 'top-secret intelligence' reports that emerged from the trash proved that the targeting of certain businessmen simply because they were Kurdish was decided in the glorious National Security Council (MGK) meetings during her term; we all know what happened to those on that list—they were kidnapped and murdered. And unfortunately, all of this happened during the term of Tansu Çiller, the Prime Minister of those years; those who acted as hitmen for this are still being protected to this day.

xxx

When Meral Akşener emerged as a leader 30 years after Çiller, a spring breeze blew again, and it was said that her poll numbers rose significantly in the early days.

Then we saw that the table was overturned with a high-heel blow, the election was lost, allegations regarding her family were rampant, and Ms. Meral was forced to withdraw.

As another female politician left the stage, she unfortunately did not leave behind a good legacy.

Yet, there have been much more resilient female politicians in this country; there are countless names who have risked everything—enduring all kinds of difficulties, oppression, and imprisonment—for their causes. There is Behice Boran, who was forced to leave the country for standing up against injustice and, in the exile where she spent the last years of her life, said: "When I got into this, I had thought of everything: going to prison, the pressure, this and that. But living in exile in a foreign country at the age of seventy-six had never crossed my mind."

However, for some reason, such idealistic women could not reach the positions they wanted in politics; those worse than men seized the seats.

Those who became Prime Minister like Çiller, or Minister or party leader like Akşener, are as described above.

Yet, the women of Turkey must rise up.

The point to which male politicians have brought the country is clear; the nation cannot escape crisis and poverty.

Instead of names like Çiller and Akşener, who are worse than men, women with contemporary qualifications must take ownership of this country.

If we consider the country that leaves the greatest cultural impact in the world today—the biggest basis for this claim being the dominance of English worldwide—the UK was governed by only two women for nearly two centuries.

If women of the Scandinavian type—who are honest in the Western style, far from ostentation, living in a two-room apartment like Germany's Merkel, and who consider it an honor to resign for buying a 5-dollar flower with state money, and who do not get involved in corruption—come to power in Turkey and change the order of deceitful male politicians, they can bring the country to the forefront.

Provided, of course, that they do not resemble the previous bad examples.