Bülent Arınç's 'enslavement' jab at TÜSİAD investigation: 'It must be immune to interference'

TÜSİAD, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, journalists, and many other figures have recently faced investigations. Bülent Arınç shared a post on social media regarding the recent wave of investigations without naming anyone directly.

Arınç began his post on the X platform by quoting Rumi: “If everyone is thinking the same thing, then no one is thinking.”

Arınç stated, "Our world of ideas must be dynamic and free, far from stagnation. Just as it is impossible for every individual to think the same thing, striving for this, gathering everyone around a single thought, and ignoring pluralism does not provide any benefit to society." Reminding that freedom of expression is both of constitutional importance and one of the most significant arguments the AK Party used in its government program and European Union goals during the days it first came to power, Arınç continued: "We placed freedom of expression, which we consider the sum of all freedoms, at the very top of the political and legal criteria within the Copenhagen Criteria, and we made legal regulations on this matter. Through our practices, we brought together different ideas that would serve social peace within a sphere of freedom, and we were successful in this. This led to peace within our country and enabled people to understand each other better and tolerate one another."

Arınç continued his remarks as follows:

"Furthermore, it demonstrated to the EU and the entire world that Turkey is a free country where everyone can express their ideas and thoughts without fear. During those periods, we achieved a 50% vote share with these actions. Of course, the investments made by the government in areas such as health, transportation, etc., were quite effective, but the impact of the atmosphere created by freedom of expression in society should not be underestimated. When reflecting on the reasons for the picture that emerged after the March 31 elections, I believe that, contrary to the period I mentioned above, some restrictions have been placed on freedom of expression, and this has created discomfort in society.

The right to criticism must be immune to interference as long as it does not contain insults, slander, or defamation. We had adopted the existing principles in the European Convention on Human Rights and ECHR rulings, which bear our signature, and had incorporated these principles into our laws. A very important principle in ECHR rulings is this: Politicians must be more open and tolerant to criticism than anyone else; no matter how harsh the criticism may be, they must accept all of it and choose the path of benefiting from it. Those who know the National View (Millî Görüş) era will remember that we were the group that made the harshest criticisms in the Grand National Assembly, and this style of politics was met with appreciation by the public. Following this, we marched toward power step by step.

"A SOCIETY THAT DOES NOT QUESTION BECOMES ENSLAVED"

Criticisms may, of course, be unfair and unfounded. What needs to be done in the face of this is to express our own ideas by responding to these criticisms with concrete examples if possible. While silencing and intimidating criticisms with various arguments might seem to benefit the person being criticized in the short term, it is actually quite corrosive and damaging over time.

The views of many thinkers can be cited on this subject. The Wise Leader Alija Izetbegović, especially in his masterpiece on Islam between East and West, states the following: Criticism is the soul of thinking. Where there is no criticism, thought becomes stagnant. Criticism is necessary to seek the truth. Criticism is the sunlight of truth. Freedom also includes the human right to make mistakes. However, if there is no criticism, these mistakes are not corrected. A society that does not question is doomed to become enslaved.

In short, freedom of expression and the right to criticism are the main actors of our world of ideas and, consequently, of dynamism in every field from politics to daily life."

Arınç stated that environments where ideas are not freely debated are the greatest obstacle to social progress and used the expression, "It creates a single-voiced environment, which is the greatest obstacle to progress."

“If everyone is thinking the same thing, then no one is thinking.” Rumi

Our world of ideas must be dynamic and free, far from stagnation. Just as it is impossible for every individual to think the same thing, striving for this, gathering everyone around a single thought, and ignoring pluralism…

— Bülent Arınç (@bulent_arinc) February 18, 2025

News Source: 12punto