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Yesterday, today, tomorrow...
by BULENT KENES
June 12, 2011
Sunday's parliamentary elections, critically important for Turkish
democratic history, have taken place at the critical juncture and
crossroads of yesterday, today and tomorrow, just like pointed out in
the title.
Turkey, which is finally facing yesterday's dark relations and events
despite some shortcomings, is feeling the excitement of being about to
be begin reconstructing its tomorrow. I am pretty sure that these
elections will be remembered as a turning point in the democratic
history of Turkey that will absolutely be written in the future.
Nearly 50 million people cast their vote at 200,000 ballot boxes on
Sunday to elect 550 deputies -- out of 7,695 candidates -- who will
serve as members of Parliament and form the government. Every single
vote cast served as a brick that will be used in building tomorrow. I
don't know what others might think, but if you ask me Sunday's
elections were not ordinary at all. Every vote in the ballot box is
also a referendum on a process by which yesterday's dark relations and
incidents -- which turned our near history into a history of shame for
our fragile democracy -- were revealed and addressed properly. To
better understand what meaning this holds for Turkey, it is necessary
to know what yesterday means for this country.
Yesterday, this was a country where rights, laws and justice have up
until recently been set aside. The most fundamental rights and
freedoms have been ignored and denied. The 17,500 unsolved murders
whose perpetrators still remain unidentified -- killed by merciless
murderers who have no respect for the most sacred right, the right to
life -- stand in front of us as a sign and proof of shame. In addition
to those murdered on the streets, those whose lives were taken in
prisons due to torture without standing trial died yearning to witness
today's confrontation and the tomorrows that will be built upon this
confrontation. Even though our hearts do not want to remember, we
should not forget the past as it holds, like a dark grave, the painful
reasons that suggest we need a sound democracy and a state governed by
the rule of law.
On the other hand, we should recall that if today holds some value,
this value is recognizable to the extent that it faces yesterday.
Today is valuable only if it is able to face yesterday and hold it
accountable. Today can be cleansed only if it is purged of the
yesterday's dirt and shame. However, this must be a law of nature --
in any process of purification or cleansing -- the cleansing
mechanisms inevitably get their own share of the dirt they seek to
purify. The water you use to wash your dirty hands is clean in the
beginning; however, is it possible to say the water remains clean
after the washing process? Or when you try to wash your dirty hand
with the clean hand, your clean hand gets dirty temporarily. For this
reason, the target should not be the cleansing process itself, but to
build a future where we will have reached true purification.
It is understandable -- up to a point -- that democratic forces bound
by law feel they are contaminated while dealing with deep conspiracies
like Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer) seeking to undermine our
democracy and our people. Of course, it is necessary that the
processes of purification should be clean. However, as the `cleaners'
deal with the shadowy elites that are drenched with the filth of the
past, the shadowy elites will most certainly try to smear some of
their own filth on the cleaners, or, if they fail to do that, make an
effort to show the cleaners as if they too are filthy. This is already
happening. Would it be otherwise possible for the foreign media to
refer to Turkey as a dictatorship despite making enormous progress in
the fields of democratization, liberalization and civilianization? The
case is either that the filth of the past is contaminating today's
clean panorama, or that some segments are making intensive efforts to
make the cleansing agents appear as if they are also dirty.
It is important to construct a clean tomorrow realizing that yesterday
is contaminated and today is unfortunately not immune from this state
of contamination. Construction of a clean, purified, civilian,
democrat, liberal and pluralistic tomorrow is a doable goal in today
-- despite many problems. And every vote at the ballot box on Sunday
offered new opportunities and possibilities for Turkey as it bravely
endeavors to construct a clean tomorrow in the aftermath of an
election that was held with the promise of making a new civilian and
democratic constitution.
You should not take me the wrong way for using such precise statements
in this piece despite the fact the voting process is still going on.
This stems from my deep confidence in the democratic wisdom of this
nation. However, I can make this prediction while there are still many
hours until the votes are counted: This election will be remembered in
history as an election where those who seek to revive the status quo
with false promises and fraud -- including pro-Ergenekon and Balyoz
figures -- will be defeated despite their well-crafted masks. I
believe this will happen because there is no risk that those who fight
for the establishment of a true democracy based on the will of the
people and promotion of fundamental rights and freedoms in a country
whose past is filled with pain will not be rewarded by the people.
By the time you read this column, the election results will already be
out; the results of this election will be the greatest assurance for
my assertion -- just like the unshakable popular will is the assurance
of our democratic and free tomorrow.
Yesterday, today, tomorrow...
by BULENT KENES
June 12, 2011
Sunday's parliamentary elections, critically important for Turkish
democratic history, have taken place at the critical juncture and
crossroads of yesterday, today and tomorrow, just like pointed out in
the title.
Turkey, which is finally facing yesterday's dark relations and events
despite some shortcomings, is feeling the excitement of being about to
be begin reconstructing its tomorrow. I am pretty sure that these
elections will be remembered as a turning point in the democratic
history of Turkey that will absolutely be written in the future.
Nearly 50 million people cast their vote at 200,000 ballot boxes on
Sunday to elect 550 deputies -- out of 7,695 candidates -- who will
serve as members of Parliament and form the government. Every single
vote cast served as a brick that will be used in building tomorrow. I
don't know what others might think, but if you ask me Sunday's
elections were not ordinary at all. Every vote in the ballot box is
also a referendum on a process by which yesterday's dark relations and
incidents -- which turned our near history into a history of shame for
our fragile democracy -- were revealed and addressed properly. To
better understand what meaning this holds for Turkey, it is necessary
to know what yesterday means for this country.
Yesterday, this was a country where rights, laws and justice have up
until recently been set aside. The most fundamental rights and
freedoms have been ignored and denied. The 17,500 unsolved murders
whose perpetrators still remain unidentified -- killed by merciless
murderers who have no respect for the most sacred right, the right to
life -- stand in front of us as a sign and proof of shame. In addition
to those murdered on the streets, those whose lives were taken in
prisons due to torture without standing trial died yearning to witness
today's confrontation and the tomorrows that will be built upon this
confrontation. Even though our hearts do not want to remember, we
should not forget the past as it holds, like a dark grave, the painful
reasons that suggest we need a sound democracy and a state governed by
the rule of law.
On the other hand, we should recall that if today holds some value,
this value is recognizable to the extent that it faces yesterday.
Today is valuable only if it is able to face yesterday and hold it
accountable. Today can be cleansed only if it is purged of the
yesterday's dirt and shame. However, this must be a law of nature --
in any process of purification or cleansing -- the cleansing
mechanisms inevitably get their own share of the dirt they seek to
purify. The water you use to wash your dirty hands is clean in the
beginning; however, is it possible to say the water remains clean
after the washing process? Or when you try to wash your dirty hand
with the clean hand, your clean hand gets dirty temporarily. For this
reason, the target should not be the cleansing process itself, but to
build a future where we will have reached true purification.
It is understandable -- up to a point -- that democratic forces bound
by law feel they are contaminated while dealing with deep conspiracies
like Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer) seeking to undermine our
democracy and our people. Of course, it is necessary that the
processes of purification should be clean. However, as the `cleaners'
deal with the shadowy elites that are drenched with the filth of the
past, the shadowy elites will most certainly try to smear some of
their own filth on the cleaners, or, if they fail to do that, make an
effort to show the cleaners as if they too are filthy. This is already
happening. Would it be otherwise possible for the foreign media to
refer to Turkey as a dictatorship despite making enormous progress in
the fields of democratization, liberalization and civilianization? The
case is either that the filth of the past is contaminating today's
clean panorama, or that some segments are making intensive efforts to
make the cleansing agents appear as if they are also dirty.
It is important to construct a clean tomorrow realizing that yesterday
is contaminated and today is unfortunately not immune from this state
of contamination. Construction of a clean, purified, civilian,
democrat, liberal and pluralistic tomorrow is a doable goal in today
-- despite many problems. And every vote at the ballot box on Sunday
offered new opportunities and possibilities for Turkey as it bravely
endeavors to construct a clean tomorrow in the aftermath of an
election that was held with the promise of making a new civilian and
democratic constitution.
You should not take me the wrong way for using such precise statements
in this piece despite the fact the voting process is still going on.
This stems from my deep confidence in the democratic wisdom of this
nation. However, I can make this prediction while there are still many
hours until the votes are counted: This election will be remembered in
history as an election where those who seek to revive the status quo
with false promises and fraud -- including pro-Ergenekon and Balyoz
figures -- will be defeated despite their well-crafted masks. I
believe this will happen because there is no risk that those who fight
for the establishment of a true democracy based on the will of the
people and promotion of fundamental rights and freedoms in a country
whose past is filled with pain will not be rewarded by the people.
By the time you read this column, the election results will already be
out; the results of this election will be the greatest assurance for
my assertion -- just like the unshakable popular will is the assurance
of our democratic and free tomorrow.