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A New Era, A New Turkey

29.08.2014 11:42

Most people agree that the presidential elections marks the beginning of a new era for Turkey. In fact, this new era began a while ago. But now it is time to establish new regulations for this new era. During the electoral campaign, right after the proclamation of the official results, during the ceremonies.

Most people agree that the presidential elections marks the beginning of a new era for Turkey. In fact, this new era began a while ago. But now it is time to establish new regulations for this new era. During the electoral campaign, right after the proclamation of the official results, during the ceremonies organized within the governing party and the government, everybody emphasized the same thing in their speeches: a new Turkey has emerged.
One can only guess what this "new" Turkey means. If one looks at the speeches, the new Turkey will be a more democratic, pluralistic and transparent country. No one can oppose those principles. The problem is that nobody knows how these targets will be met.
Decision makers are probably aware that a new constitution is a must in order to meet these engagements. Of course, a constitution alone is never enough to ensure a free, democratic and pluralistic country. The constitution only provides a guarantee. One should build these democratic institutions before writing the constitution.
It appears that the governing party will try to adopt the presidential system while drafting a new constitution. If a presidential system equates to more democracy for Turkey, nobody will oppose that. This is nothing less than a regime change. The problem is for the governing party to get the parliamentarian majority that will allow it to adopt a whole new constitution. If it fails to have the majority, it may try to win the Kurdish voters' support as well.
This is a critical aspect, because in order to pursue the peace negotiations for the settlement of the Kurdish issue and in order to prevent the armed conflict from resuming, Kurdish politicians will have to find a solution by working together with Ankara. They are perfectly aware of this truth and that is why they do not allow their hawks to talk loudly. The new Turkey must be a country where the words "problem" and "Kurd" should not be used in the same sentence.
The new Turkey does not just mean a new constitution or a new regime. It must also have an adversary against which the country can focus its energy. This adversary must not be described as a particular religious, sectarian or racial group, that would only cause further complications. It is a fact that tension brings votes, but labeling a religious or ethnic group as the main foe will not bring a new Turkey. In fact, we would find ourselves in a worse situation than in the old Turkey.
We have an idea about the priorities of the new Turkey's domestic policy, however people talk less about its priorities in foreign relations. Besides the Palestinian question, the governing team is quite silent about Turkey's role in the global system. We all know that the new president and the new prime minister of Turkey both dislike the Israeli government's policies, but it is hard to tell which countries they support and which countries they intend to cooperate with.
If a new Turkey is under construction, this will definitely have an impact on the international level, therefore we must know what the foreign relations priorities of the new regime will be. If the intention is to build a democratic regime that respects the rule of law, then Turkey will have to improve its relations with democratic countries. If the new Turkey adopts the opposite position then it will be easier to promote relations with countries without any democratic values. Looking at a country's foreign relations is always a good way to understand the kind of domestic policy that country has. Right now, it is not easy to do so for the new Turkey. Moreover, general elections will take place next year, and as one cannot predict whether or not the governing party will have the required majority to change the Constitution, it will not be easy to predict what kind of domestic and foreign policy the new government will pursue in the coming months.

BERİL DEDEOĞLU (Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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