Did You Blow Up The Ballot Boxes?

It was one day before the parliamentary election slated for June 7. But our “impartial” president was still busy conducting an election campaign. Stirred up by the “enthusiasm” of holding one opening ceremony after another, he apparently managed to squeeze a program in Ankara into his tight schedule. He said he had been living in the capital for 12 years and felt himself as truly belonging to Ankara. Then he moved on to lambaste opposition parties and hit the right note: "We will blow up the ballot boxes on Sunday, won't we?"
This adventure had started with the threatening suggestion: "Give us 400 seats in Parliament, and everything will be peaceful." When it became clear that voters would not give them 400 seats, they lowered their goals, "Give us 330 seats at least." When it turned out they wouldn't receive 330 seats, either, they asked voters for 276 seats that would make them a single-party government. The "400 seats for peace" formula was concluded by the following phrase: blowing up the ballot boxes. In other words, voters would give the ruling party the mandate and the national will would manifest itself in this manner and Turkey would transition to a presidential system.

However, the ruling party recklessly used public resources to further its election campaign, and voters refused to give it the mandate. Voters disapproved of the ruling party's misguided policies in recent years. As a matter of fact, they not only punished the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Even the legitimacy of Erdoğan, who was supposed to act impartially according to the Constitution, started to be questioned. Why? If a president sweeps aside the requirement that he be impartial and meddles with politics so blatantly, the result will turn into a form of vote of confidence for his position. You were elected president with 52 percent of the national vote and vowed to adhere to the Constitution, but later conducted a political campaign to support the ruling party in the election and urged voters to take the oath of "blowing up the ballot boxes," but you received 41 percent.

Please remember what happened when the ballot boxes weren't blown up as urged by Erdoğan. He didn't make a public appearance or statement for days. Five days later, he made a statement calling for common sense. He even uttered sentences that would imply self-recrimination. He called on parties to act with humility.

It didn't take long for Erdoğan and his party to recover from the shock. Although they collectively secured 60 percent of the national vote, the opposition parties had disagreements on several issues. Apart from this, certain politicians indirectly handed control over to Erdoğan although he didn't deserve it. There is currently in office a government that has resigned in Turkey, but it acts as though it has 400 seats in Parliament. Most of the ministers aren't even deputies but make decisions as though they are members of a strong single-party government. The opposition is to blame. Although the government that resigned takes decisions that are contrary to the national will, some party officials focus on trivial matters and forget about the truly important thing. They have disappointed voters. Never mind...

Those who failed to blow up the ballot boxes on June 7 are now implementing that blow up via planned chaos. Arrogance remains the same. Once again, compromise has been replaced by bullying, attacking and insulting. Terrorist attacks have skyrocketed. The table where the settlement process -- which spin doctors used to portray as an untouchable initiative that cannot be criticized -- was being conducted was turned upside down. The ruling party did it. Why? If they had secured 400 seats in Parliament on June 7, would this scandal still have occurred?

In that election voters radically rocked the AK Party and the president. For a party that had convinced itself it would remain in power as a single-party government until 2071, the June 7 election represents a process of disintegration. If no lesson is learned and if the AK Party doesn't assume its initial democratic stance again, this party will be finished off and the politicians who turned the party into a hub of conflict and polarization will go with it. Failure to learn or accept this lesson in an effort to engineer society and make small plans that rely on terrorism will not only drag the country into disaster, but will also undermine the political careers of those who make those plans.

If those who depend on elections for their presence see blowing up ballot boxes as their only choice and if they seek to defeat their rivals through political intrigue, they should not forget they will run into a heavy election defeat. Democracy is certainly undermined if the rule of law is suspended, all public resources are allocated to the ruling party and pressures and tyranny abound. The one who blows up ballot boxes will blow oneself up...

Can Demirtaş be blamed for all of this?

The spiral of terrorism that started with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) killing of 32 young people evolved into larger chaos with the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) horrific attacks. What should be done is obvious: crack down on all terrorist organizations and prevent potential polarization. Terrorism already aims to make members of society hate each other, doesn't it?
What do pro-government media outlets and spin-doctors do? 1. They try to belittle ISIL's acts of terrorism. 2. They continue to praise and whitewash PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. 3. They target Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-chairman Selahattin Demirtaş.

In the run-up to the election, there were plots to undermine the HDP. Thus, its party buildings were bombed and provocative acts were engaged in as an attempt to get the HDP's supporters to protest on the streets. A few days before the election a bomb exploded during the HDP's election rally in Diyarbakır in an effort to force the HDP into retaliate. Demirtaş categorically called the party's supporters to act with common sense; he still does. Given this, it is clearly a politically-motivated maneuver to portray Demirtaş as responsible for violent acts. What then is the purpose?
It is to provoke Öcalan against Demirtaş and divide the HDP. Those who recruited voters by claiming that they would solve the Kurdish issue and helped the PKK become stronger using the slogans of the settlement process are now seeking to push Demirtaş out of the political scene with the help of Öcalan. Why? They seek to split the HDP, which aims to appeal to the entire country and not just the Kurds, into two and dream of coming to power as a single-party government…
Investigations launched against and claims made about Demirtaş are ill-motivated. After it was prevented from effectively fighting terrorists for a long period, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is now engaging in counterterrorism. Thus, the political engineers' plan to target the HDP and Demirtaş seek to bring the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to government as a single party.
Pro-government media outlets and spin doctors are ridiculing our intellect by criticizing Demirtaş. We know that if the HDP hadn't entered Parliament and if Demirtaş hadn't said, "We won't allow you to introduce the presidential system," they would never have been targeted with those claims. Those people who do not sympathize with the PKK and who haven't voted and won't vote for the HDP are aware of the conspiracy. Counterterrorism is one thing, but political engineering through planned terrorism is another.
Do you think you are fooling children?

- If you had an overwhelming election victory and managed to secure 400 seats in Parliament to effect a transition to a presidential system, would you still have put an end to the settlement process?
- Do you admit you have made mistakes in the roadmap -- which you called the settlement process and which you kept secret from everyone, calling it a state secret -- and indirectly paved the way for the strengthening of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)?
- Didn't you prevent the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the police department from taking action when the PKK recruited new militants, started collecting taxes and waylaid vehicles and conducted traffic checks?
- Didn't you declare anyone who voiced their concerns over the settlement process although they were not opposed to it as traitors?
- Didn't you harshly criticize those police chiefs who launched a crackdown on the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) and sent them to prison? Aren't you now launching operations against the KCK in the same manner?
- Those who announced that they had undersigned an agreement in Dolmabahçe after repeated meetings and made public statements in a victorious manner before cameras are now denying this agreement. Who will believe this obvious lie?
- Up until June 7, all PKK acts were tolerated by the government and spin doctors. When the PKK erected a statue, then-Interior Minister Efkan Ala had said, "It is a simple statue made of fiberglass." You now make harsh remarks about the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) just because it managed to enter Parliament. Will those remarks make any sense?
- Although he portrayed himself as the architect of the settlement process before the election process, Yalçın Akdoğan said after the election, "Now they will get nothing out of the settlement process." And following those remarks, acts of violence skyrocketed. Is it a coincidence?
- Those who had long been producing “parallel” policies as though they were acting under the influence of the PKK rushed to defame innocent people with the “parallel” paranoia after the election defeat. Isn't it the lowest form of shamelessness?
- Is it ethical for those who praised the PKK and its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, and harshly lambasted any criticism in the past to target the HDP and declare co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş a terrorist?
- Do you expect us to believe there is no link between those urging for a snap election and the recent increase in acts of terrorism and violence?
- In a lawsuit on the country's largest corruption case, a courier testified that "politicians were receiving 4 percent of the money." Isn't it a coincidence that acts of terrorism erupted soon after this confession was made?
- When Iran's investigation into Babak Zanjani's corrupt practices started to reveal Zenjani's connections to Turkey, acts of terrorism were scaled up to cover up the corruption file. Who can say there is no planning behind this?
- The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) slaughtered 32 people and despite the HDP's calls for common sense, the PKK retaliated. Is it possible to turn a blind eye to the alleged link between the deep state and the PKK? Can all those disasters overshadow the links between ISIL and the deep state?

EKREM DUMANLI (Cihan/Today's Zaman)