What War Is The Government Preparing For?

As if it has been preparing for a war, this government has been changing laws, regulations and literally buying weapons. But this is not a war against another state or a nation. This is a war the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) party has launched against half of the country.
The security forces have been buying hundreds and hundreds of new TOMAs (water cannon vehicles). They have also been buying thousands of gas canisters.
And now, according to reports by the daily Birgün on Sunday, the Security General Directorate is planning to buy 77,400 sound bombs and flash grenades in 2015 to use at public demonstrations.
In related stories, the media also consulted with experts to understand the potential health implications of these new police weapons. According to experts, these sound bombs give out 180 decibels of sound and the flash grenades give off a flash equal to 8 million candles. Experts caution that these grenades and sound bombs may leave permanent damage in the ear, body and retina of a person who is exposed to these weapons.
Do not think that the AKP is only preparing for the war with weapons; they are also changing almost every single law to suppress demonstrations and dissent. For this purpose they have established new penal judges of peace who decide on arrests, house searches and other measures.
Wiretapping decisions will also be issued by these judges. In İstanbul there are only six of these judges, which means that if you are being transferred to a court for arrest the government will know with whom they need to speak in order to influence the proceedings. And if you want to appeal the decision of one of these judges you need to go to another of these same six judges in order to do so.
There is a new law package now being discussed in Parliament, if it is accepted there will be new grounds for arrest. For example, if any person does not obey police orders during a demonstration, this will be a reason for them to be arrested. In this sense, joining a so-called illegal demonstration (any demonstration can easily be illegal in Turkey) would be treated like a rape or armed robbery and the suspect can easily be arrested.
With this new law package the government also wishes to give extraordinary powers to the police. The police will have the power to make searches without obtaining any permission from a prosecutor or judge; they will have the power to make “preventive” arrests; they will have the power to use firearms for a broader spectrum of events and so on.
It is obvious that the government does not want to see any demonstrations on the streets and that it does not want to tolerate dissent. If you were to ask me which war all these preparations are being done for, I would say for the abnormally powered presidency President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to introduce. Erdoğa, this week started once again to voice his desire to change Turkey's system of governance from a parliamentary to a presidential one. When you hear the word “presidential” do not mistaken it for a system such as the one that exists in America. In his plan there is no separation of powers, instead the president will unite all these powers into himself.
The powers that be are about to put a straightjacket on this society and they want to eradicate any potential resistance with police force and the draconian legal measures they are planning to introduce.

ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ (Cihan/Today's Zaman)