When there is no "right or left" of politics

Politics in a democratic atmosphere is open to all maneuvers and must be open. The main thing is not to erode the morale of society and pursue personal interests. Avoiding the formulas of the political initiative brought by time is tantamount to the suicide of a politician.

I repeat: we are talking about politics in a democratic environment. No, it seems I did not express correctly: What kind of policy can we talk about in an anti-democratic environment? The situation is no different in Turkish politics, where the rules of democracy work.

The processes of the last 10 years have not changed the political paradigm. No, I'm not saying that; The processes of the last 10 years have largely eliminated the classical notions of "right and left" in Turkey and brought people and political institutions who once stood at the opposite pole of politics and the media to the same line: for example, when nationalist Meral Akşener and leftist Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu united in the same union, we see Temel Karamollaoğlu, the most experienced man in conservative politics, along with them.

A more radical political step took place in the Istanbul municipal elections and although the Kurdish-leaning People's Democratic Party did not explicitly declare it, it voted for the candidate of the Kılıçdaroğlu-Akşener-Karamollaoğlu union, İmamoğlu, for the "victory of democracy", causing a heavy defeat for the strong candidate of the government.

Although the government has openly or secretly manipulated all political maneuvers, just as it has not yet been able to shake the alliance on the other side, the unjust attacks have led to new moves on the alliance's expansion.

AKP Chairman and President, Erdoğan, is well aware of these maneuvers, and he is a politician who has so far mastered those maneuvers within the limits of democratic politics. And in today's Turkish politics, the only leader who seems to be pursuing politics with the paradigm and demands of 45-50 years ago, it seems, is the leader of the radical nationalist wing, Devlet Bahçeli.

Analyzing Jalil Mammadguluzadeh's story "Stories of Danabash village", the late Yashar Garayev described Khudayar bey's village as "a place where the wind does not blow, the leaves do not move, and the only criteria of social speed is a donkey"; Apparently, the leader of the radical nationalists continues to consider Turkey as a place with closed borders. But in all cases, the dynamism of the democratic political environment can direct the process in such a way that half a century of political stubbornness has no value at once.

The visit of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party, to the house of Alparslan Türkeş, the symbol of Turkish nationalism, to thank his wife was one of the most radical steps taken in politics so far. And also as an ironic example.

Because after 16 years of imprisonment, when the mafia leader, who was pardoned thanks to Devlet Bahçeli, threatened the chairman of the main opposition party with death, while the wife of the symbolic personality of Turkish nationalism should support that mafia leader according to the logic of politics 45-50 years ago, the woman on the opposite pole supported the leader of the party, which was seen as an enemy in the 1970s and even today.

The fact that Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu showed the high political and human culture by visiting Seval Türkeş in her house opened the door to many new developments in Turkey.

It should be recalled that in order to attract the Türkeş family, which maintains its influence in Turkish politics, the first attack was made by AKP Chairman Erdoğan, who had 34-year-old Ahmet Kutalmış Türkeş elected from Istanbul in the 2011 elections.

On June 7, 2015, Mr. Erdoğan invited Alparslan Türkeş's eldest son, Tuğrul Türkeş, from the Nationalist Movement Party to the AKP and gave him the ministerial post. (Tuğrul bey is still an AKP MP, while his half-brother Ahmet Kutalmış left the AKP without waiting for the 2015 elections and is not currently active in politics.)

The fact that political actors, who were once in the complete opposite poles of politics, now support each other and that the supported person visits the house of the supporter in return, are leading Turkish politics towards the melting of giant ice. As the nature of democratic politics requires it, the country is strengthened by these maneuvers, and politics gives confidence to citizens.

Despite its shortcomings, Turkey is the most advanced country in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus with these aspects of politics.

Mayis Alizade