The 2007 election in Turkey

The 2007 elections were interesting... What I will write is nothing new, and nothing insightful. It is just a personal reading of the situation...

First of all, I am proud of my people... No fights, almost flawless election with no disputes and more than 84 percent of the population voted. This is very very encouraging...

I see AK party is a populist, center-right, and extremely practical party... It is only normal that they won such great support (over 45 percent). They manage to achieve a considerable success in major economic parameters and as an economically and politically liberal, yet socially conservative party, they really hit the mainstream of Turkish society.

The republican-elite, which consists of high level bureaucrats, army, academy and a considerable number of the middle-class intellectuals were unable to create an opposition that can communicate with the majority of Turkish people. A hard-liner secularist cause, or conspiracy theories, such as Kurds -with the help of America- separating to join Northern Iraq could not (and cannot) make a lot of Turkish people change their minds. And of course, the annoying and unhidden distrust of the Republican elite to the people's choice is troubling. "They would not know. They will turn this country to Iran" some would tell you, referring to the "masses."

I think, the real reason behind the paranoia of the republican-elite is that the traditional power centers (such as the seats of bureaucrats, faculty positions, military, etc) are in jeopardy. Hence, their fear of losing power is immense...

Amazingly, the votes that would go for a left party went probably to AK party, instead of CHP. Ataturk's party, which once was proud to represent the "masses" has been trapped in an out-of-touch nationalism, and become an alienated elitist party. CHP and its leader Deniz Baykal should be thankful to the 20 percent they got in this election. Nevertheless, they still seem to blame the man on the street for not 'seeing' the 'evil' in AK party... Would it continue its politics in the same manner, it would lose even more votes in the coming elections.

MHP, the nationalists, made a come-back. This party, of all parties, I am uncomfortable with the most. I have to say that there is a good number of people, who would "die" for this party... And, the rising nationalism and the increasing clashes with PKK make things easier for the hard-liners... Within a democratic setting, it is probably better to represent MHP's ideas in the Parliament than in the streets... Still, I would prefer a Parliament without this party...


Another development is the new concept of independents (to avoid the 10 percent threshold). More than twenty Kurdish independents managed to get into the Parliament - a number enough to form a group. Also, couple of independents, including Mehmet Ufuk Uras, a socialist, who I voted for, managed to get into the Parliament. I think, this is a very positive development. Not because, they will create magnificent changes, but because they might pave the way to greater political formations, which will be the voice of the under-represented groups in Turkey... This may be the much needed relief between the over-exaggerated (thanks to the western media as well) Islam vs. secularism issue.

We should not dream about a revolution or a dramatic change, however... One person is one person, and politics is not a game of indivuduals, but of trends, parties, ideas, and, of course, the 'masses'.

As a last word, let me give you my personal take on. I do not agree with AK party for three particular reasons... First, their economical and political choices are extremely concordant with the global neo-liberal capitalist ideology... I believe that neo-liberal capitalism create a new kind of enslavement: A selfish and often depressing enslavement to the 'popular' (popular wars, popular "idols" popular science, popular artist")... Second, they are socially and religiously conservative, which I full-heartidly oppose. Most importantly, their hegemony on the votes of the "lower-class" neighborhoods steals away a lot of power from socialist, leftist parties, which I believe is a much needed force in the Turkish politics.

The current state of the Parliament will, I think, witness the clash of the independents and the nationalists. The classic clash between the secular establishment and Islamic trends will go on... The army's role in all this, might be an interesting point of discussion in the coming days... These discussions, hopefully, will be based less on conspiracy theories, and more on real issues.

Turkey, I believe, for several historical and sociological reasons, can be more than a "good follower of the global system to be the next South-Korea." From within Turkey, I think, novel ideas and movements that can introduce indigenous patterns to social and political landscape of the region (and of the world) can emerge: Trends that move beyond and redefine the traditional categories of class, nation, race, ethnicity and religious group.

The uttermost concern for me, in this election and in the future,however, is the sad situation of the Turkish intellectual realm. Unfortunately, Turkish intellectuals and academics are trapped in a petrified state of internal conflict, where charismatic power dominates over academic achievement -or sometimes reason. This land can, like I mentioned before, has a significant economic, cultural and historical potential to contribute to the world's intellectual discourse. However, for this, Turkish intelligentsia should transform into a state through which independent, rational and free discourse can be produced, and disseminated... Unfortunately, as practical as they are, I do not think Erdogan and his friends have the intellectual tools or the will to support such an intellectual framework.

The Quest for the Biological Dome

Getting fat is an important intellectual challenge.

No! I am not talking about the health issues, or the great nostalgia (i.e. Oh, God! I was 10 kilograms less two years ago). I am not even talking about the social implications of getting fat.

No!

I am talking about the great intellectual quest of seeking coherence and getting fat is fundamentally related to the existential search for the meaning of life.

First and foremost, an important and socially recognized body part is added to the traditional body parts you already have:

The Tummy!!!

An intellectual should explain to himself/herself, “the meaning of the tummy,” and of course, for this, one has to search for the origins.

If you are like me (which definitely should be tested if we are to generalize), one day you will have (or already have had) a great epiphany, which I call the day of reconciliation. In that important day, you realize suddenly that you have a tummy.

I guess, this realization can happen in various ways, as it happened to me in a rather strange way:

The day of reconciliation for me was a sunny day in the seashore. Lovely day, I would say… I, who is awkwardly called by his mother “su samuru” (beaver), was in the sea. I love resting on my back on the water, slowly moving my hands and feet to prevent myself sinking, and letting my body float freely. It was, I always have thought, the perfect position for the small bourgeois intellectual. Somehow, I had the sudden urge to look to the shore. What I saw, instead of several umbrellas and sun-bathing people, a great dome of skin and hair.

God! I thought, I grew the biological Hagia Sophia. And what happened? Of course, I panicked, not because Ekin will divorce me –she probably would have done it months before if she wanted to, but because I now had to make sense about the tummy. It was like that equipment you bought with the grant money, which was not really related to the research project.

Hence, my friends, started the great intellectual quest for making the tummy coherent. And, it was, during this quest, I understood why Eco wrote Foucault's Pendulum.