Turkey Analyst,
vol. 3 no. 17
11 October 2010

WHAT THE COLUMNISTS SAY

The cautious attempt of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to chart a course away from the secularist orthodoxy with which the party has been identified for decades, has given the commentators in the Turkish press reason to dwell on the impact that economic and social change in society is having on the politics of the country. The case is made that socioeconomic change works to empower society and that it has acquired an independent force that invariably remolds the political parties in a liberal direction, whether or not that is something that they really desire.

CALIŞLAR : THE WAVE OF CHANGE WILL INEVITABLY WORK TO RESHAPE THE CHP AS WELL
Oral Calışlar in Radikal notes that many commentators have been quick to dismiss Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s chances of changing the Republican People’s party (CHP). Others have on the contrary expected that he was going to engineer a sweeping change. I for my part hold that the question of whether or not the CHP can or will change is something that supersedes leaders, personalities, delegates and party organizations. That is something that is ultimately going to be determined by the wider change that Turkey is undergoing. It is the dynamic of social and economic change that has energized and that continues to energize Turkey. Since Turkey joined the customs union (with the EU) in 1996, its imports and exports have grown fivefold. It goes without saying that old rules cannot not apply in such a country. The wave of change in society invariably exerts a pressure on all the political parties, forcing them all to liberalize. It may be that Kılıçdaroğlu lacks an innovative political project for the future of Turkey, and it may be that he has no truly inspiring political vision and discourse (even though his language does differ from the one that his predecessor Deniz Baykal used). That does not matter in the final analysis. The “general wave of change” in Turkey will continue to shape and remold the CHP, regardless of what Kılıçdaroğlu’s personal advantages and abilities are.

YETKİN: KILIÇDAROĞLU: “LET US BUILD A MORE DEMOCRATIC TURKEY TOGETHER”
Murat Yetkin in Radikal has interviewed CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. He finds it particularly noteworthy that Kılıçdaroğlu refrains from attacking Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, that he is seeking common ground with him. Kılıçdaroğlu assures that “we as CHP will not defend the status quo, we will throw our weight behind change. We will work together with every one that gives support to change.” Addressing Prime Minister Erdoğan, Kılıçdaroğlu says “come, let’s build a more democratic Turkey together.” “We are prepared to participate in a parliamentary commission (that would draft a new constitution) and ensure that every single constitutional statute that is inherited from the 1980 coup regime, including the ten percent threshold to parliament, is purged from the constitution.”

AKYOL: OLD HABITS DIE HARD IN THE CHP
Taha Akyol in Milliyet observes that decades old headscarf problem is finally being addressed by the CHP as well. A breach has been opened in the traditional defenses of the CHP. I believe that Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is well intentioned. However, “the enlightenment ulema” of the party won’t give him any slack. Even Hakkı Suha Okay (a deputy chairman of the CHP), whom we thought belonged to Kılıçdaroğlu’s group, says that “the headscarf is a political symbol”. Is it by repeating such thirty-year old mantras that the CHP is going to be able to reach out to the masses and that it will get their votes?

ALTAN: THE POWER OF THE STATE IS BEING ROLLED BACK, BUT THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF SOCIETY SEEK MORE FREEDOM ONLY FOR THEMSELVES
Ahmet Altan in Taraf writes that the state can no longer control and steer the society as it used to, since economic development has empowered society. The question now is how society is going to complete change without conflict breaking out between different societal groups. Society is getting richer and is breaking free from the constraints that the state had imposed on it, but the problem is that the customs and attitudes that the state has injected into society don’t disappear as easily. The different parts of society only object to and try to change those practices of the state that affects themselves; they don’t assist each other in a common onslaught on the state. The pious who object to the prohibition against the headscarf simultaneously oppose the Kurds’ right to education in their own language because they haven’t gotten rid of their nationalism. And the Kurds refuse to assist the endeavor to end the regime of state tutelage, saying that the proposals (the recently adopted constitutional amendments) do not include anything that addresses their particular grievances. While every group tries to roll back the power of the state, the separate groups only seek to secure more space for themselves.

ŞAFAK:  WE ARE SICK AND TIRED OF POLARIZATION AND OF ANGRY POLEMICS
Elif Şafak in Habertürk writes that people in Turkey have increasingly grown wary of the ideological polarization. So many people are depressed by the division into “we” and “them”. Years back (in the beginning of the 1990s), when the private TV-channels were new, it was exciting to follow heated discussions and arguments about important topics. The polemic had its appeal. But that was then. Today, people are sick and tired of watching angry polemics day and night. Ironically, those who stand to play a critical role in overcoming the polarization, the women, are also those who have become the principal reason why the tensions run so high. The women in Turkey who don’t cover their heads need to understand the anger and frustration of their sisters who wear the headscarf. And concurrently, the women who cover their head need to show that they for their part understand the anxieties of those who do not cover themselves. Both sides need to display empathy. It is such a pity that the polemic about the headscarf has monopolized our agenda to such an extent that it has blinded us to all those problems that we share as women in Turkey. In fact, women with or without headscarf suffer from the same, widespread discrimination against women in our society.

© Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center, 2010. This article may be reprinted provided that the following sentence be included: "This article was first published in the Turkey Analyst (www.turkeyanalyst.org), a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center".

The Turkey Analyst
The Turkey Analyst is a publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Joint Center, designed to bring authoritative analysis and news on the rapidly developing domestic and foreign policy issues in Turkey. It is published bi-weekly, and includes topical analysis, as well asa summary of the Turkish media debate. It is edited and compiled under the supervision of Svante E. Cornell and Halil M. Karaveli.

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The Joint Center launched a Turkey Initiative in 2006 in order to improve understanding of Turkish domestic and foreign affairs in Europe and the United States.

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