Where is ‘home’ for former conservative politicians?

Foreign magazines and newspapers, along with European and American politicians became openly involved in Türkiye’s election process, in an attempt to turn the country’s presidential election into a “global” matter. It can be said that they were successful in this endeavor. Türkiye became the center of world agenda, whether it wanted or not. There is no need to re-mention the numerous well-known magazines and newspapers published in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, and Austria. We are well aware that their power is not limited to their influence over the national public. These media outlets have influence over almost the entire world. We consider this scope when we say they turned our election into a global matter. They were not alone either. Both European and American politicians had also openly stated they saw our election as a global matter. Based on the theory that Türkiye is ruled by an authoritarian administration, both magazines and newspapers, as well as politicians, wanted to create a global problem via the one-man rule perception. Had the elections resulted in accordance with their expectations, Türkiye would have truly become a global matter at the scale they desired to achieve. Their expectations went down the drain. The results of the election invalidated all likely scenarios for a while.

Headlines such as, “Are we finally getting rid of Erdoğan,” or, “Türkiye’s elections shadowed by despotism,” by foreign magazines and newspapers, revealed the conformity between the local national and foreign opposition groups' agenda. Local national opposition groups used almost the same arguments. As a significant portion of the conservative elite have, since 2013, been openly acting in compliance with foreign powers, it was much easier for a national agenda to gain a global dimension. In this respect, the election-related headlines by national newspapers such as Karar being in sync with the foreign discourse, and the position of pro-West conservative parties were extremely critical. They used the same arguments as foreign media outlets and politicians. As a result, the similarity between U.S. President Joe Biden’s statements and Turkish opposition groups regarding Türkiye and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would no longer be regarded strange. This was truly a great accomplishment. Had they won the election, everybody would have seen what this accomplishment signified.

As the election process itself became a world matter, the results would easily be associated with global organizations. Considering major organizations such as NATO’s problems with Türkiye, it is not too difficult to guess the direction developments would take. In current negotiations considering Sweden’s NATO bid in relation to the Ukraine War, Türkiye rightfully brought to the table the West’s support for terrorist organizations such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and its Syrian wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). This, without any doubt, is Türkiye’s local and national policy. Türkiye turned terrorist organizations into a global matter. We can consider this as a medium-term strategy. While they are busy assigning Türkiye-related global matters in their own way, Türkiye brought terrorist organizations to the table as a global matter. Thus, Western countries’ support for terrorist organizations like the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), and the PKK-PYD was included in official documents for the first time in negotiations concerning Sweden’s NATO bid. This is directly associated with the election process. If the election was won by the opposition, this document would have no significance, and the agenda in Türkiye would be determined based on discourses about Western liberal ideology’s victory. Naturally, our position on the Ukraine War would have changed. The election determined the destiny of two opposite globalizations.

But what will happen next? Will the opposition conservative politicians return to their “homes”? Will the results of the conservative implantation on the Turkish left be considered invalid? Will the new conservative elites renew their faith, return to the local and national ideology, and forget their resentment? Will their former groups be made to accept the conservative elites as desired by certain political groups? For example, will the covert support provided to terrorist organizations, which has become a global matter thanks to the election resulting in favor of Erdoğan, be disregarded? Will the more open support provided to FETÖ be forgotten?

These are not the right questions. We can come across certain personal events, but the existence of dependent groups is an organizational issue. They became involved in terror as a result of their dependence on the West. Hence, we are not analyzing the state of a personal choice. We all know they got very close to success. The existing opposition will continue in different forms.