Turkey has more, not less, in terms of democracy

As Turkey focuses on snap election discussions and the likely candidates have entered the final course with great excitement, drifts and surprises, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is holding its term convention in Strasbourg.

It is possible to observe the problems in Europe as well as the course of approaches toward Turkey in PACE, which is taking place with limited participation from Turkey due to the sudden decision for early elections.

In the recent period, after the scandal of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize given every year within the scope of Pace, being given to former Association for the Union of Judges and Prosecutors (YARSAV) President Murat Arslan, who is standing trial for being a member of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), last year led to a seriously problematic period between Turkey and PACE.

Turkey, which is one of the founders of PACE, has been one of its main sponsors for the past few years. When this great mistake was added to the decision to monitor Turkey following a forced report after making room for terrorist organizations, and Turkey withdrew from being a main sponsor and came to the point of having the same responsibilities as other member states, PACE had to cut down on many areas, expenses, and recruitment.

PACE Secretary-General Thorbjørn Jagland said in the January Plenary Session’s opening speech that populism was, in general the problem with democracy in Europe, and especially PACE.

The aspect of this populism affecting Turkey is European politicians surrendering very easily to Islamophobia or Turkophobia (currently Erdoğanophobia), which has become coin of the realm, and, quickly buying everything against Islam, Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan without knowing the facts and without going to the trouble of trying to find out. Yet, this inclination may be considered a populist submission of politicians to this general trend, which has become an ideology among the public.

PACE conventions started with another great mistake this year, not any less significant than the Murat Arslan incident.

A conference targeting Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch was organized at the PACE building, with the initiative of the Unified European Left (UEL) Group president to get the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) – which Europe also recognizes as a terrorist organization – Syrian affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD) leader Saleh Muslim to make a speech. The conference which Muslim-- for whom there is a red notice arrest warrant due to the terror attacks that were conducted in Turkey with his orders that led to a large number of deaths-- was going to speak at was not announced in advance.

Of course, bringing a terrorist organization leader, who has a red note out for him for terrorist attacks, being brought to the PACE building under the strict protection of the French police who have a duty to arrest him, is not something that can be simply explained with PACE’s democratic internal operation mechanism. What is in question here is France standing behind the promise it announced earlier and made to the PYD, openly and challengingly supporting it. With this approach declaring that it does not recognize any valid data or discourse related to terrorism, France severely abused PACE for this political stance.

Of course, the general atmosphere dominating PACE is extremely convenient to accept such an incident. In this case, there was no choice other than at least for the president of the Turkey delegation, Akif Çağatay Kılıç, to leave in protest of this incident.

In the following sessions, the report on the state of emergency, which was discussed in PACE yesterday and which is in place in many European countries, was, along with criticisms aimed at the state of emergency in Turkey, tied to a decision with a warning that early elections would not comply with European standards. This is an approach that gives the impression that either the dimension of the July 15 coup attempt Turkey faced has still not been comprehended, or that they are part of it. The attitude displayed by the Turkish nation on July 15 was, if it was a little honest, also a defense of the values upheld by Europe. Those who staged the coup targeting values such as democracy, parliament, human rights, freedoms, is a structure that is a secret and sly network, which the likes has never before been seen anywhere in Europe or the world. Of course it is impossible to decide on how much of the measures taken against those will be enough in Europe’s indifferent terms. That is of course, if it has enough sincerity to make such a decision.

There is no satisfying reason how the elections Turkey will be holding on June 24 falls short of European standards. They think or they claim that the opposition has no opportunity, condition, room or freedom to carry out its campaign and put forth its moves.

How can we ask if they are being unjust toward the ruling government or the opposition in Turkey this way? If they are unable to see that our opposition is able to shake all of Turkey’s political practices in just a matter of a few days and make acrobatic maneuvers, how can we tell them? Doesn’t the main opposition’s autocracy in relation to being able to appoint any one of its own member deputies to another party create a problem for PACE?

If it does, then should this matter be evaluated within the scope of the opposition’s capacity to be able to use excessive freedom, within the context of opposition parties’ own internal autocracy, or related to the ruling government to being able to provide or protect an environment that gives the opportunity for such things?

When you look at the atmosphere, nobody seems to be complaining about being caught in a snap election. As you can see, everyone is in a festive mood. Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader is able to knock on former President Abddullah Gül’s door to make him president instead of running for president himself. As the CHP leader has accepted in advance that he cannot win, he is looking for a solution, a political sacrifice for himself. As for Gül, he appears to be holding the door open to everyone and waiting for the proposals without distinguishing between those seeking a sacrifice. Temel Karamollaoğlu is further intensifying the matter. Among all this, those opposing Erdoğan are taking incredible steps. There are big and small, hopeful and hopeless, desperate and confident, all kinds of actors on the stage here. What is Erdoğan doing other than exercising his political evaluation right against these moves?

It is clear that there are many things in this election that are not in Europe, but for God’s sake, what is lacking in terms of democracy. There is more, nothing lacking.