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Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 3
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AK Party, EU and The General Elections
AK PARTY, EUROEAN UNION AND THE GENERAL ELECTIONS
In about one month time, on July 22 about 42 Million Turkish electors will vote for the party they want to be ruled by in the next five years. The current Justice and Development Party (AK Party) under the Premiership of Mr Tayyip Erdogan, looks to produce good result in the next general elections but whether it will exceed the number of seats it got in the previous general elections or loose a number of the seats it currently occupies in the parliament is not for certain. But as I already said predominant view is that AK Party and Mr Erdogan will win their second consecutive general election.
The past four and half years of AK Party government under the leadership of Tayyip Erdogan has revived Turkey economically and politically and hence recovered some of the honor and respect lost during gloomy years of two-three party coalition governments, in particular from the early nineties till the capture of government helmet by AK Party in the general elections of 2002.
During the past four and half years, the AK Party government speeded up the political and economic reform process to put Turkey back on the high-speed developing track again. Although it still much like bumpy long ride ahead, thanks to the economic and political reforms in line with Copenhagen Criteria’s set by the European Union Turkey’s economic and political image has brightened. As one popular Turkish saying goes, “she has got blood running on her face again” that is Turkey is back on its foot and if not jogging walking again on the right direction.
This of course doesn’t mean that Turkey will join the European Union anytime soon, because it’s a two-sided issue were EU as whole has to want to see Turkey as a future full-member and Turkey has to continue working day and night on important economic and political issues. But it certainly shows that the current AK Party government in Turkey has builded up on what was started by the previous coalition government, namely the abolition of the death-penalty and was consequently rewarded by the EU with the start of the Accession Negotiations towards the end of 2005. Naturally and in a cheerful way this has encouraged Turkey to do more in the context of major economic and political reforms asked by the EU. For a while Turkey Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his colleagues did continue with the dizzy pace of political and reform process which was eye-catching for many people in and outside of Turkey.
Then this fast-lane reforms period slowed down and the government in Ankara received messages from the EU that the reform pace should be kept up and with strong emphasis on the implementation of the reforms which have been already passed through the parliament. As messages continued flying from Brussels to Ankara, the government set back again and gave gas to economic and political reforms in Turkey. But it must be said that the speed of these reforms are noticeably in a lower gear and I think there is one important reason worth mentioning: AK Party government is a great gift and relief for the Turkish political arena, with all the power and tools in their hand, they fixed reforms one day and passed them the next day. But when it came to the implementation of these reforms, the long and complicated bureaucratic procedures and other bureaucratic hurdles pulled down the speed of the reforms and led to slow and hard to notice implementations. Especially the economic reforms concerning increasing the wealth of ordinary people, aimed at rehabilitating the broken backbone of Turkish economy has caused frustration and anger among the Anatolian people. People have been asking friends, colleagues and journalist who come to visit them time to time, why they have not had the share and benefits of economic development in the country. Its unfortunately and heartbreakingly true that although Turkey has been growing nicely since the capture of the government helmet by AK Party, even faster then the EU itself, the ordinary Anatolian people have not seen their bank-accounts and wallets grow with more hard cash. Its not very nice to say this to the ordinary Anatolian people but its a hard core truth that economic development is a painstaking long process, and especially in case of Turkey were the poor country was dragged into great cruel economic slump by persistent wrongdoing of previous coalition governments, it will certainly take at least another five to ten years before the Anatolian people feel something moving in their bank-accounts and wallets.
Currently the uncertain Presidential Elections and the fixed General Elections for July 22 are two dominant themes in Turkish political arena and they are the two very-hot talkative subjects among people on the street, in the media, and within the political circles. The EU theme is not forgotten it’s just that the other two themes have currently covered the political landscape in Turkey. The EU full-membership will is a must-be-followed aim for the current and future governments for the sake of the country and its people, if Turkey is to achieve political stability, economic prosperity and strong democracy with reliable and working institutions. Some people repeatedly say that we don’t need EU to achieve these aims; yee we wish that were true but we know that we Turks don’t get our mind back before we get whip on our back.
The General Elections scheduled for July 22, is not only about deciding on another single-colour or multi-colour shape of next government but it will also be about deciding on Turkey’s way forward with EU.
Since the enactment of the final constitution subsequent to the coup d’état in 1980, no coalition government was able to stay in office for more than two years and everyone inside and outside of Turkey have seen what of a great political and economic mess those responsible parties have caused. They have pushed Turkey into great political distress and have literally broke the backbone of Turkish economy. However the AK Party, in spite of their palpable weaknesses in politics and economics, inexperiences in dealing with certain political and economic issues has brought Turkey a long way in its aspiration to join EU as a full member state in the future.
But as the General Elections loom on the political horizon and as people start chatting about who they will vote for, it looks like the governing party, AK Party will win its second consequtive elections but with lesser seats in the parliament. According high-circulated newspapers and popular journalist AK Party has been loosing ground to other parties, not as much to the current opposition party, the Peoples Republican Party (CHP) of Deniz Baykal then to newly born Democratic Party (DP) of Mehmet Agar and to re-resing National Action Party (MHP) of Dr. Devlet Bahceli. In certain parts of Turkey, that is to say in some cities where AK Party was able send a majority or good number of it candidates to parliament in 2002 General elections, the other three parties in particular latter two have gained ground and look like they will deliver a good race against AK Party. Thus although it is strongly predicted that AK Party will win a second elections in a row and form another single party government by itself, if the pre-elections forecastings turn into reality and two or three other parties pass the %10 percent threshold and gain seat in the parliament, then AK Party may have to form a coalition governmet with one of the rival parties.
Coalition governments have not brougt any pleasure to Turkey thanks to their internal-fighting nature and saddly but truely I dont believe a new coalition government will do any good to Turkey. A goverment of different colours with different people embodying different opinions but which are supportive on issues that benefits the country and its people and critical on issues that are neither good for the country nor to its people is desirable. But unfortunately in Turkey we have very unmature looking political system where after the coalition is formed and business starts, before even the motor heats up the internal disagreements and fightings clouds the political platform, the coalition partners break up and then comes another election.
So in my view, another single party government is the best choice, for Turkey, its people and the best way forward with European Union. And if AK Party delivers a good result in July 22 General Elections and forms another strong single-party government , I wish to say as Nazim Hikmet says “Beautiful days beckon us, lads, sunny days beckon,”.
Faik SAĞKOL / From Political Science at the University of Salzburg
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