The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) achieved a glorious success in the Nov. 1 elections.
We were at the AK Party head quarters on the election night with Serpil Çevikcan from Milliyet newspaper, Mustafa Kartoğlu from Star newspaper and Murat Çelik from Vatan newspaper.
We were in the room of Ömer Çelik, the vice president responsible for media.
Vice presidents Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Naci Ağbal and Group Deputy Chairman Mahir Ünal were present too.
AK Party directors were receiving congratulations calls while following the results of the election.
The roads leading to the AK Party headquarters were in a carnival mood, and the thousands in front of the headquarters were rejoicing. The AK Party had achieved a dazzling success and was reborn from its ashes just like a phoenix. I tried to observe and understand the psychology dominating the AK Party headquarters. I spoke with the party directors that accompanied the Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu during his balcony speech. “The people gave us another chance,” mood was dominating the party building.
We had the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Davutoğlu after his balcony speech.
He was relieved as if a heavy weight was removed from his shoulders. He was happy.
We asked, “What do you feel, are you tired?” He replied, “ I can work for three days without sleeping.” And then he asked us, “ Did you guess this result?” Two days before the elections, we were at the prime minister's house in Konya. He had given us his last messages. But, none of us could say, “You will form a government alone.” Therefore, we replied “No” to the prime minister's question.
His wife Sare Davutoğlu was standing right beside him. We asked the prime minister, “ If it were up to you, what would your headline be today?” While Davutoğlu was thinking the first lady answered, “Turkey won.” The prime minister repeated, “Turkey wons.”
The AK Party won a grand victory. The prime minister visited the Mevlana Museum in Konya, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Eyüp Sultan Mosque in Istanbul, and they both performed gratitude prayers and read the Quran.
When the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) directors passed the election threshold they started to walk boastfully, and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli turned into a pot full of vanity.
However, Erdoğan and Davutoğlu preferred to be “grateful” and welcomed this great success with maturity and humbleness.
After his visit to Mevlana, the prime minister said, “We are here to sow the seeds of love.” Polarizing immensely since the Gezi Park riots, he gave a message Turkey really needed to hear.
The Nov. 1 elections were not only done to elect deputies, an era closed and a new one started.
Well, what will the codes of this new era be? What kind of a road map awaits us during the AK Party's government?
I would like to share the results I reached since the night of the elections and the perspective on the new era.
The AK Party staff regards the new period starting from the Nov. 1 elections, as the closing of brackets after the Gezi Park incidents.
In May 2013, the third airport tender was done, the foundations of the third bridge were laid and a $22 billion nuclear power station investment agreement was signed with Japan. The PKK had started to retreat during the reconciliation process. The old Turkey was elutriated and the building of the new Turkey had started.
However, groups that were interested in preventing the old Turkey activated the streets with the Gezi riots. The Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 coup attempts by the parallel structure and the PKK-HDP opposition in the last year added to this. Thereby, those who didn't allow the formation of a new Turkey formed a new “front.” Since May 2013, the codes of the old Turkey mobilized, and a period of “the wars of the fronts” started.
During this period, the AK Party changed leaders, and its partner in the reconciliation process changed fronts. Amid this confusion, Turkey executed the March 30 local elections and the Aug. 10 presidential elections. The AK Party won the election, yet the stones haven't yet fallen into place.
The street tutelage developed with the Gezi incidents, a tape tutelage with the parallel structure, a terror tutelage with the PKK-HDP, and they all merged with the opposition forming a Voltron. Turkey faced the danger of being pushed into an “interregnum” with these players of the power unification pulling down the AK Party on June 7.
The AK Party, however, read the message the people gave in the June 7 ballot box. It went through a sincere interrogation. “I received your message,” said the AK Party. The people also had the opportunity to review a Turkey without the AK Party, and politics in which the AK Party isn't the subject. The mutually lived period, found a solution on Nov. 1.
On Nov. 1, the people redesigned the balance by bringing AK Party to power with 49.5 percent of the votes. After closing the bracket that was opened with the Gezi incidents, the start of a new Turkey was launched.
The AK Party now feels liable to fulfill the message of the people with a new era politics.
1- The new tone of the new era will be inclusive. The party will move from opposition politics to inclusive politics.
2- If the Nov. 1 results are appraised properly; this can be a milestone to building a new Turkey. The AK Party and Republican People's Party (CHP) coming to the forefront, and the identity politics decreasing the votes of the HDP and MHP, are evaluated as the main backbone of politics.
The AK Party government has four years ahead of it. Instead of wasting this period with unproductive debates, the AK Party sees this period as a chance to rebuild a new Turkey.
There are two keys for this.
1- A powerful reform period will be started. Thus, a new constitution will come up. This will be a constitution in which; both Alevis and Kurds will be included in an inclusive nationality definition, and the liberal side will dominate. The AK Party is in a close proximity with the CHP on the constitution issue.
2 - An economic development period. One-hundred-day and six-month concepts will be developed for this reason. Since 2013, Turkey had lost its economic development agenda. This delay, along with the 2023 perspective, will be used to move onto a development period.
In the meantime, it seems like I can hear the people asking the AK Party about its election privileges. The first thing the AK Party will do is to fulfill the election pledges. The elections are over and the pledges are forgotten will not be the case. Priority will be given to the pledges...
