Time is cruel; it causes everyone to grow old and leaves him or her behind. Time showed its cruelty in the 80s to the center right in Turkey.

It’s noteworthy to remember why ANAP and DYP effaced from the surface of history. The key word is “change”. The change began to appear in the field of economy and new actors took the stage. The new actors demanded a change in the monopolistic economic structure and for setting the competition market rules, which also politicized the actors in that extent. 

This politicization was realized by pushing through state opportunities, which led to the veins of the unearned income, and the economic polarization, which was overlaid on a cultural polarization and became intertwined with it and thus remained in this position. 

After that period, the change in the social field was expedited. The political demands began to settle on a new understanding of the individual.  The cultural and origin-based re-forming of the social belonging groups turned into a change of wave which puts the Islamic, ethnic and identity sensitivities to the forefront. 

We may put it this way: 

Even though significant clashes in Turkey are always cultural, meaning they appeared based on beliefs, life style and identities, the center right and left parties for a long time identified the demands of other groups, primarily Kurds and Islamists, as economic demands. Thus, they reflected the system in that way. 

These social groups, which the political system alienated due to their existence in the 80s and 90s, and their demands were reinforced by the creation of sources and utility instruments in terms of their intellectuals, media, political party and institutions. Thus, they engaged in an open competition and clash with other groups.  Hence, this of course opened a new page for a cold war. 

Subsequently, the new global winds started to blow. These winds, in part, carried human rights and freedom to the private, closed areas and strengthened the demand of individuals for their individual rights interconnecting with their identity rights. 

This was a kind of groundbreaking development, which made the socialist and liberal paradigm resemble each other based on an isolated individual or group in the political references concerning social movements. These social movements are associated with origin, culture and a belief that broaden the individual’s concept of rights and freedom. This change of wave ranging from the society to capital , as its most significant consequence, brought differentiation in both the economic and social structures.

This also meant the beginning of the collapse of the center right. As a matter of fact, the most important input of the 1990s was that at the face of society’s inclination for a change, the center parties and especially the center right parties retained their old language. What was beyond is that it went into a clash with new demands after pushing the alarm button. 

Therefore, the perception of the change by the system as a pathological situation or with reaction led to a chain of crises, which ranged from society to politics in just a short term. 

That congestion did not just remain there because it cut the center parties off from their traditional structures in terms of the discourse, team-body and mentality and messed their organizational structures while feeding the personal hegemonies. 

Consequentially, political parties were weakened in their ability for representation. Their fixated vote base tended to dissolve. Finally, instead of having a representation and structural renovation, they tended to move towards the inside of the state, which they previously stood at the margin. New people who knew how to communicate with society have replaced them. This story must be a lesson invariably for everyone ranging from those who are in authority to those who are in the opposition. The main issue of Turkey today is the pluralizing of the perception of politics and citizenship. Those who stand against it, stand against time.  From the hot political issues, Kurdish question, veil debates, identity issues to freedom, this is the “line of bearing”.