Turkey faces both internal and external, multi-sided and multi-layered perpetual problems. This is the naked truth.

The “perpetual discussions” over the upcoming local elections, is about whether the results will enable and support political actors who are going to deal with those problems, and possibly eliminate them for good.

Perpetual threats; be it those coming from inside or outside the country or as in the example of Turkey the internal and external elements that are cooperating in “creating national security problems”, are clearly related to the political administration of that country.

If you are saying that “No one in this country has interests that intersect with those of external elements, those kinds of groups are not running in these local elections”, I suggest you get professional help. You are just a supporting cast in the “Alice in Wonderland”.

Another way of putting it is that, after admitting that “Turkey is a country struggling with perpetual problems”, claiming that it has nothing to do with these local elections means that willingly or unwillingly you are becoming a part of those problem. This is the reality for every citizen who is capable of reading the political landscape of this country.

I said in various TV programs I was on and I also reiterated my offer on this column I share with my followers to start academic research that is going to put an end to these discussions once and for all.

Let’s refresh our memories these days when the quality and quantity discussions are being made about local think-tanks, and when our intellectual and academic expertise are often expected to come up with solutions and contribute to creative production…

I find it important to make a list of countries of the world, including Turkey, which compares and contrasts them after identifying each country’s external and internal national security risks through multidisciplinary research.

Every country has its own problems. Every country has some external-internal threats. Moreover, countries like the US, Russia, and China might even have long lists of “problems of their own” that they have to deal with. But you will realize that their problems are on our list too!

To simply put it, what if a country’s regional commander (CENTCOM), while attempting to protect the political balance within his country, tries to carve out our borders in favor of a third country in the region in order to strengthen their position?

I think Turkey will be on the top of that list by far only after properly analyzing the terrorist pair, FETÖ and PKK, and their allies.

Would you be able to find tens of thousands of traitors within any other country’s army? Would the other good half of that country be able to enter a region on its southern borders, where two superpowers are present and had turned into a bloodbath, only 20 days after the entire world said that “this is it, this army is never going to recover its former strength again” and even yet win? Would any other country’s certain historical allies be constantly creating problems for that country?

For instance, in political sociology, if a country’s regime is completely transformed after surviving unprecedented attacks over the last 20 years, normally it is expected that the opposition of that country to transform itself completely.

If the opposition in that country, however, is not changing even though they lose every election and even after their own supporters began to say “well, we don’t even understand” it means that there is a perpetual problem here. This is a problem for that political party too…

Unfortunately, the President of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s move to make things personal and his political aspirations don’t provide any solutions: “No one is irreplaceable. Erdoğan too isn’t irreplaceable. Turkey is not dealing with a perpetual problem. What perpetual problem?”

A great drama.

Let’s say this interpretation can be chalked up as political rivalry. Okay, let’s leave the President aside and ask, is the CHP capable of fighting, managing or even understanding Turkey’s perpetual problems?

If you ignore the last 20 years of crises Turkey has gone through, which no other country can possibly survive unscathed, Turkey is going to ignore you in return.

I know many people who support the CHP. No offense. I should give you an example from my professional field, within the last 4 years in my TV shows, in newspapers, I have listened to, read, and talked with their top administrators or even people who were expected to become foreign ministers if they had come out victorious in the elections… Do you know what struck me as sad? They knew nothing! They didn’t understand that the paradigm has shifted. This is not meant to paint the whole cadre with the same brush, but even if anyone does know, will the CHP allow them to thrive in the party?

That is why, how can we compare their experiences with those of a political party which has managed the foreign policy of a country like Turkey during its last and most tumultuous 20 years, at times successfully and at others less so (all of which have to be criticized harshly.)

The point that needs to be made is always missed… They don’t even say “of course Turkey has perpetual and national security problems, but Erdoğan can’t deal with them, we can”, they say “there are no problems”!

What does that mean?

A friend of mine, who is a seasoned political sciences professor simplified this paradox masterfully: “they are not saying this to those who are inside this country”…

What does, saying “there are no perpetual problems” to the outsiders mean?