The current debate ahead of the elections is centered on a topic such as Turkey’s perpetuity problem, a matter that is actually beyond politics, naturally seems meaningless to some. Frankly, the first thing to be noted should be that there is no discussion that is meaningless in terms of political hermeneutics. An agenda, or discussion topic, or statement that seems to be the most irrelevant even carries meaning. Meaning might be something the response to which is found not only within the theme, topic, or statement itself, but in those who pronounce it, or those who are its addressees.
Meanwhile, those who consider the discussion of the perpetuity problem meaningless in terms of the local elections, obviously find it significant for the general elections - what they are objecting is that this has carried off to the local elections as well. Yet, if we are discussing the significance of a perpetuity problem for the general elections, expecting this to be completely off the agenda in elections to be held not even a year apart, is no different to playing the other for a fool.
Frankly, it is another fact that constantly continuing political discussions in a country in the shadow of security or perpetuity discussions, or trying to end it with this problem as an excuse, carries an aspect that works against politics. Of course, it would be unfair to claim that all disputes are imposed from the top or from the outside, like none of the discussions, disintegrations have their own significance, right or relationship, especially in the local area. All likelihoods of politics cannot be wasted on such a deduction.
Additionally, this undebatable reality does not show that Turkey has overcome the perpetuity problem, and that this problem has given Turkey a three-day break. As the popular saying goes, we are not paranoid; that we are not paranoid does not mean we are not being followed either. As a matter of fact, we are experiencing together all the impacts and results of the myriad of attacks we are currently going through based on deep-seated international relations.
None of the attacks Turkey has encountered consecutively within the last eight years were jokes to be taken lightly. The call of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) undersecretary to give a statement on Feb. 7, the Dec. 17-25 Fetullah Terror Organization (FETÖ) judicial coup attempt, the tensions experienced ahead of the 2014 local elections, the Oct. 6-8 Kobani incidents, the events that took place ahead of the June 7, 2015 elections, the July 15 coup attempt, and the covert coup attempts that took place after it...
All these attacks have shown - by revealing their outside connections and support - that the debates and tensions which appear to be bubbling inside Turkey, among its own people, do not start and end at Turkey's borders.
The interesting and dangerous aspect is that the elections, which is the most important trivet of democracy, can be considered an important opportunity to achieve results where necessary.
Ever since Karl Marx's criticisms aimed at bourgeois democracies, of course we are aware that even in their most developed forms in Europe, they are open to such likelihoods or opportunities. Elections held Middle Eastern countries under imperialist countries' control, are easily guaranteed with the orders placed on the ballots anyway. Yet, in open, transparent democracies open to competition, such as Turkey, interventions have always been attempted through shock effects and manipulations targeting voters' psychology.
For those who have difficulty thinking about the local elections together with the perpetuity problem, let us recall how the 2013 local elections took place in the shadow of the Dec. 17-25 judicial coup attempts. Those elections were also local, but it has gone into history as the best example showing that nothing remains local in a region like Turkey. Had they achieved their desired results from the interventions they made against the local elections held that day, this would have also impacted the first presidential elections held in August, and they would have toppled Recep Tayyip Erdoğan through elections. Elections are events whose legitimacy can be debated by nobody in democracies.
The June 7 election was not a local election, but was it not once again a perfect example of how the path leading to the outcome that will come out of the ballot box is paved by non-political powers? Were the great powers of the world as well as many segments inside Turkey, along with the main opposition party, assuming the duty to support the Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP) in those elections, the natural result of a democratic discussion throughout Turkey? It should be accepted that to a point, in other words, up to the point they reached the people's boundaries, it was a very successful operation.
Unfortunately, politics in Turkey does not run a negotiative democracy romanticism between the sides.
We have seen enough that the powers of the so-called democratic world, which are trying to shape the world to their desire today, did not even mourn any of the democracies that were lost. It will not be European democracies to cry a river over Turkey if it falls, but those who encounter oppression worldwide, and the oppressed who have nowhere else to go but Turkey when seeking a place to take refuge. They should not be made to cry any further.
Turkey's perpetuity problem is a topic that should be observed not only in local or general elections, but in all kinds of politics and actions.
This does not change the fact that the local elections are an important opportunity for politicians to reflect on themselves in the eyes of the people. Regardless of what anybody says, and of course, without neglecting the perpetuity problem either, not is the time to pay attention to the reality that the people have the final say.
