GETTING ACCUSTOMED
Yusuf Kanli

Hurriyet
Jan 20 2010
Turkey

Years ago, after he inspected an honor guard in his slippers and shorts
creating a barrage of criticism, late President Turgut Ozal declared
"they will get accustomed to it."

At the time, one officer did not spend much time and wrote a letter to
the president declaring "I just cannot get accustomed …" That officer
was sacked from the military. Since then, this "getting accustomed"
business has been often on the agenda of the country, more frequently
since the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, started its
"openings" drive.

The Azerbaijanis and large sections of the nationalist-patriotic Turks
are having difficulty getting accustomed to the Armenian "opening."

That "opening" has apparently grounded with the Armenian Constitutional
Court’s reference to "western Armenia" (part of Turkey) and the
1915 killings of Armenians in its reasoned decision about the
constitutionality of Turkish-Armenian protocols signed last year and
awaiting parliamentary approval in both countries. Even though not yet
firmly "closed," the Armenian "opening" is definitely in a deadlock.

The Cyprus "opening" has plunged into a dead-end as well with Greek
Cypriots flatly rejecting the latest Turkish-Turkish Cypriot proposals
in which the Greek Cypriot "cross voting" or "weighted voting"
proposal was accepted with some minor amendments, together with
some minor issues, the demand for according "equal status" to Turkey
and European Union-member Greece by the new federation until Ankara
joined the EU. Greece and Turkey are apparently working behind the
scenes to patch up the situation and perhaps some good news may come
out if and when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visits Greece
"shortly." Yet, time is running out and soon northern Cyprus will
go to an election that is expected to end with the replacement of
pro-federal settlement President Mehmet Ali Talat with pro-velvet
divorce Prime Minister DerviÅ~_ Eroglu in the presidency.

The Kurdish "opening," on the other hand, has been in a coma since the
Habur red-carpet treatment for a bunch of "returning not so criminal
terrorists" that outraged the Turkish public. Though the government
has been stressing that the "opening" was not definitely "closed,"
all its efforts to revive it so far since the Habur incident have all
failed to produce any result. Opinion polls show that the government
has so far failed to get Turks accustomed to that "opening." Perhaps,
that is mostly because of the fact that after so many months since
it was first spelled out, it is still not clear what indeed the
Kurdish "opening" of the government – which is being condemned by
the opposition as "Turkey’s disintegration project" – is.

The government has other "openings" that it wants the nation to
get accustomed to as well. One is the "Alevi opening," another one
is the "Roma opening." What are they? No one, apparently including
the government, has any idea, but the government wants Turks to get
accustomed to them.

There is also a "referendum opening" looming on the horizon. No
one has any idea why the government all of a sudden has undertaken
such an "opening" and wanted to shorten the 120-day period between
a referendum decision and the day Turks vote on the issue referred
to a public vote. The government wanted to shorten that period to 45
days, but during a parliamentary committee debate on the issue, at
the request of the Supreme Electoral Board saying it needed at least
60 days to get prepared for a referendum, the government-sponsored
text was changed accordingly. Soon the issue will be taken up and
legislated by Parliament.

The prime minister has said Turks must get accustomed to referendums.

Political pundits of the AKP and the ruling party’s penslingers in
the media have all been defending that referring important issues
to public vote would indeed be an exercise of direct democracy, and
excluding inalienable individual rights, everything might be referred
to public vote.

Naturally, no one can oppose the referendum mechanism. No one can
oppose the nation making the final decision on a much contested
subject. Yet, perhaps as a result of the deep confidence crisis
in Turkish politics or because of the Constitutional Court verdict
condemning the AKP as a focus of anti-secular activities, there are
fears that the ruling party has decided to resort to a referendum
in legislating the changes it very much wanted to undertake in the
country but for various reasons either failed or just could not
undertake so far. That is, the fear is that the AKP might be indeed
after consolidating its majoritarian and autocratic governance
understanding with a democratic referendum coating.

Shall we get accustomed to institutionalization of rule through
referenda?