President of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) Can Peker hosted a dinner party at his house in Otağtepe, a trendy district of Istanbul, on Saturday, May 3.

- 18 / 05 / 2008 12:24

Among his guests were Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and some renowned journalists. So one cannot help but be curious about what they talked over dinner.

The report I prepared (on Kanal D television on May 4) about this gathering and the article I wrote (for daily Posta on May 6) cost me a lot.

My very close friends were offended and I faced three different disclaimers issued by the Prime Ministry. If I had known this before, I wouldn't even touch upon it.

However, messages Erdoğan gave that Saturday evening were critical. That's why I named the content of conversations on that night as the “Otağtepe criteria” and wanted to share them with the public.

Suffering uncertainties

 Turkey was finally clearing its way out. At least, it was becoming somewhat predictable what we would go through. We were about to have an image of a prime minister who knows what he wants and what he does. But now, everything is worse than ever and I am puzzled, because the Otağtepe criteria are either being implemented openly or announced by the prime minister himself, since I wrote them.

  Let's check here what the Otağtepe criteria are… Erdoğan had said “I will not cause tension; I will not even respond to Deniz Baykal.”

 Indeed, he is extremely careful, so much that this surprises his party officials and they have even started to ask: “What's going on with him?”

The prime minister clearly is holding himself back, even though it is against his nature (Erdoğan is famous for going ballistic when angry), the prime minister still resists.

He had clearly announced that he does not want a delay in the court process so will avoid anything to cause a negative ruling; especially no constitutional amendments will be made.

In a speech last week, Erdoğan talked about the same issue again. He repeated that no constitutional changes are on the agenda and the party will wait for the court's decision and will be satisfied to submit the party's defense only.

The prime minister had also said that if he was banned from politics, he would come back as an independent candidate; so, he is examining the ways. There is no single obstacle for not doing so, he figured out.

President of the Higher Election Board Muammer Aydın announced last week that Erdoğan could return to politics as an independent candidate.

Erdoğan stressed that he is against artificial solutions and will not surrender to conciliation. Mr. prime minister speaks openly now.

 In fact, he announced that steps for consensus would not be taken by making changes in the cabinet or in the Education Ministry. Only one of the Otağtepe criteria is still unclear. And we'll hear it after the Constitutional Court closes the case. The only criterion remaining unveiled yet is the name of the new party to be formed after the AKP. That sums up to: We went through tension for nothing and disclaimers were issued for nothing…    

  Let's enforce the smoking ban:

  We are experiencing a revolution since Monday; a real revolution it is. I am talking about the smoking ban. In a country like Turkey where people are heavy smokers and are inclined to violate laws, the smoking ban will hardly be implemented.

But we have to accomplish this; otherwise, more people will get sick and die. But if we do achieve it, we'll save our people.

The only way to set us free from cigarettes is to abide by this new law. I, you and we, all of us, should follow this ban. If we cannot hold on to it, we will surrender to the mentality “This is my only escape. Leave me alone; let me smoke my cigarette freely.”

We'll face huge resistance to the ban. Since it is impossible to send a police officer to every single closed area, we'll act as if there is no such ban. But we must break the resistance. If we read the violation of smoking ban as a rebel against the state, or a boycott of bans, we'll miss this opportunity.

 I will be egotistical; for the sake of saving smokers despite themselves, of saving my close circles against smokers, and will keep fighting if this ban is broken.

I will report the violators. You should do that too. Let's save both others and ourselves; go report them or issue complaints about violators of the smoking ban.

And for that, you should never feel ashamed because the right to live is superior. If the person sitting next to you is a threat to your health, do not tolerate this. What else could be more important in your life? Fight against people who want to rip you off your right to live. If we do not claim our rights, we lose this fight. Come on, let's fight together and for the sake of our health say “no” to smokers. We have nothing to lose.