They would love to get rid of the prime minister, but they are not sure whether they can find an alternative to him.

- 20 / 05 / 2008 07:59

It is heartbreaking to be one of Turkey's secularist elite nowadays. They have the conviction that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is the center of anti-secular activities, but they are not sure whether they want the party closed.

They would love to get rid of the prime minister, but they are not sure whether they can find an alternative to him. I don't know what their alternative to praying to God is, but whatever it is, they should be doing it with the hope that both the AK Party and its seemingly unshakable leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will be laicized overnight. Look, how happy they are with the converts to laicism in the press! Remember how their appetite was whetted when the veiled wife of former İstanbul Mayor Ali Müfit Gürtuna decided to "come out of the closet" -- and "what a beauty was hidden by that ugly headscarf!"

There is nothing wrong in a woman's decision to veil or unveil herself; just as there is nothing wrong with the AK Party "taking off the shirt of the National View," but neither should make them more or less acceptable to society or more or less "equal" before the law.

We have been hearing calls from the secularist-elitist circles for the AK Party to assuage their concerns about the future of Turkey's secular regime. That is a legitimate expectation. But asking for respect and security is not the same as asking for conversion. If these people will feel secure only if AK Party becomes one of them, what is the logic of democracy, elections, change of governments, ideological positions of political parties and leadership differences? If the government respects, secures and guarantees the rights of the opposition -- that should be enough for legitimacy. "Be like us, if you want to be there!" is not a democratic option.

The same is true for the AK Party's desires, hopes and plans for the future of this country. It should be all-embracing, but not all-possessing. A recent billboard from one of the AK party youth wings reads, "We are the past, present and future of this country!" That is not the same as saying, "We work for the past, present and future of this country!" The AK Party is not the whole picture and neither is the secularist-elitist minority.

Ankara has always been rich by means of scenarios. But the reason for this was the fertile brains of politicians and journalists, not the fertile ground of politics itself. Now the system induces scenarios. The latest one is the "third way," as it was named by Parliamentary Speaker Köksal Toptan. Toptan does not have any idea, or does not specify his ideas, on what that third way should be. The conception comes from the fact that the current situation is unacceptable to the "old guard" and the closure of the AK Party is unacceptable for democracy, business, modernization and Europeanization; the overall project of the republic.

The naming is problematic, though. There is no second way. The engine of Turkey continues to run with the AK Party or it stops. What is called the second way is blocked; it does not lead to anything but missing some time and turning back to the first way.

"Third way" is a catchy term. Ankara journalists, diplomats and even AK Party deputies are trying to put meaning into that term. One attempt is as catchy as the word itself; the şeş-beş (six to five) solution. According to this formula, the eleven members of the Constitutional Court vote on the case, with six members voting for the closure of the AK Party and five voting against. The "road map" becomes tangled there. Since the Constitution requires a majority of seven to four for a closure case to be decided, the AK Party would not be closed and its accused members would not be punished. But şeş-beş would mean that the AK Party was indeed the center of anti-secular activities and that would amount to "punishing without closing," say the script writers of the third way.

Where does this go? This is yet another black hole of the Turkish judicial system. If the şeş-beş scenario materializes, the Constitutional Court's decision will block its own judicial mechanism: "We found you guilty, but we cannot punish you by closing down your party. So please accept the fact that we found you guilty as a punishment!" That is the plain meaning of şeş-beş.

The "third way" is a flexible vessel; fill it with whatever you want.