A Short Summary of Last Week

In a very short period of time, namely within a week, the following events occurred in Turkey: The president refused to sign a decree with the power of law which would make it easier for the government to expel state officials who are suspected of being reactionary or separatist. The president said the decree was against the Constitution and requested that the government bring the issue to the floor of Parliament. Two days later, the government decided to send the decree back to the president, and the prime minister said that the president must sign it now. He added that the president may opt to apply to the Supreme Court after signing it if he still thinks the decree is against the Constitution. The same day, the president travelled from Ankara to Istanbul and the prime minister said that the president didn't want to meet him, neither during the given week nor this present one. The next day, the president announced that his trip to Istanbul was only a routine visit and denied the allegations that he was unwilling to meet the prime minister. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit announced a day later that if the president doesn't sign the decree this time, there will be a "state crisis." This is a new term in the political arena, and nobody understood what he meant. Did he mean a coup, or that he would have to urge to the president to resign? -- Nobody could make a guess. I would like to remind you that only a few months ago the prime minister himself nominated Ahmet Necdet Sezer for the presidency. Don't ask me why the government doesn't bring the decree to Parliament where it has an overwhelming majority in a country whose political system is called a parliamentary democracy!

During the same week: The nephew of former President Suleyman Demirel, Murat Demirel, was stabbed in the thigh at an army barracks by a man whose reasons for acting have so far not been understood. Murat Demirel had bought a bank during his uncle's presidency and had bankrupted the bank while his uncle was still at that post. He has been in court facing various allegations to the effect that he transferred the bank's savings to his personal accounts. Murat was doing his 30-day military service when he was stabbed. According to the papers, none of his friends who are doing their service at the same barracks have seen him during these 30 days, either at drills or sleeping in the bunkroom or at the soldiers' mealtime. Don't ask me whether the same rules apply to everybody in the army! Later, Murat finished his 30-day term and flew in his private jet to his dear father's house and had a weekend's rest. Besides Murat's bank, in the bankrupted banks of Cavit Caglar and Ali Balkaner -- all very, very close friends of Mr. Demirel -- some $3.5-4.5 million got lost last year, according to official reports.

Again, during the same week, State Prosecutor Nuh Mete Yuksel demanded that religious leader Fethullah Gülen be arrested. Gülen is the leader of the "Fethullah Congregation," and some 6 million people in Anatolia follow his teachings. He had moved to the United States after being severely criticized by the February 28 administration. This congregation is famous for opening hundreds of schools in Turkey and abroad, and these schools are financed with the donations of Gülen's followers. The first court to which the prosecutor applied for the arrest order declined to release the order, but another court released the order with the same allegations with an unanimous vote. There is not a single official report which claim that these schools are running religious programs, either in or outside Turkey, but the prosecutor said that he would study the schools later! Yuksel, in his allegations, relies on various speeches Gülen made before 1990. According to him, these speeches prove that Gülen has established a gang to overthrow the secular state.

Some say that Turkey is very complex country and that it's very difficult to understand what is going on here. I do not agree with these people at all! On the contrary, Turkey is a very simple country, where everybody plays their games openly. Nobody feels the need to be discreet. By observing only one week, you can understand what is really going on in Turkey and what kind of political and economic structure the country has.

TURKISH DAILY NEWS