7 June: a rich provision for the road

The results of the 1 November elections, just like the 3 November 2003 elections that first brought the AK Parti to power, had the effect of suddenly ending all the debates that came before in a decisive tone in the AK Parti's favor. Everything again unfolded within the wholeness of the flow of a film, a story, at the end of which the good, that is, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AK Parti, win, and it almost made one say "the end of this adventure (too)."

Every election entered in the last 13 years has had a story with such a beginning and end. In every story and every time, a struggle waged against the different mischief of different villains was decisive, and in the end, with a final in which the good won again, the road was taken toward the next stories. The 3 November 2002 elections, which buried at the ballot box all the parties that were the leftovers of 28 February; the 22 July 2002 elections, which came after the great fight that followed the 27 April memorandum given on account of a President whose wife wears a headscarf, and which again ended all the debate; the 11 June 2011 elections, held in the shadow of the Ergenekon debates and cementing the people's power, the 12 September 2010 referendum, etc. Each of these elections reflected similar story wholes.

In the overall flow of 7 June there was an incompleteness, something left lacking. That story seemed as though it would not end that way. Or, in the idiom almost identified with Erdoğan's story, "that song would not end there." The end of 7 June was only a loop of a song that would end differently.

After every election an attempt is made to interpret the people's message. What did the people mean by this? Truly, it was evident from every aspect that the message the people gave was an incomplete message. By putting a large gap of 16 percent between it and the closest opposition party, the people had not given the party it made first once again a visa to single-party rule. But, looked at together with the other political parties, there was also no open door to any reasonable coalition possibility.

The interpretations made right after 7 June that the people had wanted a coalition could get, from the people to whom such a question was actually put, a very different and surprising answer. The people had not made any party a single-party government, but at least 70 percent said they did not want to be governed by a coalition. The sign of 1 November was hidden precisely in this data. Although 95 percent of the people did not see any party other than the AK Parti having the possibility of ruling alone, 70 percent wanted single-party rule. This meant that at least half of those who voted for parties other than the AK Parti, even if many of them did not vote for it, were willing to accept AK Parti's single-party rule. One-third of this 30 percent segment changed its decision on 1 November and voted for the AK Parti, and the result came about in this way. The remaining two-thirds, even though they did not vote for the AK Parti, wanted the AK Parti to rule alone.

This data shows that the AK Parti is the sole guarantee of social wholeness in Turkey. The new voter map reached with the votes given to the AK Parti in every part of Turkey shows, as much as the differentiation in society's political demands, how much it possesses a desire for unity and wholeness.

The evil that emerged as 7 June approached and drove society into great unease was an unprecedented alliance of mischief aimed at Turkey's bodily integrity. In the ambition that brought together the Parallelists, the PKK, DAESH, the DHKP-C, with media groups, against the AK Parti, there was nothing native, nothing belonging to this nation. This alliance had no beneficial intention or message whatsoever regarding the future of this nation. Thank God this alliance, which on the morning of 7 June revealed all its intention with all its recklessness, was seized much too early by the delusion that 7 June was precisely the final they were expecting. Yet now, thought of together with 1 November, 7 June will be remembered as a bad joke the people played on this alliance of mischief.

Undoubtedly 7 June retains, and will retain, the reality of being a serious warning from the voters to the AK Parti. It must have had a cautionary effect on all echelons of the AK Parti about the necessity of remaining faithful to the covenant with its voters. It is clear that a 13-year rule continuing through renewal by elections has so far not been an experience lived not only in Turkey but even in the world. It is inevitable that this process of rule leads to serious wear and tear, fatigue, and dullness in certain matters among the party cadres.

The AK Parti, which received a strong visa to rule on 1 November, needed to take the 7 June warning. The AK Parti, which will govern Turkey with a strong mandate for the next 4 years, must adopt the messages and lessons it received from the people on 7 June as provisions for the road and continue on its way accordingly, and it will do so. Praise be to Almighty Allah, who before such an indisputable victory and rule, which can rarely be experienced, warned His believing servants in this way on 7 June and protected them against themselves.