The matter is not the presidency, don't you understand?

As we move rapidly toward the referendum in which the presidential system will be put to a vote, the lines have begun to become quite clear. Referendums are of course the feast of democracy. In the end there are two options, and the most effective, most legitimate and most beautiful way of resolving a political dispute within the bounds of democracy is to resort to the decision of the nation. The people settle matters of dispute and relieve the country.

The polarization that has emerged in the referendum process on our agenda is also directly proportional to the intensity of the political debate. Perhaps this is also the aspect that lifts the matter out of the level of a simple political debate and gives it a more vital meaning. After all, the arrangement being made is, on one side, simply an arrangement that will give the governance of the country efficiency, speed and easy adaptability and reduce the threat of instability to a minimum.

Anyone with a little common sense can see that such a change of system is more than a luxury, it is a necessity, for a Turkey that has now set before itself the goals of 2023 and 2053.

What those who oppose it say is, in fact, no different from saying, "Let Turkey go on debating its own problems for years, let decision mechanisms be paralyzed within a tangle of problems, there is no world for us to catch up with." Why would a person say this, or say things that mean this?

The militants who, starting from the sensitivity of a single tree in the Gezi event, suddenly confronted us with the proposal to stop Turkey's greatest development projects, today find themselves taking their places in the "no" front with the same motive and the same ridiculous, absurd claims. The Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, one of the projects they opposed during the Gezi event, has already been opened as one of the projects that are Turkey's pride. Since that day, the Orhangazi Bridge over the Gulf and the Eurasia projects under the Bosphorus, which the Gezi people also opposed, have been realized and already opened. The construction of the 3rd Airport in Istanbul, which will be the largest in the world, is moving ahead rapidly.

In the Gezi ranks, which could not conceal that it had essentially emerged as a reaction to these giant projects of Turkey, there were FETÖ (the Parallel structures of the period), the PKK, the DHKP-C and all manner of extreme-left elements, along with the CHP and national and international interest-rate lobbies.

That front did not break up on 17-25 December either. It acted in an organized alliance against the AK Parti and President Erdoğan.

The CHP members who constantly criticize us for having acted together with FETÖ in the past, by forming an open alliance with FETÖ, whose crimes they supposedly knew very well and whose true colors had been exposed to everyone, in fact committed a premeditated crime. Since the Gezi event they have been in a cozy cooperation at every level. That is, after the intention, aptitude and plans for a coup had come to light as plain as day...

Now the 16 April process has put them on the same road again. What common calculations bring together the CHP, FETÖ and the PKK on this road?

The PKK's Germany official, at a meeting he held in Germany, expressed very clearly what the 16 April referendum means for them:

"This is a revolution opportunity for us.

If a hundred percent 'no' comes out in Hakkari, Nusaybin and Silopi, it will be the end of Erdoğan," he said.

This is, in fact, the dream of this alliance since Gezi that has never managed to come true. That is why harboring, at every moment of crisis, the hope of a revolution that will bring about Erdoğan's end is the most important characteristic of this alliance.

That is why in Gezi the tree was not the issue, on 17 December corruption was not the issue, and now too the issue is not the presidency or the system of government, for them it is Erdoğan.

However much and with all the voice we can muster we say

"the issue is not Erdoğan, it is the issue of the system of government,"

some have already closed the matter for themselves.

Of course this is a referendum, and as in all referendums there will be those who, sincerely, evaluating the matter purely at the level of the benefit or harm to the country of a change in the system of government, without being under any pressure, alone with their own conscience, will say "yes" and "no," and no one will blame anyone for their stance on this.

However, political debate also brings polarization with it, and after a certain point it becomes more important who is lined up on which side than the content of the system.

Who is on the same side as whom becomes more important even than the content of the matter.

Some have already loaded onto the referendum process a revolutionary mission through which they will realize their own dreams.

Of course, what you call dream and revolution is nothing but scoring a goal against Erdoğan.

Such a wretched revolutionism

. FETÖ, too, has perhaps desperately tied its hope of escaping the prosecution of the coup crime it has committed to the "no" in this referendum.

Yet we try on every occasion to explain that the content of the matter is also very important. The change of system of government has nothing to do with Erdoğan's person, with giving him more powers

. On the contrary, the last person who would need this, with his current powers and his own personal strength and influence, is President Erdoğan.

They keep scaring everyone with "what if someone other than Erdoğan comes to head this system!" We, for our part, are speaking precisely of a measure for the post-Erdoğan period, one that will protect Turkey again against every risk of instability and give it the possibility of good and effective governance.

Otherwise, while Erdoğan is there, there is no problem anyway.

So who will the people choose, even so? Of course we cannot fear this people, whoever it chooses.