May the election results be auspicious

We have held the first presidential election according to the new system decided upon after the most comprehensive governance reform in the history of the Republic of Turkey. Since the ballot boxes had not yet been opened at the hours I am writing my piece, no data has emerged about what kind of result will come out. The only data is that the people went to the ballot boxes with great enthusiasm and that their election took place in an atmosphere almost of a festival of democracy.

It is seen this time too that participation is at a very high level compared to other countries. We say "this time too" because high turnout rates in elections in Turkey have turned into a social-political habitus higher than that of all the European countries, as far as I know. This is in fact a situation that the orientalist understanding, which tries to attribute democracy to the West as a social level, must explain.

Frankly, this is a very clear indicator of how internalized democratic participation is in Turkey. Despite their schools having closed last week and the calendar created by the Ramadan Bayram holiday, people cut their holidays short, that is, at the cost of enduring considerable hardship, went to the polling districts and cast their votes. It is a usual sight for a people who regard voting as a matter of honor, but it is a scene that should turn upside down the orientalist prejudices that people try to create in the West about Turkish democracy.

According to the results of this election, it is clear that today we are in an entirely new Turkey. And that this system will have important gains, in that the people are involved in the democratic process more directly by directly electing the President. Contrary to the opposition's claim, while this system change was carried out, all parties took part in the election process doing all their theses and all their activities freely. President Erdoğan, who is spoken of as a dictator, worked more than anyone, ran about, sweated, tried to explain himself, tried to request a mandate from the people for the new period. This effort of his sufficiently shows that everything took place within the limits of democratic competition.

By contrast, Muharrem İnce, Erdoğan's closest rival in the presidential race, taking himself to the door of the YSK as soon as the ballot boxes closed, and with a provocative speech trying to cast suspicion in advance on the election results before they were even clear, was an act that Turkish democracy by no means deserved. The fury he displayed, saying "whatever happens I will win" before the ballot boxes were even opened, revealed how conditional his approach to elections held in a decent atmosphere was. It was an act that confirmed the plan B rumor that had been talked about for some time on the opposition side regarding this election. This act, reminiscent of the bully gambler's habit of overturning the table at the last minute and raising a racket when an election result does not give the desired outcome, was presented, beyond İnce's personal approach, as part of a plan worked out in advance.

But it is also very clear that this is doomed to be a desperate strategy. In previous elections the opposition had clung to the excessive difference between the vote distributions announced in the first hours and those that came later as the possibility of a taint on the election results. Yet in the past this large difference arose from the different voting hours in the East and the West and the very different total preferences of the two regions, with the votes coming from the East in the first hours and the Western votes joining later.

Indeed, it is also impossible to understand what kind of advantage it could constitute that the AK Party's votes were very high at first and then showed a constant decline. On the contrary, this situation even caused great demoralization in AK Party circles. Yet now, since the time difference has been eliminated, there must not have been an excessive difference between the first results and the reflections of the last results.

Citizens of the Republic of Turkey took part in Turkey's elections by voting, but it was not only Turkey's voters who took part in the process. Many from outside intervened. This was a reality far beyond conspiracy theorizing. But it was not only the people or voters of Turkey who were waiting for the election results in the world either.

There is a picture that has emerged today with regard to both the presidential and the parliamentary elections. Whatever this picture may be, it has put forth a text that must be interpreted, understood, and from which lessons must be drawn by every segment. This text needs to be seen and interpreted as a message from the people. No one should think the people have erred. The people as a whole made all their evaluations with a fine adjustment and wrote this message and sent it via the ballot box to those concerned. Everyone needs to try to understand these messages with the same delicacy and, if there are results they do not deserve, to take stock of why they became the addressee of this assessment.

May the 24 June election results be auspicious for our nation, our country, and the oppressed everywhere in the world who awaited these election results with great excitement and supported Erdoğan with their prayers.