The AK Party in its 18th year, between criticism and self-criticism

On its 18th founding anniversary, the AK Parti, having governed Turkey alone, has today a wealth of experience open to every kind of assessment, analysis and criticism. Nothing could be more natural than that, within this record, there are many mistakes that deserve criticism among what it has done, and many shortcomings among what it could have done but did not.

Assessments of this and criticisms will of course be made. From the sum of these criticisms and assessments, very important opportunities will also arise for the AK Parti's self-reflexivity, that is, for its accounting that holds up a mirror to itself and reflects on itself.

However, there is a separate eye that inevitably dominates the making of these assessments today, right after the local elections agenda, an eye that sees what is going on differently. It must be noted here that this eye is not looking in a very healthy, careful or fair manner.

It is no longer a secret that those who come from within the AK Parti and are trying to steer toward a separate formation were expecting a rout against the AK Parti, especially in the local elections. It is understood that those who did not see even the results of 31 March as a sufficient and solid ground as a point of departure felt a stronger momentum after 23 June.

It is evident from this that they had invested in the AK Parti's rout from before the election, which already sufficiently shows that no political move they make will have any concern or mission that touches the people. Yet if the aim of politics is to serve the people and the truth, the paths of this politics inside the AK Parti are not blocked, its possibilities not exhausted. Of course politics is not easy; sometimes you may have to sweat a great deal and suffer a great deal in the struggle for what you know to be right with your comrades in the cause. But waiting for your comrades in the cause to stumble in order to take their place is not an approach that will be met with respect and appreciation, or rewarded, in any political base; no matter how wrong your comrades in the cause may be.

With this approach, the craze today of listening to criticisms directed at the AK Parti and taking this up in the name of self-criticism has reached remarkable proportions. Truly, I am among those who say that the AK Parti must always criticize itself a great deal. The AK Parti's shortcomings are many, its mistakes even more, and the areas where it makes a lack of vision felt, things it did not do though it could, neglected to do, or never thought of at all, are also many. Being aware of all of these and continuously evaluating them within a research-and-development framework keeps the AK Parti alive and up to date, as it always has. But when these criticisms are given more weight than necessary, when the bounds of fairness are exceeded, the AK Parti's contributions to Turkish politics and to economic and social development are also ignored.

Practicing self-criticism is also unreasonable in an environment where those who regard self-criticism not as a virtue but as a perpetual confession of guilt wait on the alert. Against those who greet even the smallest self-criticism on behalf of the AK Parti as a sign of the AK Parti's exhaustion, and with natural joy, we must go on stating clearly the following:

The AK Parti is still Turkey's first party, and with its popular support, its reforms, its length of time in power, its economic and social development, its will to change and its performance, it is a party that has single-handedly broken all records to date.

We said in the previous column that, in addition to the military, institutional and deep tutelage centers, merely by having launched and accomplished a struggle against FETÖ alone, it has made a founding contribution to Turkey's national existence and independence. Today we see and feel with each passing day all the more that this struggle is not one-legged but a multi-dimensional, multi-front struggle. It is also seen in this struggle that actors outside the AK Parti do not act sufficiently responsibly and do not see themselves as organs of the same body. That is why, unfortunately, this mission remains upon the AK Parti, indivisible and non-transferable.

However, we are not saying that its non-transferability and indivisibility is an ideal situation. If only this mission could be shared by other political actors as well.

The mission that Turkey shoulders today, both in its struggle against FETÖ and at the level of international relations, makes it a real actor with a say, influential on the world political stage, but of course one that objects, and often opposes. With this political style, Turkey is an actor that does not go along with the dominant actors of the world, that defends its own truths, and in this way it gets itself accepted. This style of politics needs to find wider acceptance and support among all the actors of the country.

For instance, asking that the leader of the largest opposition party not be so unaware of what Turkey is doing in the world today should not have been too much of a luxury. For instance, he should not have signed his name to such a blunder as asking why Turkey should be present in the Eastern Mediterranean when everyone else is. He should follow Turkey a little, and should have been an opposition party leader worthy of today's Turkey.

The leaders of those opposition parties should have kept the AK Parti under more pressure, for instance on whether it sufficiently protects the oppressed, instead of entering a race to incite the public against a few oppressed people who have taken refuge in the country.

Whatever anyone says, there is no rival to the model the AK Parti has put forth in the name of its "politics of goodness." Neither among the existing parties nor among the formations looking for new opportunities.

In short, self-criticism on behalf of the AK Parti in its 18th founding year is fine, but let it not come to the point of adopting the position of an opposition that has objected to its very existence from the start, and denying its own exceptional contributions and experience.