17 December, the Arab Spring and Turkey

For the last 13 years, the date of 17 December has taken its place on the calendar as a special day because of two important events, one a turning point for the whole world and the other for Turkey. The process called the Arab Spring began in Tunisia on 17 December 2010, when a street vendor set himself on fire to protest the municipal police who had treated him unjustly. This process was the date on which the Arab world began to rise up to exit the conditions of colonialism and post-colonial despotism to which it had been subjected for at least a hundred years. The movement that began in Tunisia soon spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen and then Syria. It probed Jordan, Iran and Morocco as well.

That a spark lit by this Azizi leapt as a flame to all these countries was the explosion of a gas that had been lying over all of them, the expression of the deep discomforts present in all of them as they took courage from one another, the outpouring of an accumulation of social energy.

Owing to the atmosphere that formed after Davos and Mavi Marmara, Turkey had played a role in all of them as an inspiring model, even if not knowingly and willingly. Perhaps for this reason the counter-revolution movements launched in all of them chose, in Turkey too, in the form of a judicial coup, as its day the day the Arab Spring process began, that is, 17 December. Perhaps at first there were hesitations that 17 December was an attempted coup, but as the forces behind this attempt in time tried direct military coup attempts too on 15 July, all the judicial juntas were exposed together with all their networks of relations.

Now an interesting event has happened again on 17 December:

As is known, counter-revolution attempts were made many times in Tunisia too, where the process began. Each time, Tunisia's revolutionaries foiled the attempts, especially telling the neighboring countries behind these coups "we exported revolution to you, we have no intention at all of importing a coup from you." But in Tunisia, the process in time showed that more distance was needed from some crises that come through democracy.

The crisis that began with the elected President dissolving the elected parliament and gathering all powers in his hands had announced, as the early election date, 17 December again. The expected elections were held, but this time a meaningful outburst came from the Tunisian people, reminiscent of the revolutionism of that 17 December 2010 and expressing loyalty to the process begun then. The Tunisian people spoke by leaving turnout in the elections below 10 percent. We will live through days in which we shall see what this will mean and what its consequences will be.

Actually, on this occasion, since it is appropriate, it is worth making some reminders concerning the Arab Spring process. Perhaps the movement that arose against despotism, which should always be mentioned first as the cause of the backwardness of the Arab-Islamic world, now seems to have even led to a despair that nothing in this world will change. For after the counter-revolutions and coups that followed the Arab Spring, in all of these countries the situation has gotten much worse in terms of democracy, human rights, freedoms, human dignity and economic prosperity.

The political sphere, which for some political movements made with the desire for a better life existed for better or worse in the past, has now been completely destroyed. We are not saying it has been narrowed further; it has been completely destroyed. In many of these countries not the slightest opposition, indeed not the slightest room for politics, remains. Everyone with the potential to oppose in one way or another is eliminated, killed or imprisoned, before he has even opened his mouth. In the dungeons of these countries, which have no opposition newspaper or television channel, thousands of intellectuals, scholars or politicians are in prison in the harshest conditions without any judicial procedure.

Of course it is impossible for this situation to continue like this. For the despotism applied to suppress opponents also puts a brake on the development of all the potentials of the countries, and makes the countries unlivable not only for the opposition but even for those who profit from power.

Of course in such situations the cheapest idea that may occur to many people is that the process leading to the Arab Spring was precisely a conspiracy to bring the Arab countries under control, and that the process was again under control by certain well-known quarters precisely in order to arrive at this point. This conspiracy thinking existed from the very beginning as well. There was always talk of a "great power" that had pressed the button and set out to reshape the entire Arab geography. That great power never emerged. Everyone had losses from the process, and there were of course those who chased opportunities from it. As with every natural disaster, every social catastrophe or development.

How can we explain that the present situation is not at all a desirable one even for the quarters seeking that control? Even worse are the approaches that hold responsible for the present situation those who rose up, who demanded freedom, dignity and bread.

The Arab Spring was a natural result of a social, political and economic situation. It may have been stopped through counter-revolutions, but the demands of increasingly urbanizing, modernizing, world-integrated and as dynamic as possible peoples cannot be suppressed to the end. The result of suppressing excessively is always explosions that cannot be brought under control.

The analyses of the political and sociological conditions that emerged with the Arab Spring have not been sufficiently made. Yet a process we are still in concerns us very closely.