A result that will comfort those who said "no" too

Congratulations to our people on the referendum. At the hours we are writing this, enough of the votes had been counted to give an idea. Since the first results to come in were from the eastern provinces, where voting ended early and the counting was done early, they could not give an idea about the overall picture. In the following hours, because the effect of these provinces on the total was felt for a long time, the picture settled into a distribution of 58 percent "yes" and 42 percent "no" only toward the end.

For those who persistently tried to turn the referendum into an election atmosphere, this can be regarded as a clear defeat. There was a constitutional amendment package to be voted on, and the text of this amendment had a clear beginning and end. But those who ran the "no" campaign persistently tried to load this text with meanings other than what it contained. Not content with relying on the effect of what they said in election rallies and on discussion platforms, they openly used all the elements of psychological warfare to try to divert the event from the context of a constitutional vote. On one side, the PKK escalated terror with no relevance whatsoever, and then, with the effect of that same bomb, declared peace. That was not enough either: the BDP's insistent boycott, which found no echo in the conscience of the region, was rushed incredible emergency aid by the military operation carried out in Hakkari five days before the referendum.

Even so, according to the result that emerged, it appears that those who ran the "no" campaign could not persuade even a significant portion of their own voters. Moreover, if these results are to be perceived as an election result in the way they wanted, they need to see that the people have given them a very clear message.

First, there is a lesson the BDP must take. In the Southeast, especially in Batman and Diyarbakır, despite all the PKK's threats and pressure, the turnout stayed above 40 percent. In a region where turnout in previous elections was already a little above 60 percent, with this turnout we can say that the BDP's boycott had an effect of only 20 percent. The BDP's boycotting stance against Turkey's will to democratize will have lodged deeply in the memory of the Kurdish voter. In these elections, an armed force managed to get the job done to some degree through pressure on the will of the people, with the help of threats and coercion, but it can now await the people's response to this pressure in the first general elections.

The impression I got from people I spoke with in the region, who have devoted their lives to the struggle for Kurdish identity, is this: "Even under JİTEM and deep state pressure, about which we complained a great deal during the state of emergency period, we were not as suffocated as this." It has been understood that the democracy the BDP deems worthy of the region is nothing but a repetition, by its own hand, of the policies of oppression, coercion and denial that brought it into being.

It appears that the referendum results have produced no premium in any respect for Kılıçdaroğlu's leadership either. According to these results we can expect the CHP to embark on questioning its own position in many respects. Even now, there may be those who would not expect such a thing from the CHP. But we must say that objective conditions have now formed that will compel the CHP to this questioning.

For one thing, the tension that emerged with this constitutional vote was related to the positions for which the status quo was ready to risk everything in order not to lose. After these positions fall in the direction of normalization, we can expect the given situation to be necessarily accepted and a relief arising from this to emerge.

Frankly, in the new situation that has formed, everyone will see that the judiciary has fallen neither into the hands of the government nor of a particular group. On the contrary, the judiciary has ceased to be property in someone's hands and has become a means through which everyone can seek and find their rights on equal footing. That this is so will be understood more clearly now, since there will be no worry of loss.

When there is no referendum context that has been dropped onto an election tension line in between, everyone will see much more clearly that this result will make everyone in Turkey who said "yes" or "no" much stronger as a citizen and will put everyone more at ease.

It must be acknowledged that an indisputable winner of this referendum is also Tarhan Erdem. Erdem has shown in an instructive way how strongly a properly conducted scientific survey can reflect reality.

Now we can say with peace of mind: may it be a "no"-ful one too.