If only they would listen to the squares a little too

Look at this state of affairs. In Turkey the government, that is, the ruling power, is striving to prevent people from being wiretapped arbitrarily and to make even the legal conditions for wiretapping as difficult as possible, and is trying to pass laws, while the opposition resists this. The ruling power defends freedoms more, while the opposition rails that this much freedom is too much. What kind of political landscape is this? A ruling power demanding the improvement of individual rights and freedoms, and an opposition trying to block such efforts.

It emerges that 509,516 people were wiretapped by the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TİB) in the last two years; or rather, the government is exposing this as a scandal and giving the message that it will pursue it. Again, not a peep from the opposition. They themselves are among those wiretapped, which is also obvious, but they have no complaint about that either. A strange, very strange situation.

Despite this, they keep sending the world the message that the prime minister is becoming a dictator; yet the man they call a dictator is making an issue of people being wiretapped, practically trembles over individual rights and freedoms, and is determined to develop them. The community and the opposition, meanwhile, continue to find these wiretaps, the most distinguishing feature of dictators, innocent. Because they themselves carry out these actions peculiar to dictatorship. This much shamelessness is too much, and, believe me, it has become frightening.

Thus a feature that has distinguished the AK Party from the beginning recurs in this process. While in power, the AK Party continues to oppose the entrenched institutions and customs peculiar to power. Those in opposition, on the other hand, defend the status quo more and try to restore the crumbling status quo. Well, as they act this way, there is no chance of the AK Party losing.

Meanwhile we are moving rapidly toward the local elections. No one is hearing any project, any promise, any ambitious proposal from the opposition side for this or that province. For example, when the CHP takes any city, how will it govern that city, and what vision of urbanism and municipal government will it put forward? We hear not a single word about it.

Fine, we understand that since 17 December the meaning of these elections has far exceeded the local dimensions, but in the end we will still be electing mayors with the votes we are about to cast. The people want to hear from you a couple of words about the municipalities, cities and environment whose administration you aspire to.

The AK Party's election campaign contains extremely detailed theses and projects, province by province and district by district, on what has been done and what will be done from now on. As of 20 February, that is, exactly 38 days before the election, it shared its election manifesto with the public. At Prime Minister Erdoğan's rally speeches, people show more interest in what is said about current debates, and crowds gather with unprecedented extraordinary enthusiasm and goodwill because of these debates, yet the esteemed Prime Minister still does not refrain from explaining his concrete projects for each province too.

At every provincial rally the Prime Minister devotes a significant part of his speech to this, and this in total further cements his credibility among the people. The people see this difference too and show extraordinary goodwill toward the prime minister's rallies. In the enthusiasm shown, despite this service performance and this struggle, the attacks that have recently targeted the prime minister personally play a very important role.

The calculation was surely different. The calculation was to drive a wedge between the people and the prime minister with an operation that looked like a fight against corruption. Yet the result is that, with this operation being perceived as a coup, the people are rallying even more closely around the prime minister.

These days the rally squares stage scenes unseen in the history of Turkey's democracy and elections. These scenes must be interpreted well. These squares are saying something. Instead of wiretapping the phones of 509 thousand people one by one, if they listened to the voice of these squares once and for all, perhaps their ears would open.

AK PARTY WOMEN SUBJECTED TO VIOLENCE ON 8 MARCH

We are in Van. The AK Party's mayoral candidate Osman Nuri Gülaçar has brought tremendous dynamism to the election process. In Van, which has become a metropolitan municipality under the latest regulation, no one doubts that under normal circumstances he will win the election. But in the countryside the organization still continues to work and to make its presence felt as a threat over the people.

BDP members regard not letting AK Party members into certain regions as a show of strength, an accomplishment. That young AK Party members going out to election work are attacked is routine. But in recent days AK Party women too are frequently subjected to attacks; women are being beaten with stones and sticks.

One would like to hear something on this from the BDP members who always come out with bold rhetoric on 8 March, Women's Day.

It is easy to run "end violence against women" campaigns, but what if those women object to you, or differ from you; do they deserve violence?

Or do you see declaring certain regions "liberated zones" and sealing them off together with the people inside as a routine of the practice of political autonomy?

If you think autonomy is such a thing, you have a lot more bread to eat in the name of democracy.