A politics-free president impedes progress

The great day has arrived.

As of tomorrow, the most important stage on the road to Turkey's becoming a true Republic in accordance with the definition of the Republic of Turkey, that is, to its turning into a sovereignty of the Cumhur, will be completed.

A Republic that cannot directly elect its own president is odd however you look at it, but it was an oddity forcibly imposed on the Cumhur until now.

That the ideal of the presidency is thought to be the one furthest from the values of the Cumhur, the one with the greatest distance from them, is the height of a taught or imposed oddity.

The phrase "a president distanced from politics, above politics, neutral" has been played like a composition that sounds pleasant to the ear, with a thousand and one rhetorical tunes. Yet however you look at it, it expresses nothing beautiful beyond a noise that grates on the ear.

For instance, our last neutral president was Ahmet Necdet Sezer in 2000, who had passed through no political stage, test or experience whatsoever. The way Sezer proved his neutrality was the complete exclusion from the Köşk of headscarved people, or people whose wives wear headscarves, who correspond to roughly 70 percent of the people of Turkey, and of the Kurds, who correspond to between 10 and 15 percent, and their open subjection to discrimination in the Köşk's dispositions.

The way he displayed his neutrality and statesmanship was to turn the Köşk into a retreat from the people and, if possible, from everyone. Working a 9-to-5 schedule, the Köşk in fact also had to assume a complete indifference toward what was happening in the world and in Turkey. During his time Turkey suffered a genuinely significant loss of time.

One meaning of this performance of neutrality was also to be a wedge against politics, that is, against governments chosen by the people. That is why the CHP opposition in particular loved this state of being a wedge so much. Being a wedge, that is, the function of sabotage against progress, has from the beginning been the CHP's typical function in the face of Turkey's political or economic development.

Tutelage is an obstacle to progress. Thinking of the president as a fortress of tutelage likewise contains, in every case, an intention to obstruct progress.

The people's electing the president in fact disables this kind of idea of a president. Because an election requires being in close dialogue with the people. An election requires being able to make a pledge to represent the people, whatever that people may be, explaining it well to them, and persuading them. The person who will be elected president must therefore also revise the old understanding of the state.

Alas, it appears here that the umbrella candidate and those who support him have not yet fully prepared their minds for the arrangement concerning a president to be elected by the people.

They expect neutrality and inaction from a president whom the people will elect. What an absurd expectation! First of all, why would a people, each of whose members is a party to many debates, vote for someone who does not give the impression of being on their side? Secondly, why would they listen to someone who not only does not promise to improve the people's present situation on this or that matter, but says he will remain inactive on these matters?

To expect neutrality and inaction from a president to be elected by the people requires deceiving that people from the very start. Because it is understood that from the very beginning you have planned not to recognize that people's values and not to know their problems as your own problems.

Yet the election process itself is a contract between voter and candidate, and the bare minimum content of this contract is clear. The vision documents put forward during the election process are the reference texts to which the people will turn to hold the elected person to account in office. The election process itself establishes a contract between the candidates and the voters, and brings the president down from the position of master of the people to the position of servant of the people. It places him in a position of accountability.

It is evident from his every manner that the umbrella candidate is still trying to answer the expectations of the old Turkey. The facility that comes from having been lowered onto politics from above can be read in his every manner. Although he promises the people nothing, he aspires to the super powers of the presidency at the top of the state. How capable do you think he is of using these powers in the people's favor?

Yet the prime minister, who has come from all the stages of politics from the very beginning, from the highest level of representation with the people, in this way also demonstrates in every way that he is the only candidate for the presidency of the New Turkey.

May the new president of the New Turkey be a blessing to all the oppressed peoples of the world.

May your way and your fortune be open. May God be your friend and helper.