CALL FOR A DEMOCRACY CONFERENCE
Turkey has undergone a radical regime change with the acceptance of the so-called Presidential Governmental System following the referandum of 2017. The new regime has put an end to the separation of powers, the system of checks and balances, and the rule of law. This has meant that all decisions rest on the arbitrary will of a single individual, namely, the person of the President, who has amassed unprecedented authority and power. Unquestionably, Turkey’s political system at present displays the familiar characteristics of a neo-fascist regime.
The pillar of this regime rests on the alliance of the Justice and Development Party and its co-partner Nationalist Action Party. Together, this ruling bloc has driven Turkey into serious political and economic crises that further deeped with the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic. The government’s response to its declining support has been to increase coercion, to further fuel polarization, and to play up to identity politics. Under these circumstances, it is vital that an effective opposition be created and an alternative emerges that gives hope.
Given the fact that both jurisprudence and law have been heavily subverted and weakened, there is now, more than ever, a pressing need for the deliberation and collaboration of all democratic forces. The democratic opposition has to find an answer to the question of how to overcome wrongdoing and injustice, as well as how to protect the principle of secularism that is at present under threat, for without it, there can be no freedom of belief or, as the case may be, the freedom not to believe in any religion.
In short,Turkey is ruled by an authoritarian regime that suppresses all demands for justice and narrows down all public avenues where these demands can be voiced. On the one hand, there are demands for freedom, equality, and democracy by social groups who find it unbearable to live under a regime that does not permit the use of basic rights and freedoms. On the other hand, there are demands for social justice by the destitude in the face of high rates of unemployment, abject poverty, and fragility in terms of the pandemic. These are inequalities that have reached unacceptable levels to which the government responds by equating concerns and demands by citizens as tantamount to engaging in terrorist activity.
The demand for freedom and democracy and the demand for jobs and one’s livelihood are complementary. Individuls or groups who demand their rights cannot be indifferent to demands other than their own. They cannot overlook the relationship between their demands and the demands of other groups. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Individuals and groups who put up a struggle for their rights have thus far been unable to unite even though they confront the very same threats and share the same objectives. There is an urgent need, therefore, for a democracy conference that will establish ties between all social groups who fight for their basic rights and demands. Such a conference will assist in initiating bonds between these groups, integrating demands under the label of ‘bread, freedom and justice,’ and help them collaborate so as to form a united front.
Such a conference should be the meeting ground for the voice of all those who fıght for their rights: The voice of workers, of women, of peasants and farmers who defend their land and nature; of the young, of the LGBTİ groups, of academics, students, and universities who want to study and produce knowledge in a free, democratic environment; of government employees, of individuals who lost their jobs and freedom as a result of dubious Presidential Decrees; of the bar and other professional associations, labor unions, associations of artisans and small businesses, of groups that fight for water and climate and ecology; of people in the fields of art and culture; of municipal govenments whose elected officials have been replaced by government appointed trustees; of the Kurdish people who stuggle for equal ciizenship and language rights; of the Alevi, the Ezidi, the Armenians, the Syriac Christians, the Jews, the Roma, the Circassians, and Greeks; and of the health workers who have been facing death for a year now in the fight against the pandemic. These voices should come together in order to find solutions to the most acute and pressing problems of the people. The flickering, distant lights of resistance in various parts of the country should unite to form a bright, lustrous bonfire.
The Democracy Conference will establish lines of communication between organizations, platfoms, and political parties and make sure that this communication is permanent. In a milieu where governmental coercion is all the more apparent, a conference such as this one will mean a new stage in the struggle for democracy and help the voice of the voiceless to be heard. It will be a forum that will highlight the power that the seemingly powerless actually possess. It will unite demands for bread, freedom, and justice. In short, this conference will attempt to bring to light the common themes among the various demands and goals of democratic forces. The axis of hope in the fight against authoritarianism will be the existence of groups that are able to show the greatest unity of discourse and vigor. This kind of cooperation and solidarity will open the way for the creation of a people’s alternative that will be a legitimate locale of protests which cannot be silenced.
We call on all social groups that voice their objections, all individuals and organizations that defend democracy to participate in this conference and to unite their voices and potential.
The Coalition of the Democracy Conference
“We too have Ideas about the Future of our Country”
The “Democracy Conference” that is being planned for June of this year under the slogan of “Bread, Freedom, Justice” was introduced to the public through a press conference.
The “Democracy Conference” plans to include all social groups, most notably women, workers, and young people, who voice their opposition to the current state of affairs in the country. It aims to formulate an alternative vision to combat the current political and economic crises. The plan is to unite all individuals and organizations so as to voice common demands for democracy, freedom, jobs, and bread. The organizers held a press conference at the Nazim Hikmet Culture and Arts Center of the Şişli Municipality to introduce the aims of the conference to the public.
Nesteren Davutoğlu, who moderated the press conference, pointed out that ‘those in power do not want to hear us and see us and it is precisely for this reason that we are organizing the ‘Democracy Conference’ that will bring together citizen platforms, NGOs, labor unions, and student organizations.”
Aside from the speakers, the organizers of the press conference, Ahmet Türk, Canan Arın, Celal Fırat, İhsan Eliaçık, Genco Erkal, Melda Onur, Murathan Mungan, Nejla Kurul, Öztürk Türkdoğan, Rıza Türmen, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, Tarık Ziya Ekinci ve Zülfü Livaneli, also attended through a zoom meeting.
The first speaker, Ayşegül Devecioğlu, pointed out that “ people who resist oppression give us hope” and that “it is important that they have a joint voice.” She further pointed out that the Democracy Conference would come up with a common program of action at its closing session. “Our aim is to create a wave of democracy in the country that will give hope to the people and to upgrade the struggle for social peace and democracy” she said, adding that ”the goal is to create a strong voice of the people against violations of rights, oppression, and lack of justice. ”We will move heaven and earth during this process,” she said. “The demands of people who will join from all parts of the country will be heard.”
The next speaker was Professor Şebnem Korur Fincancı, ex- president of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey and the president of the Central Council of the Turkish Medical Association. “Democracy is bread, life, freedom. Our quest to be a community again will gain importance with this conference” she said. She pointed out that according to official statistics, one person every five minutes dies due to the pandemic and that the right to life was being violated as a result of its mismanagement. She finished with an optimistic note, saying that she was certain we would see better days.
Rıza Türmen: “This is the conference of the destitute and of the people who search for justice”
Rıza Türmen, an ex- judge at the European Court of Human Rights and an ex- member of parliament representing İzmir from the social democrat party, CHP, described the Democracy Conference as “a platform for those who seek justice.” He pointed out that there were no longer avenues for seeking justice and that the Democracy Conference would unite the demands of politicians, journalists and intellectuals who were unjustly imprisoned as well as of people who could not earn their bread. He said that the demands of the women’s movement, of the Kurdish movement, of the ecology movement and all other demands for rights could only be met in a democratic society, that he was very excited about this conference, and that he hoped the conference “would build a new spirit of solidarity and brotherhood.”
Ahmet Türk: “We have to find ways of uniting around common values”
Ahmet Türk, who was elected co-Mayor of Mardin on the DPD ballot but was subsequently ousted from his post and replaced by a government appointed trustee started his speech by pointing out that the problems the country faced could not be solved without democracy. “Democrats have the task of acting as the vanguard for social forces. If we want a democratic Turkey, we have to find the path for meeting around common values. We need unity of purpose in order to build a functioning democracy,”he said. He voiced his concern that “to shy away from collaborating with some groups as opposed to others hurts the democratic struggle” and that “an approach that embraces the Kurds, workers, women and all other democratic groups had to be found and adopted.”
Melda Onur: “Violations first start with social rights”
The next speaker was Melda Onur, an ex-member of parliament representing Istanbul from the social democratic party, CHP. She joined the press conference from Akhisar where she was following the court proceedings of the Soma tragedy involving miners. She pointed out that the relatively positive decision of the first presiding judge in the Soma case had opened the way for a rehearing, adding that “violations of rights start with violations of social rights. When social rights such as the right to health, education, etc. do not meet with justice, violations of human rights follow.” “We need democracy as much as we need the water we drink and the air we breathe ,” she said, emphasizing that all social rights should be included in the concept of democracy. “The struggle for democracy never ended, ‘ she said, “but at times, we have to intensify the struggle.”
Öztürk Türkdoğan: “To defend peace is extremely important in the road to democracy”
The next speaker was Öztürk Türkdoğan, the co-chair of the Human Rights Association. He started his speech by emphasizing “the right to peace” and the close relationship between peace and the struggle for democracy. “It is true that events of the past six years,” he said, ‘further deepened the problems of the country, but the real problem is that Turkey never accepted multi culturalism and never left its official ideology about ethnic, religious and other differences. It is difficult to have a democracy in countries where armed conflict continues. It is, therefore, extremely important to defend peace on the road to democracy. Those of us who work at the Human Rights Association do not only defend human rights, we also defend the right to peace. Turkey, in fact, has a powerful opposition. The political opposition has failed to come together under the banner of democracy, but all of us, all the democrats in this country, are part of the opposition.”
Canan Arın: “Turkey is living the darkest moment in its history”
In her written message that she sent to the press conference, Canan Arın, an attorney who is a women’s rights activist and one of the founders of the first women’s shelter Mor Çatı, said that Turkey was living the darkest moment of its history. She pointed out that there was no longer a legal system in the country, that the government’s decision to annul the ratification of the Istanbul convention was an attempt to liken Turkish women to the Afghani women under Taliban and that the struggle for democracy was hence extremely important for women’s rights.
Celal Fırat: “A search for a common conscience and justice”
For Celal Fırat, a religious leader of the Alevi community and the chairman of the Federation of the Alevi, what was imperative was to find a shared goal, a common conscience and justice in the search for truth. In his brief statement, what he found most important in order to achieve this goal was the joining of forces by different social groups.
Nejla Kurul: “It is our turn to speak about our lives”
The next speaker was Nejla Kurul, who is he chairperson of the Labor Union of Workers in Education-Science and who was fired from her teaching job for having signed a petition for peace. She started her speech by saying that “the democratic political arena has collapsed and has turned into a ruin.” She pointed out that prisons were full with politicians, journalists, and lawyers simply because they did a conscientious job in their respective professions . “This regime is not the regime of free citizens ” she said. “However, we are not alone,” she added. “We have the power of millions against the power of one. It is our turn to be the carriers of Turkey’s history to a bright future. It is our turn to speak for our lives.”
Tarık Ziya Ekinci: Democratization is our chance to exist
The last speaker was Tarık Ziya Ekinci, ex-member of parliament from the defunct Worker’s Party of Turkey. He is a Kurdish politician who spent several years in prison after both the 1971 and the 1980 military coups. He made the same point others did, namely, that the problems the country faced resulted from lack of democracy. “The hope for a transition to democracy if the country returns to a parliamentary system,” he said, “rests on the unfounded assumption that this can be achieved without an active struggle.” For him, given present circumstances, to live under a democracy was an existential question, ‘to be or not to be’, so to speak. “There can be no democracy without peace, and there can be no peace without democracy,” he said. “All those who call themselves democrats should recognize the Kurdish problem and should try to solve it. It is the duty of all democrats to oppose all forms of warfare, to ask for social peace at home but, equally important, also demand peaceful relations with other countries.”
To Watch the Press Conference, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QegH6Du8k_k&t=4s
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