´Gandhi´ Kemal’s long march

Those who argue that Kemal Kiliçdaroglu lacks the charisma and ability to lead had to be present at the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, convention Saturday in Ankara to see how wrong they were.

He brought not only his own manner of politics but also a wave of hope for the social democrats, who have not been in power since the mid-1990s. ....

We are not only electing the head of our party but the next prime minister,....

Long live the left, long live social democracy and long live the Republican People’s Party, he said, ...
The party’s leftist values lagged behind the more important issues related with the continuity of the secular and republican regime threatened by the AKP ...
Unlike during former leader Deniz Baykal’s era, the ongoing case of Ergenekon, ... was also not on the convention’s agenda. Baykal, however, had described himself as an advocate of Ergenekon,. pushing the party to defend the suspects in the case.

Another difference between this convention and previous ones was the signs of a developing democracy within the party. Those who requested time to address the convention were given the floor without exception.

....

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=gandhi-kemal8217s-long-march-to-power-in-turkey-begins-with-convention-of-hope-2010-05-22

I must say, I have never seen CHP and its delegates so excited. All the people who left the party  are coming back.. I hope CHP leaves its racist/fascist rethorics and takes itself to center-left into political spectrum,  which a social democrat party would naturally be..

And there might be a real hope of winning the next election..

 I support him for now. Hope he doesn´t disappoint me.

After hearing his speach and watching everything about the party in last a few days, I have a feeling that everybody will be dissapointed..

Same old same old.. I am not sure but nothing has changed I think, apart from Baykal.. 

It all depends on what you expect of him.

He will certainly not announce a revolution tomorrow. Every major step in the political world is taken as a result of relentless work, determination, painstaking planning and perseverance.

These are the days when people and the media do hasty dances with this new leader. This guy must have a nickname, stylized cartoons and a proper public image etc. These are the times when these little details are taken care of, and it will go on like this untill Kilicdaroglu is eventually turned into a complete media product that will sell.

It was quite obvious that the CHP needed a better leader than Baykal, and Kilicdaroglu seems to be the right person for this. On the bright side, the party has gotten rid of an unproductive leader who would linger on for so many years more, had that fortunate scandal not happened.

In the end, no one can properly describe where CHP has stood over the last few decades. The party had been going nowhere. My greatest expectation of him would be, bringing order to this chaotic party.

Kiliçdaroglu just doesn’t get it

..Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the new leader of the main opposition, ...what he thinks of the “Kurdish question.” Carefully avoiding the K word, Kiliçdaroglu rather referred to the “southeastern question,” and said something like this:

“The real issue is poverty and unemployment. If a young man doesn’t have a job and a hope for future, he will join either the terrorist organization or the mafia. So, we will focus on the economic development of the region.”

And this proved to me that he doesn’t have a clue on the country’s most serious problem.

Does poverty create terrorists?

The reason is that the Kurdish question is mainly an issue of cultural rights and ethnic nationalism, and it cannot be reduced to “poverty.” There are other poor areas in Turkey which do not breed political radicalism and violence. The reason why the southeast has created the PKK, a terrorist group which claims to fight for Kurdish rights, is not that there are not enough jobs there. That economic problem certainly makes the matters worse, but that is not the main issue.

The main issue is that most Kurds believe (rightly in my view) that their identity has been suppressed and humiliated by the Turkish state. Some even believe (wrongly in my view) that what they need is a moment of “national liberation,” through the founding of a federal or independent state. Whatever the solution is, the problem is a political one.

...Now, I would not have much of a problem if Mr. Kiliçdaroglu, the new star of Turkish politics, got Al Qaeda wrong. But I do have a problem when he gets Turkey’s Kurdish question wrong. His idea – that this is mainly “an underdevelopment issue” – has been the official line for decades and it only made the matters worse. Kurds got only angrier when Ankara politicians and bureaucrats kept calling them “mountain Turks” and promised that a few new factories in the region would solve their troubles. Kiliçdaroglu seems to present only an adapted version of that same old story.

No wonder Selahattin Demirtas, the leader of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, irritably reacted to Kiliçdaroglu’s rhetoric. “It is an insult to Kurds to think that they will abandon their identity and language,” he said, “just for the sake of money.”

I am not the greatest fan of Mr. Demirtas and his party, which is really the political wing of the PKK, but he has a point here.

And the point hints that Mr. Kiliçdaroglu’s political vision is just too narrow and old-fashioned. ...

And if it remains silent, it can only be called a party that wants to preserve the undemocratic status quo with a heavy dose of populism.

A new Left?:

I still don’t want to be to unjust to Kiliçdaroglu,... I am just saying that his curtain raiser was not too promising.

Even on the economic issues ... What he actually needs is a form of the “New Left” that Tony Blair created in the late ‘90s.

But can the CHP, which oscillates between this archaic left and an even more archaic Kemalism, pull off such a change under Kiliçdaroglu?

We will see. I am just not holding my breath.

From Mustafa Akyol

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=kilicdaroglu-just-doesn8217t-get-it-2010-05-25

Every political leader pursues the interests of his/her country. Remember how our Dutch members were whining over the economic quagmire in Greece. They do this because their interests are harmed and this supercedes all other reasons and excuses.

You might be expecting a super-affectionate state but there is no such thing neither here nor anywhere else in the world. These guys murdered the members of my family, shot at their family homes in South East, these guys are seeking to harm the integrity of this country. Those who are doing this are not doing the right thing. No sane person in the world endorses their actions.

We will seek to defend our interests and we will do this with all our power and might. This doesn´t mean I am against Kurd´s speaking their language etc. It is just that, this is our country together and it is indivisible.

Well, to whine some more: I think you can call yourself very lucky that Turkey isn´t in the EU yet. Otherwise YOU could pay for other people retiring at 54 while YOU have to work until 67! 

Well, wake up everybody, to the real world. Because in the real world, people mind their own interests.

Mark my words, Kemalism is as archaic as it actually is, it belongs to the 1920´s and 1930´s.

Yet it still gives stomach cramps to some of us. Some of us still lag behind it. Kemal suggested that positive science should be our path finder. He never wanted us to be stuck in the 30´s.