By Hakkı Yükselen
Threats are in the air again. This time, contrary to usual (at least for now), the target is “Turks!” The story is the same again: Just when Türkiye’s economy was about to recover, foreign powers took action as they had done before and stirred up the country! In order to prevent the rise of (new) Türkiye, which is now a “world state”, and to overthrow president Recep Tayyip Erdogan (RTE) as a “world leader” who is leading it, the imperialists have taken action again, using their collaborators-agents inside, just as they did in Gezi revolt. This is the main reason why the CHP (Republican People’s Party) is calling the masses to the streets, the protests are treason and these actions are an attempted coup d’état, just like on 15 July…!
This is the regime’s response in word and deed to the millions of people who took to the streets with the call of the CHP and the youth to show their accumulated reactions, to engage in actions such as consumption boycotts, etc. following the arrest operation of İmamoğlu, which is defined as a coup by the opposition. As such, meaningful warnings about what might happen if the opposition “pushes its luck” a little more, and who might stand against those on the streets, come into play in the most “democratic” forms; of course, from the mouths of senior experts and masters, and by reminding them of what happened to the July 15th protesters!
The strangest thing is that the CHP, which is the first political target of this operation aimed at erasing the last images of “democracy”, is accused by the authorised mouthpieces of the regime and its partners of threatening the existence of “democracy”! In other words, there is a complete “projection.” But this time, as always, the regime is trying to portray its own intentions as the intentions of its opponent! His suggestion is this: sit at home and wait for the ballot box; when it is set up, you go and cast your vote. If you have a score to settle, you will settle it at the ballot box. Anything beyond that is already “putschism”.
In fact, until very recently, despite the most blatant ballot-election frauds, this is what the CHP also wanted from its voters! However, in the process of the regime’s “transformation into something worse than itself”, it was realised that things would no longer work the way they used to (even) for both the government and the opposition. Realising that trustees could be appointed not only to its municipalities but also to the party’s administration, that even the candidates it could nominate could be subjected to “accreditation” as the example of İmamoğlu suggests, in other words that “elections as we know them” and “democracy” had come to an end and that it was now facing a question of existence and non-existence, the CHP had to take to the streets and call the masses to the streets. This call found an unexpected response.
Thus, “democracy”, which until now has been asked by both the government and the opposition in favour of the capitalist order to stay at home for fear of something happening to it outside, to go to the polls every five years and then return home immediately, has finally taken to the streets! Now the regime wants to bring it back into the house and this time put a lock on it. This is the reason why the regime is trying to suppress the youth movement, which erupted after a very long time, through violence and torture, and to turn hope into despair. However, the results of violence for the governments depend on time and ground. Sometimes it works, causing frustration and ensuring “tranquillity”; sometimes it reinforces the courage and determination of those who rebel and gives birth to the idea of “self-defence”.
Democracy in the streets is dangerous; it does not stand still as it does in the “ballot box”, it can go off the deep end. It can realise its own mass power and possibilities and turn towards goals that were unthinkable at the beginning and that were thought to be “no longer possible”. It can mobilise some basic social forces that have not yet mobilised, more precisely the working class. Then the course of events takes a completely different turn and, in Trotsky’s words, “The masses, who can no longer tolerate the old order, tear down one by one the walls separating them from the political arena, displace their traditional representatives and create the conditions for the beginning of a new order!”
This is what democracy in the streets looks like!
