Denying the past 12 years

Presidential candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Vision Statement underscores three principles: democratic politics, open society and a state of law.

If it were someone that just entered the stage of politics who wrote the statement, that person would get applauded for truly understanding the needs of Turkey’s current state and there would not be anything to say about them.

There are many words in the statement and also in Erdoğan’s speeches that sound appealing.  If we were to believe in those words, then we could have become very hopeful for Turkey’s future, but that was not the case.

If we were to compare what Erdoğan has said to what he has done in these past 12 years regarding where we have come on these three principles, the prevailing sentiment is nothing but pessimism.

The fact that Erdoğan did not accept any questions from the members of press organizations in his well-choreographed announcement of candidacy is a big blow against the principle of “Democracy.”

Let’s put aside how the preference of avoiding to take any questions contradicts with the ideal of an open society.

The level of democracy is proportional to how far parties distance themselves from the tutelage of their leader. But in these 12 years, no regulations were made in these aspects; instead all the amendments in the bylaw of the Justice And Development Party (AKP) about this principle were taken out and replaced by ones that focused on giving more power to the party leader.

A true democracy can only exist if there is an opposing party and mediums of competition for that party to compete equally and freely.

But the promise of democracy coming from someone who  does not...