Power culture

Turkey is no longer polarized. Polarization has reached to such dimensions that as if several "nations of extremes" are living side by side in this country, not only ignoring the sensitivities of the "other" nations but trying to prove their superiority in every way possible. Can this be called "the culture of the powerful"?

Widening eyes as much as possible, raising voice to the highest possible level, putting aside all norms of social etiquette and engaging in what might be described as excellence in oration through yelling has become routine in the country. A terrorist chieftain hosted as an honorable guest at the National Intelligence's headquarters a couple of years ago might become the worst enemy of the Turkish state today. The negotiating counterparts of the government and top executives of the state in the officious and ambiguous "opening" to solve the problems of a section of the society might become such hated people one day that elected deputies and the leaders of a political party could be placed behind bars at a time when the country is undertaking a set of constitutional reforms, which will change the regime in the country. 

The main opposition in the country, the Republican People's Party (CHP), could be branded a terrorist group just because it disagreed with a set of constitutional amendments put to a national vote, while an ethnic nationalist and ultra-radical religious group supportive of the amendments was embraced as a legitimate and democratic element of the country.

Late President Süleyman Demirel often stressed that in social sciences there was a fundamental rule: You either have the rule of law, or the supremacy of the law of the powerful. When a country falls into an abyss of supremacy of the law of the powerful...