A simple economics rule says: “As long as there is demand, there will be supply!”

The State and the Turkish intellectuals cannot keep going around and trying to make political groups or individuals they don’t approve disappear. The reason why AKP exists is because almost 50% of Turkish voters want to see them in power. Therefore, we have to understand that closing this party or the next fifteen AKP derivatives is not going to make 50% of Turkish votes disappear!

In 1995, Refah Party got the majority of the votes and after building a coalition and becoming the government, in 1997 the party got closed by the state. However, parties out of its body (Fazilet and AKP) continued to be political players. In 2002 elections, AKP got 34.29% of the votes and in 2007 elections the party got 46.58% of the votes across the country. This means if any political actor wants to see AKP disappear, they have to win Turkish people’s hearts and minds. Just like many previous once popular parties one day AKP may be history if people don’t want to see them in power anymore, not before!

Make no mistake about it! I am absolutely not arguing for naiveté or simple mindedness. The threats to Turkish Laicism might be real; however, the way to solve the problem is not to ban one of the parties in this battle. The main problem in Turkey currently is the lack of checks and balances such as independent and scrutinizing media, and strong civil society. Since these control mechanisms are missing, some people trying to overuse and stretch the judiciary power out of fear.However, just like by banning you cannot make even dangerous markets disappear if there is natural demand and supply (i.e. illegal adoptions, drug trafficking, etc.), you cannot make Turkish people stop voting for parties which in their minds talk to them.

I think for Turkey, it is time to try to develop an extensive system of checks and balances, have an overall constitutional reform (not piecemeal opportunistic changes) and quit trying to control the political outcomes with judicial punishments.

This is in response to Washington Post Article on 03/07/2008:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030703528.html

The effort to label PKK as freedom fighters continues. In 2008, when US is still deciding whether it is ready for an African-American president, they are forgetting that Turkey had many Kurdish presidents, prime ministers and ministers. How can they still argue that Kurds in Turkey have no political rights?

Turkey lost over 40,000 people because of PKK. US casualties caused by Al-Qaida is less than ten percent of this figure. How can you justify the cause of PKK when you take such a hard stance against Al-Qaida?

In Washington D.C., there are many think-tanks and media organizations that are part of this concerted effort. We will never give up and continue to fight them in every opportunity. We will always be loyal to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the forefathers of our country.

Turkish nation will never sit at the table and negotiate with terrorists. If it means more war, so be it.