AKP’s class war?

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Here comes my second most intense critic of AKP government. (here is the first one back in October 2008)

Foto: Kiralık İşçi Yasası yeniden Meclis'te
Things have changed. Now AKP has become a center-right wing party riding on wild capitalism. Although it sounds like a cliché, this is exactly what is happening. Recently, PM. Erdoğan attended a mall’s opening ceremony (why does a PM attend a mall opening is another question) and declared that “grocery stores are passé. Now it is the time of malls. Grocery store owners have to unite to survive”, something like that… I wonder if AKP leadership is doing any calculations on class politics. With all commercial-legal regulations AKP government is playing against small-scale businesses. They were never good at with workers and now they also abandon those businesses. Is this a rational calculation? I have heard more and more complaints from ordinary people who voted for AKP. Macro-economic developments might be doing all right but micro-economic woes grow. I do not believe AKP can still win with playing cultural and political politics. Yesterday, PM Erdoğan was lamenting: Youth memorize the top song lists in Western countries but do not know our cultural values, stuff. I do not belive this cultural populism will always work…

There has been a worker strike which had gained momentum and gradually media coverage: TEKEL has been privatized and the new owner will probably fire most of the workers. Workers will get compensation but most want to continue to work and they strike. It is not a new story and not always workers are right and TEKEL workers’ action is partially manipulated by anti-AKP circles. However, there is a pattern of AKP’s anti-labor politics. AKP is just too pro-corporate. I am not even anti-capitalist but this level of pro-corporate politics will turn masses against AKP and its possible democratisation moves…

Minister Yazıcı Holds on to Disadvantageous 4C Regulation

from Bianet :: English
Prime Minister Erdoğan assigned a group of ministers to study all possibilities within the 4C regulations for all workers. As far as the resisting Tekel workers are concerned, Minister Yazıcı does not see any alternative but the disadvantageous 4C regulation.

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and a politics roundup:

Sledgehammer?s national socialism by Atilla Yayla

from Today’s Zaman
The most perfected, the most ?awesome? and the cruelest-ever coup plan has been exposed. Despite the efforts of coup-loving journalists, politicians and civil servants to cover it up, it is certain that this plan is authentic and has been partially implemented.

A group of journalists whose names are included in the Sledgehammer plot?s ?to be arrested? list, including journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, filed a criminal complaint against all individuals involved in the preparation of the plot. [Photo of the week] Targeted journalists file complaint against Sledgehammer plot
Sunday’s Zaman

Autonomy of White Turks

by BEJAN MATUR
Is there anyone who has not seen the vessels off the coast of Ahırkapı? Is there anyone who lives in İstanbul and who has not admired so many vessels lined up next to each other? For some reason, this was the image in my mind when I woke up this morning.

The civilian coup against the CHP

by MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE
The crisis Turkey is currently experiencing can, in the final analysis, be described as a political crisis. It has radically disrupted the structural balance in politics. As it can only be ended with the termination of military tutelage over the state, this crisis will be solved by the players of democracy.

Non-Muslim citizens and the Cage plan

by NAZLI ILICAK – SABAH
The list of allegations in the Poyrazköy case ought to be carefully read; it contains some very important information, for example, the Cage Operation Action Plan, which proposed assassinations and scare tactics to target non-Muslim citizens of Turkey.

Those LAWs are not ?pipes?

by MUSTAFA ÜNAL-  ZAMAN
Which light anti-tank weapons (LAWs), you ask. It?s not possible that you don?t remember. After all, it?s one of those images permanently etched into society?s memory.

Kemalism Needs to Be Disarmed – and Privatized

from The White Path

[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News] Turkey’s latest national controversy over the alleged coup plan codenamed “Sledgehammer” will probably remain as just that: a controversy. The generals who seem responsible will probably not face any trial, for the military remains as an untouchable institution, especially after being saved last week by the Constitutional Court from civilian scrutiny. A bit like the ancient legal maxim, “The prince is above the law,” Turkish laws place the generals above the justice system that we, the lesser mortals, are subject to. In the media, too, the controversy will probably remain as a controversy, because people will continue to make judgments solely based on their pre-existing convictions. Those who believe that the military is indeed a crucible of coups and other crimes will be convinced in the reality of the Sledgehammer scheme. On the other hand, those who see the institution as the heroic savior of Turkey, or at least their own social class, will refuse to believe that some generals actually sat down and made plans that involved the killing of innocent citizen

Ilıcak: ?Civilian dictatorship? debate is unsubstantiated

from Today’s Zaman by YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN

Nazlı Ilıcak, a Sabah daily columnist, said a discussion on whether Turkey is facing civilian tutelage under the single-party government of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is groundless.

[CROSS READER] Feeling the closure

Last Friday?s remarks of Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya regarding a question on whether a new closure case will be filed against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) seem to have intensified recent rumors about the possibility of such a case.

On ideological profiling

by HASAN CELAL GÜZEL – RADIKAL

In my opinion, any reference to Feb. 28 calls to mind not only the tanks that were paraded in Sincan to ?fine tune? democracy but also the ideological profiling or labeling campaigns conducted by the illegal West Study Group (BÇG) junta.

Army + CHP = military intervention

by BÜLENT KENEŞ
I confess that the original form of the formula that intends to show the traditional place of the current main opposition Republican People?s Party (CHP) in Turkish politics was not as shown in the title.

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