There are countries that are famous for alcohol addiction in the world. For instance, alcoholism is a social issue in Russia. There are also countries that are renowned for drug addiction. Everyone thinks of the cocaine mafia when Colombia is mentioned.
On the top of all these, there are crisisaddicted countries in the world. And Turkey constitutes a good example in this category.
During a speech at the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) workshop, which was held to evaluate the March 30 local election results, Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay said, "A consultation mechanism is working on the issue of the presidency. There is no complexity or crisis concerning this."
Surely, electing a president should not be the source of a crisis. However, we are all familiar with the crises Turkey went through in all presidential elections during the post-Atatürk period. If you would like, we can draw a map of crises for each year.
Discussions concerning celebrating the anniversaries of the establishment of the Constitutional Court as well as other judicial bodies and marking national holidays and the commemoration of the anniversary of Atatürk's death will somehow bring about political tensions and crises because some will consider the lack of these as a threat for the regime, while others stand against these considerations.
Towards the end of August, the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) will gather to announce the lists of appointments, promotions and retirements of Armed Forces' personnel. If this had happened before the removal of military tutelage, it could have been added to the map as a matter of crisis.
In democracies, elections are a natural part of political life. However in Turkey, each and every election result is a source of crisis rather than an assurance of further stability. Election losers create crises by initiating some debates about the legitimacy of power.
This picture in a way eases journalism.
We can make crises predictions much easier than a meteorologist's weather forecast. If we do not go through a crisis in due time, we produce it through our columns and headlines.
Of course there are ways of staying out of this cycle of crisis.
If you happen to call those who professionally produce crisis scenarios as drifters, you do not take them seriously and do not pay any attention to their words.
Through your past experiences, you should know who they are. When someone said "reconciliation in Cyprus" in the past, they labeled him as "a son of Karen Fogg" or "traitor." Today, similarly in the case of the Kurdish reconciliation initiative, they say, "Turkey is being divided" or "Öcalan is selling out the Kurds."
I am very well aware of the meaning of "drifter." They are the status quo rentseeking people who are confined in their own microcosms rather than following developments in the world.
While Turgut Özal was making reforms in every field to change the destiny of Turkey, these drifters again reacted negatively and screamed at the top of their voices. When Özal introduced convertibility to the economy, those who raved, "People rush to get foreign currency and thus an economic crisis will break out," are now gadding about with regard to credit cards.
When Tansu Çiller made Turkey a member of the Customs Union, they again shouted, "Foreign competition will ruin us." But they are now proud of Turkey's export rate, which has grown thanks to our membership in the Customs Union.
In short, I recommend you not waste your time with these crises maps. Do not avoid criticizing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he does wrong and appreciating him when he is successful.
Then it will be realized that your criticism is not based on crisis addiction like that of drifters.
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