Daily Sabah
The other side of the map of crises


Last week, I referred to a map of crises to be drawn for each year. Let's remind what I mentioned before: "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."To tell the truth, I feel very sorry that my map of crises proved to be true on the day my piece was published. President of the Constitutional Court Hasim Kılıç raised a storm in a teacup with his harsh statements against Turkish politics on the 52nd anniversary of the Constitutional Court. Yesterday's developments justified my projections. As I said earlier, when someone suggests these discussions as a threat toward the regime, the others will react against them and rise up. Following Kılıç's speech, the spokesmen of the AK Party and the Republican People's Party (CHP) came into play.AK Party Deputy President Mustafa Sentop described Kılıç's statements as "improper" and "superficial," adding, "He cannot act like a politician with court dress. If he wants to engage in politics, he should remove it." On the other hand, the CHP's Group Deputy Chairman Engin Altay claimed that Kılıç did not take off his court dress, but gave an important lesson. "It should be seen as a cry, slap and lesson against the people who violated the judiciary. This lesson was disclosed to Turkish people today."As citizens of the Turkish Republic, it is therefore necessary for us to adjust ourselves to the planned crises. In a satirical Nasreddin Hodja story, the villagers ask Nasreddin Hodja, "When will the Day of Judgment come?"He replies, "The day my wife dies, is my minor Judgment Day. When I die, however,now that is more serious." In other words, if we take a break to follow our local and small crises and focus on global ones, we will see the bigger hell rising out between the U.S. and Russia because of the recent developments in Ukraine.A few days ago, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gave a statement on the Ukrainian issue saying, "The window to change course is closing. If Russia [does not] choose the path of de-escalation, the world will make sure that the cost for Russia will only grow. And as President Obama reiterated earlier today, we are ready to act."The Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk also told during the interim cabinet meeting that Russia wants to trigger World War III by occupying Ukraine militarily and politically.Let's now turn to our current crisis. What did Kılıç say? "Recently, we have faced a serious and desperate accusation describing the judiciary as the parallel state or an illegal band. It is not possible for the judiciary to stand on its own feet as long as such accusations stick to us."In brief, I assume Kılıç observed everything properly.