September 12 weakened, but still lives on

It was considered the civic duty of every Turkish citizen to vote "yes" to it. We all marked the white ballot in order to protect the "holy state." A few of us said: "Don’t do it. This Constitution paves the way for an administration based on military discipline. They are turning the whole country into a military base." We all ignored them. Their voices were never heard. We were so scared of terrorism that it didn’t matter what we approved.

After some years, the country was stabilized and our attitude changed. Only then we realized the limitations it imposed on our lives. Actually the limitations were always there, but we were too tense to realize them.

Since then, the Sept. 12 Constitution has been amended nine times; 66 articles have been rewritten.

Our Constitution, which obligates our submission to the state and sees everything from the military’s perspective, was turned into a more democratic, civilian and humane document. In other words, we were able to display our Constitution without embarrassment.

It was weakened, but the problems never went away.

Still, when you change an article, you realize that the sub-clause of another article imposes the same restriction. You remove that clause too, and then you are faced with an appendix that allows limitations in a different wording.

It’s like a never-ending nightmare.

What really should be done is to write a new Constitution. Let its language be understandable and no limitations imposed on us.

Let’s believe in ourselves.

Let’s govern ourselves. Let’s not be governed by a military force.

However, we should protect our secular-democratic principles and our system. If anyone tries to change them, let’s challenge them.

The officers, prosecutors and judges should not wrote the new Constitution. We should.

Let’s not get angry with the Azerbaijanis
A scandal erupted.

We were very angry with the Azerbaijani deputies who failed to attend the European Council Parliamentary Assembly meeting that discussed allowing Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) deputies full representation in the assembly, equal to their Greek Cypriot counterparts.

The strange thing is that we condemned Azerbaijani President Ilhan Aliyev, even before asking why those guys hadn’t attended the session. Some believe that the Azerbaijanis have to do whatever we ask.

I checked their reasons for not attending the session, and I found they had valid excuses, from their point of view.

If KKTC deputies were to be fully represented in the European Council before an official recognition, and if Azerbaijani deputies had approved this move, a similar request could be made by Upper Karadag, under Armenian occupation, in the future. The KKTC might set an example and some deputies could call for the same thing for Upper Karadag. Then it would be Azerbaijan that would suffer.

We should thank the Azerbaijani deputies for not attending the session instead of getting angry with them. They showed sympathy towards Turkey by not attending the session. Seeing the danger of such a move for their interests, they should have attended the session and rejected it.

In international relations, blood relations and friendship don’t matter much.

Every country behaves in accordance with its interests.

Do you think Turkey will support Azerbaijan no matter what? I can provide you a list of what Turkey did that was not in Azerbaijan’s interests. Our love for Azerbaijan can never become an aspect of our international relations. Turkey always voted in accordance with its own interests.

That’s why we should not criticize our Azerbaijani brothers. We should also not open border gates with Armenia just because we are angry with the Azerbaijani stance. We will open it, anyway, when it suits our interests.