Is CHP uneasy about the EU?

Since this is the party I voted for in the last election I cannot help but wonder. Is the party founded by Ataturk, is undergoing a change? Or are we getting an entirely wrong impression?

The CHP is the party that boasts about carrying Turkey forward, about being the party that has carried Ataturk’s legacy from one generation to another. The CHP is the party "that has been charged with the task of elevating this country to the level of contemporary civilization." That is what we have been told, generation after generation.

We saw Baykal in this light.

What is happening now?

Baykal keeps complaining, saying, What is this? One harmonization with the EU bills package after another is being presented. The sixth package was more than enough. Where has the seventh package come from?

Baykal is one of the persons who would know best what changes Turkey must make exactly to achieve harmonization with the EU. Now that he adopts this stance does that mean that he considers the harmonization bills to be concessions being made to the EU — just as Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), even Democratic Left Party (DSP), once did?

I do not think so.

Then has he taken this particular stance merely to voice his opposition to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party)? Are CHP criticizing this drive for the sake of "doing politics"?

The Baykal we know is not a leader that confuses the country’s long-term interests with the day-to-day games of domestic politics.

Baykal says that the harmonization packages have stemmed from "external pressures", that the balances in the country have been disrupted. He repeats these often, both behind closed doors and in public, using different words.

Why have you not asked the military?
The last time he had a talk with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul — according to what is being said in Ankara’s political circles — he expressed his uneasiness about the planned changes in the composition of the National Security Council (MGK) especially. He reportedly said, referring to the proposed provisions that would limit the powers of that institution, "Why has the opinion of the military was not obtained?" His posing that question raises question marks indeed.

Yet, the government had announced that it had relayed the draft seventh package to the General Staff and that Gul was going to have a talk with Chief of Staff Gen. Ozkok.

I do not want to believe that the CHP can be upset by the EU project.

If the CHP is the party of the youth as it claims, a party that would carry our youngsters into the Turkey they hope for, then it cannot obstruct the EU project for the sake of "doing politics". On the contrary, it should grab the EU standard from the hands of the AK Party, become the standard-bearer itself.

A mistake has been done somewhere down the line. I cannot pinpoint where exactly.

It would not do to conduct an EU policy via the military
The seventh package would introduce extremely important chages concerning the MGK. To put it more correctly, the package would trim to a significant extent the powers with which the MGK general secretariat has been equipped in a extremely exaggerated manner, powers some of which never get used in practice anyway.

Naturally, this step has great symbolic significance.

The military are obviously upset by this. On the other hand they see that it is impossible for the MGK to be preserved in its present form. They view the developments a little emotionally and, at the same time, realistically.

The main problem stems from the civilians that roam among us, those civilians who adopt a harder line than do the military, that is, retired security figures such as retired soldiers, policemen, prosecutors and judges.

They are trying to create the impression that:

Turkey can fall into the hands of Islamist fundamentalists any minute, can be split up by Kurdish nationalists. The military are the only guarantee. If we now trim the powers of the military we will be playing into the hands of these enemies of the homeland.

To create extra tension they spread lies. In the latest instance it was said that initially it was planned to leave the force commanders outside the MGK so that the chief of staff would be the only military official attending MGK meetings, but that, due to the objections raised by the military, the government dropped the plan (!) I have looked into this matter. It turns out that no one had even thought about leaving the force commanders outside the MGK.

The changes to be made regarding the MGK general secreteriat are not based on a reckoning between the AK Party and the military. It is time we destroyed the taboos in our minds. Rather than focusing on how not to change we should focus on how best we can change.