Why freedoms?

Let’s just ignore the limitations placed on freedoms by public security and morality etc. Such limitations are normally implemented as far as democracy allows it.

Actually, freedoms, instead of being seen as a "thing" of itself, are being viewed as the lifting of all obstacles in front of living ones life. In other words, freedoms are needed in order for an individual to work, think, organize, express him or herself, practice religion and get involved in politics, without the constraint imposed by the state and society.

The defense of freedoms in Turkey evolved through a few stages. Between 1945 and 1950, the Democrat Party (DP) called for more political rights in the name of democracy. It implemented liberal economic policies against statism.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) which opposed the DP, ensured that the freest constitution in Turkish history was passed after the May 27, 1960 military coup. It helped the development of union rights and freedoms.

Those who supported the freedoms outside the political parties were the leftists that later became liberal democrats, who were affected by the military coup the most. Later on, religious intellectuals also joined them. These two groups were the most vocal supporters of the broadening of freedoms during the European Union process.

There are certain characteristics of the liberals’ understanding of freedoms. They almost see the freedoms as a end by itself. They believe if freedoms are granted, many social problems will be resolved by themselves. For example, they hope that once the cultural rights and freedoms of ethnic groups are recognized, those who resort to arms to ensure political rights will change their minds.

Defenders of freedom believe matching the Europeans in the level of freedoms is the only prerequisite to becoming developed. They ignore the socio-economic development. They believe freedoms will ensure the economic development takes place. They support the broadening of freedoms to be imposed from the top, instead of a gradual broadening during the development process.

They are not interested in the utilization of freedoms. Especially concerning the utilization of freedoms recognizing the differences between groups, they don’t see that the entire nation or political structure would have a say in it. In this context, they ignore the objectives some groups want to achieve that are hidden behind the calls for freedoms.

Most importantly, they never seem to think what sort of life we want to live by implementing such freedoms. In Classical Greece, freedoms were needed for a "virtuous" life. In other words, the priority was a virtuous or moral life and the Greek philosophy was assessing this life, including the state and politics, in its every detail. Maybe these meta-physical efforts were the main force behind the development of Greek thinking. Meanwhile, our liberals are failing to progress beyond defending an abstract concept of freedom, which prevents any advancements in our thinking.

The passing of almost all the freedoms necessary for EU membership was a very good development. Freedom of expression is only curtailed for supporting separatist movements. We will all see those who complain about the restrictions imposed on their creative potential, are not that creative after all. Let’s not forget the fact that all the great thinkers were creative at times when freedom of expression was very limited and that they imposed what they believed in despite all the dangers and by putting their lives on the line. Their superior thoughts broadened the freedoms.

Can we now start thinking, now that the defense of freedoms is at an end?

P.S. I had noted that a series of articles called "Our Founding Ideology and Islam," published on Oct. 9, 12 and 14, was written by a young reader. Yeni Safak’s Heyrettin Karmaman assumed I had written them and wrote four articles against them. The real author of these articles, Uygar Aktan, wrote an article, "Ideology, Theology and the State" as a reply that appeared on Oct. 12 in Radikal. I am no longer an intermediary.