Yesterday, your government announced plans to hold "unity and solidarity" rallies in your capital for the ruling party. I therefore propose what might seem a radical idea:
Invite the AKP-supporters to join you and share their voice.
After all, what is your own rally about? It is about the right of all Turks to be heard by their government.
Do not be seduced by this divisive effort. Co-opt it instead: çapul it, if you will. This is old style politics at play. You have proven yourself better than this. Mr. Erdoğan is, in simplest terms, trying to make your uprising an Us vs. Them situation, placing you in direction opposition to "them."
However, I strongly believe that even under the passion that fuels the present political climate, people are fundamentally reasonable when confronted with reason. And what's more, you have generations of people familiar with Ataturk's message that reason must lead people's decisions, and not tribalism.
I therefore propose you extend the invitation for all AKP-supporters who value reason to join you in Taksim and elsewhere, to stand against division. Add their voice to your own, and then you will truly speak for all.
To explain:
You Turks can be a hotheaded bunch, especially your elders. For whatever reason, the dominant management policy is "my way or the highway." When you have an idea in your head, anyone who stands in your way is a problem to be excised.
This attitude is reflected in Mr. Erdoğan's approach. But you won't fall for it. Not this time.
This attitude was very unsettling to me, as a foreigner, when I first arrived in Turkey. As a Canadian, I'm used to being paid at least the lip service of consultation when decisions are made or implemented. Here in Turkey, decisions get made and everyone needs to get on board. The "or else" is left implied.
We have such a situation in the country right now, and this time the people have had enough. Something has shifted. The hotheadedness seems to have been replaced by something cooler. But there are still those amongst your ranks who will jump at the chance to turn up the heat and become blinded by anger and ideology.
This bullheaded approach to management is represented everywhere in this country. It's in everything, from the way you drive (whoever is in front wins) to way you form queues (you don't). But in my three years here, I've seen airlines put up guide rails for queues, and drivers tend to stay more in their lane. Even the emergency lanes are relatively clear of traffic, compared to three years ago!
The most encouraging thing about your protest is that bullheaded, ideologically fierce groups are sitting together and having a genuine dialogue about how it might be possible to achieve everyone's aims. You are supporting each others' messages. Cooler heads have prevailed.
My proposal is only that this continues, all the way.
My experience here in the past three years is that management believes that only one person's aims -- namely Mr. Erdoğan's -- are achievable at a time. Whoever is in charge brooks no opposition, encourages no plurality of objectives achieved in balance.
Now is the time that you will be pitted against one another by outside forces. Mr. Erdoğan is rallying his supporters, and no doubt the event will be full of violent rhetoric. Do not rise to this challenge.
I offer you the most important lesson I have learned in my life:
Power only has power because you say it does.
When a teenage rebellion arises it is with the realization that our parents can say "no" to us, but they can only try to stop us. When we decide, ourselves, what we are going to do, we can do it. The only barrier than exists is ourselves. If we give the power of the word "no" to someone else, then we are the one that gave them that authority.
Your Gezi Park protest shows this understanding, that the power is yours, that Erdoğan's power is only borrowed from you.
The difficulty is that in exposing this, you have angered him and his supporters. No one likes to be made a fool, no one likes to disillusioned. Power is its own kind of religion, founded on an illusion.
Thus, to you Gezi Park çapuller, I say this: be kind in your response, but do not be smug. Do not rise to the ire of those wrestling with their illusions. Allow multiple objectives at once. Allow all the objectives at once.
Tayyip will not istifa. The more you fight him, the tighter he will hold on. It is therefore upon you to be the bigger man. You must guide him, coax him in the right direction. You must be obstinate before his efforts to place you into conflict with your countrymen and women.
Your protest must become a call for unity and solidarity for all Turks, not the Us vs Them form of "unity and solidarity" that Mr. Erdoğan seeks.
You, strange though it is, should be champions of the voice of your opponent. You must show him what true unity, true solidarity looks like.
You should invite AKP supporters to stand beside you peacefully in Taksim square and elsewhere around the country, and in one voice ask to be heard together. Ask your AKP supporting countrymen and women to stand with you and ask how Mr. Erdoğan plans to keep you united. How he intends to hear you all, all at once.
You should be peaceful champions for their voice, as well as your own.
At the very least, the invitation would mess with his head.
No comments:
Post a Comment