News & Comment
Western Babacan Starts Out with AKP’s Outdated Principles

News:

Ali Babacan attended a live broadcast on TV for the first time after having resigned from Ak Party of which he was the founder of Babacan, who was a guest on the program called Teke Tek which is broadcasted on HaberTurk TV, said that they intend to form the legal entity of the new party at the end of 2019. Babacan pointed on “economy, human rights and freedom of speech violations, law, democracy and intra-party democracy” as primary problems that have to be solved. Babacan stated that he resigned from Ak Party because of these principles and values. (Source: Sozcu)

Comment:

When we take a look at the issues, Ali Babacan, who resigned from Ak Party and started to form a new party, listed as problems that have to be solved - the economy, human rights and freedom of speech violations, law, democracy and intra-party democracy - we encounter the founding principles of Ak Party. Babacan repeats today the principles of Erdogan, who resigned from Erbakan’s party and founded the Ak Party in 2001. But didn’t they form the Ak Party together that very day? As Erbakan was a kind of an Islamist or conservative that time compared to Erdogan, Erdogan today seems to be more Islamist than Babacan to that degree. And Babacan today seems to be democratic, liberal, secular and libertarian compared to Erdogan, to the extent in which Erdogan seemed to be democratic, liberal and libertarian compared to Erbakan. However, all these are of no importance today for today’s politicians, as it wasn’t yesterday.

If America and American organizations - the Turkish media and international media, Jewish organizations in America, New York and Washington based think-tank organizations- had supported Erdogan and the Ak Party, that propaganda of human rights and freedoms which Erdogan uttered in 2001 would be of no value. If America hadn’t supported Erdogan with hot money in the region, none of Ak Party’s economic promises would come true in Turkey that haven’t overcome the financial crisis of 2001. If America had not backed the Ak Party with Gulen group’s bureaucratic staff, NGOs and media support, the English ward system in Turkey could not be liquidated. Despite the fact that they are at daggers drawn with each other, and Gulen’s men tried to overthrow Erdogan and the government through the July 15 Coup attempt, they (Ak Party and Gulen Group) were working together before 2013. Although there were discrepancies in their duties, their goal was to liquidate the constituent English politics and make the American politics sovereign. In other words, all the principles put forward when Ak Party was founded -human rights, freedom of speech, law, justice- were for the permanency of these American projects in Turkey.

Then why did Erdogan desist from these Western values and principles, or why starts Babacan out with Ak Party’s outdated principles today? Yesterday, it was that way for Ak Party and Erdogan but today it is the other way. The subjects uttered by Ali Babacan that must be solved (the economy, human rights and freedom of speech violations, law, democracy and intra-party democracy) are subjects that Erdogan doesn’t need anymore. He defended the European values until he came to power, but when he came to power he broke them. These principles which the Ak Party and Erdogan have abandoned are again needed by Ali Babacan. Anyway, what other principles could Western minds offer this society? Not Islamic principles, of course, but Western principles.

When we ask where the new party to be formed by Ali Babacan will position itself in Turkey’s politics, we see this: Surely, the environment Ali Babacan’s party will address the public will ask for support, is the grassroots of Ak Party that dissolve acidly. Actually, even this is enough to show the political aspect of the party to be formed by Babacan. The new political movement that will be led by Ali Babacan and Abdullah Gul will be in the American political block in Turkey. In this way, the masses of voters whom Erdogan and the AK Party -which are declining in popularity and gradually weakening- are no longer able to influence and will gather here.

Babacan’s statement that they prefer collective politics instead of one-man politics will also draw the attention of secularists, liberals and democrats within the Nation Alliance. In other words, Babacan does not only aspire the electorate that broke away from the People’s Alliance, he also aspires the masses that will break away from the Nation Alliance. By this means, America aims to continue its politics it has formed and established on Turkey with Erdogan and the Ak Party in the last 15 years.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Mahmut KAR
Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Turkey