In one of my posts in February, I told you about the "free" elections in Turkey. The AKP government had started to distribute household appliances to poor people in the Eastern provinces. It was claimed that the governor of Tunceli was giving them away as gifts. However, he denied the allegations of illegal electioneering by citing the principle of "social state," insisting that the "non-partisan" governor office has nothing to with politics, in accordance with the Constitution.
But the police in Tunceli, following the orders of a state prosecutor, has conducted a search in the governorship today. Surprise! AKP's propaganda material has been found near the governor's expensive "gifts."
So, it seems that the way I have called the governor was not wrong: He is the govern(ment)or. He is the symbol of the ill-minded transformation of Turkish politics. From a democracy, to something which looks like democracy, but actually is not.
AKP's fridge politics is a direct threat to the vitality of the democracy. It is not less dangerous than a military coup or an Islamist revolution. I feel that it is even worse, because it proves that this reactionary party now controls the bureaucracy as well. The last fortress of the democracy is the judiciary. We'll see if it will also fall down or not, but it is definitely besieged.
AKP supporters were carrying this banner today: "The Last Ottoman Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan I." Beware, the second one may come one day.
And somebody should teach AKP voters that "the actual" last Ottoman sultan, Vahdeddin, had escaped from the country onboard a frigate, belonged to the United Kingdom, which had occupied Istanbul in 1920s. What a patriotism!
