Political scientist Dr. Dinçer Demirkent: Accountability tools have been abolished

Serif KARATAŞ
İstanbul

In their statements regarding the fires that could not be extinguished for days, the spokespersons of the government say that the municipalities are responsible, they attempt to bar those channels that report on the fire and accuse those who report critically about the government of lying.

We talked with political scientist Dr. Dinçer Demirkent about the government's stance on taking responsibility in the face of the forest fires, and the policy of shifting responsibility to the opposition and municipalities.

Stating that the responsibility for forest fires lies with the central government, Demirkent said, “Municipalities are set up to respond to fires in cities.” Emphasizing that in terms of the country’s general politics there is a new political regime equipped with all powers and where almost all authority is concentrated in a single person, Demirkent said, “Another thing that this regime has created for a long time is a sense of irresponsibility. Giving no account, abolishing accountability tools. That's the main issue. We are facing a government that doesn’t perceive itself as the addressee of any demands from opposition parties, social classes and segments of society.”

‘THIS METHOD IS USED TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT’

Explaining that the political rulers have shunted the entire political field, Demirkent said that since it is a regime that abolishes the system of asking for accountability because the democratic politics field is closed, it also naturally abolishes accountability itself. Demirkent continued: “Therefore, it should be said that the offloading of this responsibility to someone else and similar actions by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry as well as the President himself as well as the the Ministry of Interior are actually the main parameters of the regime. There, too, we see that the means of holding accountable have already been abolished by eliminating the means of holding the people to account, such as the right to assemble, or the ways of control of the parliamentary opposition and the parliament. Therefore, we see that he conducts himself by avoiding accountability, constantly throwing the responsibility on someone else, and calling out to both the society and the opposition parties from a place that never sees himself as the equal of his equal. I think that this style is applied in order to uphold the current government.”

‘THE INCREASE OF REPRESSIONS WILL CONTINUE’

Regarding the opposition's attitude towards this situation, Demirkent said: “The opposition must respond in another way, acting as the situation were not like this. On the one hand, the opposition acts as if those democratic tools exist, and since they use none of them and the government uses it as a form of rule, a kind of artificial balance has formed on this. I say that they cannot continue their democratic demands as if they had the means to express those democratic demands. Because the tools they had were removed. The means to organise the demand of the people are made impossible, not allowed, prohibited, prevented by using police force. So, of course, without finding ways to circumvent the usual ways of inventing new tools and introducing old tools this style of government will increase its repression. Because unless you create a network, the repression will naturally increase. For example, we have seen the attack on Halk TV. The question of how sustainable this way is is unfortunately not as easy for me as saying it’s unsustainable. Because consent has decreased, yes, democratic constitutionalism has been lost, votes have decreased. However, in the face of this the repression has increased and it is not difficult to foresee that it will continue to increase.”

Demirkent then warned the opposition: “If the opposition continues to pretend to be governed by ordinary means in a country that has been and continues to be governed by extraordinary means, we will remain in this vicious circle.”