19 May and Erdoğan’s move to paint the republic in the AKP’s colours

19 May is the centenary of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s passage to Samsun to organize the War of Salvation in Anatolia in opposition to the occupying imperialist forces.

In inviting the leaders of the parties apart from the HDP to Samsun so as to turn this centenary into a “celebratory show” that he will start from Samsun, Erdoğan has announced aloud his aim of making 19 May into an underpinning of the AKP’s vision for 2023.

Proclaimed the Youth and Sports Day under a law passed in 1938, it was named “Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day” by the 12 September junta.

And so it has been that, since 1938, 19 May has been marked as a holiday with accentuation on the values of the republic adorned with certain rituals.

THE AKP’S 19 MAY PASSION HAS PEOPLE SAYING “LET’S HOPE IT BODES WELL” 

As to the AKP rulers, they have always despised 19 May, as they have other national holidays. Indeed, as opposed to the other national holidays, AKP propaganda has attacked 19 May in the media and at certain meetings casting aspersions involving black propaganda of all forms starting with girl pupils taking part in performances in shorts.

Indeed, in 2012, the Ministry of National Education Directorate of Secondary Education prohibited the staging of 19 May performances at stadiums outside Ankara using the cold weather as a pretext and even flew a kite by going as far as asking what public opinion would say if they banned it entirely!

Now, by contrast, all official and “civilian” resources are being mobilized to mark 19 May 2019 in exaggerated ceremonies.

With this being so, those who are more or less aware of the regard the AKP has for national holidays cannot help saying, “Let’s hope it bodes well!”

The rulers have changed their tactics in recent years and in the quest for historical and ideological underpinning for the “single-man regime” they have adopted an approach that embarks on embracement of national holidays by painting them in the AKP’s colours.

Looking at pronouncements in recent months and endeavours to interrelate 19 May with the vision for 2023, it is apparent that the AKP is approaching endeavours to turn national holidays into an “AKP holiday” as part of a concrete plan.

SINGLE-MAN RULE IS SEEKING HISTORICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL LEGITIMACY

Having reached a serious stage in the “rounding down” course on which it has embarked since the 7 June election, the AKP seemingly wishes to use the centenary of 19 May as means for fleshing out its “2023 vision.”

It would thus not be wide of the mark to say that Erdoğan and the AKP have devoted the four years between 19 May 2019 and 29 October 2023 to the purpose of turning the AKP’s “2023 vision” into the “republic’s vision” and thus the republic into the “AKP republic.”

Hence, Erdoğan and his party wish to use the process as an opportunity for “renewal” both historically and ideologically of the “single-man rule.”

Viewed from this perspective, one aspect of Erdoğan’s aim in inviting the parties apart from the HDP to Samsun and making a show of strength there serves a similar aim to his inviting these parties to Yenikapı after 15 July.

NEAR-TERM AIM: TO OPEN A BREACH IN THE OPPOSITION BLOCK!

Erdoğan made this invitation at the outset to the CHP because Erdoğan was aiming, within the opposition block:

To open fresh discussion by way of distraction within the CHP under conditions in which an election has been called for the very near date of 23 June,To get cold winds blowing in the alliance between the CHP and Good Party, andBy not even sending an invitation to the HDP, to succeed in excluding the Kurdish people’s spokesperson and the third largest party in in parliament from legal politics and getting the CHP’s approval for this.

The AKP thus, in making the CHP a rung in its 2023 conception, wishes for one thing to use the centenary of 19 May as a move to “open a breach” in the opposing front in the 23 June election.

Debate over the 19 May centenary will continue in the days and months to come. But we must say here that Erdoğan’s failure to invite the HDP to the centenary of the 19 May celebrations shows that the AKP assigns no role for the Kurds in Turkey’s future. The argument “No, we are excluding the HDP, not the Kurds. The HDP does not represent the Kurds” will convince nobody any longer.