Two hours had yet to pass since President Erdoğan’s proclamation of the “Human Rights Action Plan” on 2 March before news hit the wires that the Court of Cassation Republic Chief Prosecution had launched a probe into the HDP!
Even if this was brushed off as being an “irony of fate” or “unfortunate coincidence” by certain circles, the truth is not so simple, because the constitutional and legal violations prevailing in our country in areas such as the law, justice, freedom of expression and media freedom have mounted up to the extent that on the day a plan or programme was mooted for ameliorating such matters it was bound to come across as an “occurrence” driving home to every one of us that all the pronouncements were empty talk!
THE SOLE TRUE PURPOSE IS TO GUARANTEE THE INVIOLABILITY OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
Stating that the “action plan” consisting of nine “operative” articles, eleven “basic principles” and fifty “headings” would be ushered in within two years, Erdoğan also spoke of the end goal being a “civilian constitution.”
The plagiaristic degree to which the nine operative articles of the “action plan”, allegedly the product of months of work, draw on the 1948 UN Human Rights Charter, the particular stress expressly laid on “the objective of securing compliance with EU norms” in articles relating to certain notable technical regulations and the special attention devoted to assuaging the concerns of domestic and foreign capital by forcefully emphasizing the “inviolability of property rights ” lay bare the purpose of the “Human Rights Action Plan.”
This purpose, in turn, can be said to amount to:
1) winning credibility for “single-man rule” with propaganda touting a Turkey that has caught up with the times in such areas as fair trials, freedom of expression, media freedom, human rights, etc.,
2) countering the ever-firmer pressure in recent years emanating from the USA and EU on such matters as “human rights, the supremacy of the law and fair trials,” and
3) assuring Western imperialism’s loci of capital of the unassailability of their property rights in Turkey.
“ACTION PLAN” INSPIRES NO EXCITEMENT!
Erdoğan-the AKP are acting as if they have just come to power and are regaling the public with an action plan in fulfilment of pledges on such matters as freedoms, the supremacy of the law, justice and human rights. Erdoğan similarly peppered his presentation of the action plan with remarks of, “There’ll be none of that anymore, there’ll be this.”
Hence, what intellectuals, progressive democratic circles and all shades of the opposition took away from Erdoğan’s pronouncements was formulated in terms devoid of all optimism such as, “A new anti-reform initiative,” “A move aimed at destroying the last remnants of freedom” and, “A manoeuvre aimed at creating expectation in society.”
This is because such circles have seen first-hand the truth that the AKP administration has brought areas such as human rights, the law, justice, media freedom and freedom of expression into a condition whose direness bears no comparison to the days when it came to power. It is thus an expression of the truth to state that the inclination prevailing among circles apart from the band of cronies is to say, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
Apart from the crony media’s in-house commentators, no positive assessment has been forthcoming from milieu having any kind of public recognition (apart from the praise verging on toadyism saying, “The Human Rights Action Plan is the roadmap for star travel” of Metin Feyzioğlu who remains in place as Union of Turkish Bar Associations Chair thanks to the banning and non-holding of its congress).
Indeed, we have witnessed a lack of excitement from even the crony media in response to the “Human Rights Action Plan” which AKP propaganda has spoken of as “legal reform” for months.
CONFESSION OF THE MENTALITY RISING OUT OF THE ACTION PLAN
With President Erdoğan accompanying every paragraph with, “There’ll be none of that anymore, there’ll be this” as he presented the “Human Rights Action Plan,” he went out of his way to emphasize that what was to be and not be “would apply to everyone” and every citizen was equal before the law.
However, within this outpouring, his “water, flowers and thornbush” metaphor came as a confession of the mentality rising out of the plan called the “Human Rights Action Plan.”
In saying, “While watering a flower sparingly dries it up, overwatering it makes it wilt. Justice must be implemented with the goldsmith’s fine touch. This means we will not water every flower we see. While watering a flower drooping from waterlessness is to bring about justice, watering a thornbush may amount to oppression,” Erdoğan has declared that all are not equal before the law and they have returned to the world prior to the 1789 French Revolution (*).
For sure, the “flowers drooping from waterlessness” are those who do homage to single-man rule. Erdoğan says he will water them. But even the latter will only be watered to the extent they see fit. As such, not even the “flowers drooping from waterlessness” will be able to say, “Given we have paid homage we will exercise our freedoms as much as we wish;” on the contrary, if they push too far, they will be told to know their place and those that do not get the message will have their water cut off! For the one who knows who needs how much water is not the “flowers drooping from waterlessness,” but him, the gardener!
As to the “thornbushes,” every means will actually be tried to wilt them. They will not just be deprived of water, but they will be wilted under baking hot winds and storms and extreme cold!
Erdoğan could not have done a better job of making clear where the single-man rule stands on human rights and the law!
(*) The basic slogan of the French Revolution was “equality, liberty, fraternity.” “Equality” is “the equality of all before the law!” Since that time, one of the chief indispensable rights in all places where a degree of democracy exists has been “the equality of all before the law.”
(Translated by Tim DRAYTON)
İhsan Çaralan
Yusuf Karadaş