Reflections on Turkey's Political Structure and Sociology of Politicians

The way to create a clean society is through clean politics. Clean politics, on the other hand, can only rise on a system whose rules are predetermined, principled and function according to the rules of political ethics. However, today, some of the political and bureaucratic cadres generally perceive political power as a spoils rather than a means of governing the country, and see the state as a tool for this sharing, use it and approach it accordingly. 

The mafia, politics, state bureaucracy and media relations that have recently emerged in our country are the most obvious evidence of this. Unfortunately, this understanding spreads to political party supporters and from there gradually to the society and leads to decay. This is a sociological reality. Instead of being vilified and ostracized, those who are enriched with power and power through these relations turn into actors who are admired as role models. This not only corrupts current politics and the society that benefits from it, but also threatens future generations and holds the future of society hostage. 

Today, a free market understanding where the powerful set the rules has turned into a passion for turning the corner without producing, making money the easy way has started to rise above all values, and how much money is earned has become a question not how money is earned! In this process, the void created by the justice system has been filled by mafiosi, who have created new types of rich people in the triangle of politics and bureaucracy, which has radically changed the balance of power. However, a clean society depends on clean politics. This is a sine qua non in developed western societies. What we are experiencing in the quadrilateral of mafia, politics, bureaucracy and media is unfortunately the result of political pollution. If politics had not been polluted, things would never have come to this! It is necessary to see this and make this determination first. Then it is useful to ask ourselves the following questions! 

How is it that political pollution, which brings social corruption, cannot be prevented and can take the whole society under its hegemony?

Moreover, how is it that those who create this political pollution are criticized by the masses, yet today they have become a model to be emulated? 

What are the social and political consequences of political pollution within this network of relations and how can this vicious circle be broken? 

The most striking dimension of political pollution is the corruption, bribery, theft and political gangsterism that pervades society from top to bottom! The formation of gangs within the state and the ability of these gangs to settle their scores in front of the public, public banks becoming a source of credit for politicians, the use of the secret fund for personal purposes, Swiss accounts of bureaucrats, the sharing of incentives, commissions taken in public tenders at the central and local levels, and the valorization of worthless land by politicians, The lack of bribery in state offices, the wealth of politicians and their relatives whose sources are never disclosed, the enrichment of some people under the name of privatization, the manipulation of the media by political powers, the inaction of the judiciary in the face of all this, and the mafia running amok in the country reveal the dimensions of political pollution that reach the level of putridity. 

This unprincipled, unlawful, theft and gangsterism in the media has almost become a characteristic of those in positions of power in society. These actions of a small elite that exploits the state are seen or shown as almost permissible. Someone somehow convinces the society about this, and the society watches what is happening, but by remaining silent in the face of it, it gives its consent. And where there is no consent, oppression comes into play and those who do not consent are silenced. This is where we need an opposition that will bravely take matters into its own hands! 

The existence of a bureaucratic state, rather than a democratic state, is an important phenomenon in these situations. Democratic states were established in countries where capital and the working class could develop. In Turkey, there was initially no internal dynamic that could lead to such a development. The social structure that the young Republic inherited from the Ottoman Empire was centralized, authoritarian and predominantly rural. It was inevitable that the state built on such a structure would be bureaucratic. What needs to be investigated is why the bureaucratic state has not been transformed into a democratic structure until today or how it can be transformed today.

The main difference between a bureaucratic state and a democratic state is that in a bureaucratic state, the activities of the state are not monitored and there are no accountability mechanisms. The bureaucratic state does not provide information about its activities. A state where there is no accountability and where people can get away with it will encourage, rather than prevent, irregularities and corruption. Naturally, in this situation, gangs will flourish, the mafia will run rampant and the sell-out media will support this situation. As is well known, citizens have no control over the state in Turkey. With the parliamentarians he elects as the controlling power and the parliament formed by him, he has been rendered in need of control! There is a mutual protection and mutual feeding. We have also recently witnessed how the mafia is protected by the political establishment. This fact tells us that no gang or mafia can grow or operate in a country without the backing of the government. 

The real exemplary question and problem here is this: How is it that nothing is done when all these allegations are being made public?

There has been no relevant resignation, no arrests, the establishment of a parliamentary investigation commission has been prevented and, even stranger, the prosecutors have not taken action. Moreover, the public opinion is not or is not sufficiently mobilized. Now, in the light of these facts, I would like to tell you a little about the sociological profile of the politicians of our country. In our country, the upbringing, the way of life and the way of doing politics of the political actor encourage corruption within the absolute power of power. 

First of all, a leader or a political actor is a human being like everyone else. He/she grew up in this system while being educated and living his/her life. The current system, on the other hand, generally raises a type of person who nominally defends right, law, justice, basic moral virtues and honesty, but in reality emphasizes selfishness, self-aggrandizement and greed. As a result, those who are at the head of the water start to consider it almost permissible to take the biggest share of it. Since the system does not provide social and economic guarantees for the future, individuals seek to secure themselves, their families and their environment by trying to create socio-economic security mechanisms for their future. People in these roles are not only faced with their own demands and ambitions! At the same time, their close circles also see such people as a hope of salvation for themselves and put material and moral pressure on them. They expect to get a share in return for the leadership and pioneering role they assign to them. This creates a significant pressure on the leader. Thus, the political leader starts to see himself as the savior of his inner circle as well! As such, he tries to make them benefit from these resources as well, and tries to make his entourage prosper along with him. Therefore, in return for protecting, protecting, glorifying and promoting the leader, his inner circle receives a significant share. This inner circle includes not only blood relatives, but also close associates who are treated as members of the family and, more importantly, senior party members. In other words, the center pre-selects those who will elect it, and they in turn choose the center that has appointed them. 

This vicious cycle goes on and on. Over time, the periphery, i.e. the provincial organs of the party, demand various rents and incomes as the price for keeping the center in charge. The leader and the central cadres try to feed the party, starting with the leading cadres representing the periphery. This wheel goes on and on with mechanisms such as awarding tenders, obtaining loans from public banks, transferring money from the state coffers under the name of projects, appointing their own people to various public institutions and organizations without looking for merit and competence on the basis of finding a job for a man, and expelling public officials that the party members do not like by transferring them to other places. In fact, let alone the public opinion within the party, the general public also sees the leaders, ministers, MPs, provincial and district presidents who realize these things as successful and applauds them! This cycle gradually reveals a philosophy of life, a mentality. This is the mentality of "the state's property is the sea, and those who don't eat it are pigs" and "those who keep honey lick their fingers".

Corruption and despair envelops the country in such a web and becomes so constant that these relationships and what is happening is now considered permissible! It is almost approved by silence and unresponsiveness! Now let's talk a little bit about bureaucrats and bureaucracy. In fact, a bureaucrat is a public official who works in an office to see the work of the public, to facilitate it, to ensure the functioning of the state order. However, this is not at all the case in countries where the economy of corruption has spread like a cancerous network. Some of the bureaucrats appointed by the rulers usually create an order themselves through mechanisms such as bribery, torpil, commission for facilitating work, loans, favoritism, appointment, promotion, etc. in exchange for fulfilling the wishes and wishes of the rulers. There comes a point when the bureaucrat, who receives a salary from the budget formed by the people's taxes, begins to see himself as an official appointed by the leader and his party rather than a public servant in the service of the people. The leader and the party usually see the bureaucrat under their patronage in this way. Therefore, the wheel is secured by this mutual psychological assurance. As you can see, a triple pillar is necessary for the formation of a corruption economy. At the top is the political actor who has seized power through the institution of politics, the party organs and its leaders, in short, politics.

On the other side are the capital, businessmen, people and institutions that are the source of the corruption economy, and in between are the bureaucracy and its bureaucrats that ensure this functioning. First of all, I must emphasize this immediately. The main element that distinguishes a democratic state from a bureaucratic state is transparency. In a bureaucratic state there is no transparency, usually whoever does what gets away with it. This encourages all kinds of illegality. In a democratic state, on the contrary, there is transparency. Whoever does what is accountable. Because everything happens before the eyes of the public. At least the mechanism of participation and audit ensures this. Therefore, those who do their job well are rewarded. Those who do bad work are punished. So laws are of great importance here. If the legal mechanism does not impose sanctions on those who commit economic crimes as in Turkey, this will only encourage and increase economic crime! When we look at the present day, we see that those who rob state banks, siphon off public funds, give bribes and take bribes do not face any significant legal obstacles or penalties!

This process not only encourages the squandering of public resources, but also damages the public conscience and the public's sense of justice! All these developments show that the system is rotting and collapsing. It is therefore essential and inevitable to restructure this system. Because if this system produces corruption and theft, gangsterism and mafiosi, the problem is not solved when you change the thief or the corrupt person. Because if the system does not change, it produces someone else. The antidote to the rigid centralized, inward-looking bureaucratic state structure that encourages the corruption economy is an outward-looking democratic state structure that emphasizes transparency.

This second option is not only necessary to put an end to the economy of corruption at home, but it is also necessary, even imperative, to stay in touch with the modern outside world and integrate with its modern, pluralistic democratic values. This is why Turkey is at a crossroads. It faces an important choice at an important crossroads. One of these options is to maintain the system as it knows it by turning inward, which is the option of those who feed on the status quo. The other is the democratic and transparent state option that will be put forward by those who are in favor of change and who have turned their faces to the modern world. Change is of course not easy. Because the status quo forces that feed on the current system will resist change with the anxiety and worry of losing their position and the resources they feed on. But since the power of change is proportional to the power of those who want it, those who want change must find support by explaining their projects to the masses of the people and broaden the front of segments and layers that will ally with them. Change is more difficult than maintaining the status quo. The status quo can be preserved with hamas, but change is a real situation, so it cannot be done with hamas, it requires a change in the real situation.

This struggle and its dimensions will determine whether there will be change in Turkey, and if so, what its direction, speed and quality will be. Of course, it should not be forgotten that the institution that will make all these changes is the political institution itself. Let us not forget that politics as an institution is not responsible for the transformation of politics into a rent distribution mechanism. In all fundamental issues, it is necessary to question and question the system that bases the politician's raison d'être on looting funds, distributing perks from the state purse and looking out for fellow citizens.

However, politics, as a scientific activity, is basically an activity that envisages governing the state and solving the problems of the people. Its most important function is to create opportunities to increase production, to ensure that production and prosperity are shared fairly, and finally to realize these two activities in peace and solidarity. Turkey's problems can be solved by developing democracy and making public scrutiny dominant in all political mechanisms. There are some realities that seem to stand in the way of this principle. Representative democracy, which is already outdated in its current form in Turkey, is deviated from both its institutional content and its universal content, and is understood and practiced only as the rule of the majority, thus both the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people are not taken into account and the society is becoming increasingly impoverished as the concept of public interest is destroyed by a predatory majority. Therefore, pluralist and participatory democracy must be given content and functioning.

Politics has been both the result and the cause of this oppression and plunder, and the political parties that have come to power have become the carriers of the 'predatory culture' within the oligarchy of organizations, delegates, leaders and deputies. The real problem is that opportunism and unprincipled behavior encourage the proliferation of gang formations through bribery and similar mechanisms, and that these formations are approved by the leaders in order to protect their own positions. For all these reasons, politics has ceased to be a means of serving the country and has become a career for those who want to make a quick buck. One of the main causes of pollution in Turkey is the way of doing politics. The way of doing politics is also shaped and emerges as a result of the law on political parties, which is also based on the Constitution. Therefore, the first step is to review the legal and juridical framework on which political parties are based and to change it in a way that will lead to a clean and modern society. However, since change and democratization are not in the interest of some segments, they get in the way and are even prevented. However, the power of change is proportional to the power of the governed to want change. Clean politics can find the chance to live in a truly democratic environment. Therefore, the general and local administrative structure of the country must be restructured and restored to a democratic essence. Whoever is involved in the recent developments must be brought to justice and held accountable. Politics is the art of governing society. When it becomes an instrument of power and rent, it not only corrupts itself but also society over time.

Preventing this is everyone's problem and responsibility. If we want to live as free individuals, in a developed responsible society and in a democratic state, we have to do our part in this context. I believe there is no other way. 

Stay with respect and love.