Etyen Mahçupyan says Turkey’s governing party is “closing a parenthesis” on a system dating back to 1923
Etyen Mahçupyan, principal advisor to Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu
The chief advisor to the Turkish prime minister has described the AK Party’s time in government as the end of the Ataturk era in his country.
Etyen Mahçupyan said his party was “closing a parenthesis” on a system that stretched back to 1923 that was dominated by an Kemalist ideology.
He told a meeting in the House of Lords organised by the Centre for Turkey Studies that an observation that must be made is that “something we all know is coming to an end.”
He continued: “What is it? It’s the republic as it was first created back in 1923. It was a Kemalist ideology that we had, we had a military tutelage, the judiciary was controlling the public sphere at large, it acted as a civil guard in the public sphere.
“The public sphere itself was narrowed down so we had the secular community at the top of this small hierarchy, which made legitimate the elite of the political system.
“We had a very authoritarian secularism and nationalism, and we had [the model of] a proper citizen who looks at the state as to what to do and what to say and how to behave and so on and so forth. So this is coming to an end.”
There was a sizeable turnout in parliament to hear Mr Mahçupyan speak
Mr Mahçupyan, who was appointed principal advisor to the Turkish prime minister when Ahmet Davutoğlu assumed the office last year, described this process as the “closing of a parenthesis”.
“We don’t know what is coming next maybe but one of the feelings in the country today is that they don’t want to go back to the old days, so this gives an advantage to [the] AK Party because [the] AK Party is the sole carrier or representer [sic] of this transformation and trying to open a new gate to the new future.”
During his talk Mr Mahçupyan attempted to question the AK Party’s continued popularity in an environment where it is drawing increased criticism from commentators and politicians outside of Turkey.
Referring to the many accusations of corruption and wrongdoing, he said if they had “some substance, then we have to see the result”. He said there would have either to be a deficiency in the government or a defeat in elections – but, he said, neither had happened.