In an attempt to stay in power when losing all allies and support, the only way left open for the Turkish government is to launch an all-out war, legal or not, against all opposition.

There seems to be no end to the number of towns and cities the central government has forcefully taken over from the elected Kurdish mayors.

The latest towns taken from the people who voted them in and appointed a non-elected “steward” by the central government are Varto and Bulanık from the Muş district in Eastern Turkey where the majority of the residents are Kurdish.

The mayors of these towns were detained on May 17 by the police and immediately a “steward” was appointed. Not only the town mayors but also the co-mayors were taken by the police. These towns, like the previous ones, had elected the progressive, pro-Kurdish and pro-women opposition party HDP.

Since HDP decided to run in the last elections on a progressive and human rights platform that cost AKP a significant number of votes, the AKP never forgave them.

HDP party’s co-presidents are held in a prison even though several courts have acquitted them from the trumped-up charges. Every time they are cleared of any wrongdoing the government makes up yet another charge to keep them away from the people.

To show their stance on women’s issues, HDP came up with the co-administration program anywhere they were elected. Any president of the party, any mayoral position or office they win, they bring a woman as the co-authority to manage the unit together.

Turkish government considers this co-management as a breach of elections and either takes over the office or threatens to do so.

When the central government attacks started, HDP asserted that the “stewardship” on their towns would not stop with the HDP controlled regions. They tried warning the major opposition party CHP which is strong in the Eastern parts of the country that soon it would be their turn. CHP, on the other hand, with its institutional nationalism installed in its inception when the republic was formed, did not take heed since the call was coming from a pro-Kurdish party. CHP was the only party that ruled the country for 27 years immediately after the modern Turkey was formed. It is given that CHP is the State Party that upholds the very ideology of the republic. Nationalism based on racism is one of the pillars of this ideology.

The progressive HDP’s warning proved to be true when last week the government started arresting the CHP mayors as well.

The Urla mayor in the West of Turkey from the CHP party was arrested and an AKP steward was appointed in his place last week. The government is accusing him of propagandizing and being a member of the illegal “community” organization of Fethullah Gülen. This is, however, an issue when one knows that until July 15, 2016 the governing AKP and the illegal organization of Fethullah Gülen were working together. Actually, the leader of this cult, Gülen, has been a dear friend of the president Erdoğan nearly all his life, but parted ways when he was accused of having attempted a military coup against Erdoğan. The governing AKP is still trying to cleanse its ranks from Gülen’s members who were openly and by design an integral part of the AKP and its government.

The AKP government is charging all its opponent with being a member of an illegal organization, either the Worker’s Party of Kurdistan PKK, or Gülen’s organization the “community.” This way they could shut down anybody with a legal charge of being a member or aiding or abating or propagandizing of an illegal organization.

The main opposition party CHP was caught with a surprise when their mayor was detained and charged with working on behalf of the “community” organization. The CHP never saw this coming. They take pride in being very secular when the “community” organization is very religious and has the ultimate goal of bringing an Islamic rule to the country. It seems, these logical differences do not matter if the government wants to take over an elected mayor. They make up a charge, any charge, and the mayor is gone.  Just like HDP warned them that this would happen.

The governing AKP party seems like escalated the attacks on the opposition especially when the party is experiencing huge internal problems. Last week the original founders of the party decided to split and subsequently created a brand-new party. This enraged Erdoğan, immediately accused them of betrayal. This comes at the heels of hemorrhaging party membership that has hit very serious levels. Last year, it is reported, Erdoğan’s party lost more than a million members.  Last month alone more than 56,000 members quit AKP.

The only way to stay in power seems to be an all-out assault on the opposition for the AKP party. Many believe the attempt to stay in power does not have to be completely legal or electoral for the AKP higher ups. And the main reason for this may be the alleged corruption levels, unprecedented in Turkey. The entire AKP leadership including the lower staff and even the ex-representatives are frightened that if they are brought down, the charges and court cases on their corruption will follow when so much fraud has become the norm of this regime.

It remains to be seen, however, if the major opposition CHP party will be able to get over their nationalistic-racist roots and join forces with the progressive HDP party braving the brunt of the government attacks to establish a system resembling democracy in Turkey after the fall of AKP.

The detention of their mayor and the centrally appointed steward should give some hint to CHP that the struggle for democracy is not going to be easy and it needs all the progressive support it can get.

Sendika.Org News (Mehmet Bayram)