Turkey is heading towards a referendum (16
April) which could change the whole political system. It is impossible to get away from it – it fills
the news, the papers and everybody’s conversations. If you have Turkish friends on Facebook you
might have noticed them posting references to the referendum, or changing their
profile to ‘HAYIR’ (no – the outcome they are hoping for).
Without going into too much detail –
which I don’t understand anyway - Turkey currently has a parliamentary system
with an elected party whose leader is Prime Minister and a cabinet. The President is not allowed to be a party
member and officially has more of a ceremonial role.
The new system, being proposed by the
current president and his supporters, will abolish the role of PM and make the
President head of the Parliament. He
will be allowed remain as party leader, able to choose who runs as MP for the
party and choose his own ministers without needing parliamentary approval. More worryingly he will be able to choose more
than half the senior judges in the judiciary.
Political commentators say that while many countries have presidential
systems, they have checks and safeguards to ensure that one person does not
have too much power.
One of the worst things is that, similar
to the British referendum last year, we are not being given proper
information. Supporters claim the new
system will enable them to end terrorism, reduce unemployment etc without actually
explaining how. As in the UK, discussions
often deteriorate into name-calling with, at the worst, ‘no’ voters being
accused of supporting terrorism.
This is apparently a rising phenomenon
of modern politics, termed ‘post-truth’ politics. It was widespread in the American presidential
elections too. It involves appealing to people’s
emotions rather than their brain. It
seems that these days we aren’t so interested in policy and facts – much too
dull! We prefer the drama of a good
argument, whether the claims being made are real or not (politics reduced to reality
TV!).
So – it is an uncertain time for Turkey;
not for holiday-makers as whatever happens in the referendum this will continue
to be a beautiful place to visit but it might not be quite the same to live
here and as it has been my home now for almost 25 years I am hoping it doesn’t
change too much.
Enough politics! Here is a lovely story that was in the news a
couple of weeks ago...
... In the mountainous Black Sea region,
an eleven-year old girl was watching over the family’s goats as they
grazed. It started to snow heavily and
then she realised one of the goats was giving birth. She took the other animals back home and returned
to the goat and baby with two backpacks.
She put the baby in one and tied
it to her dog’s back (large Turkish shepherd dog), then put the mother goat in
the other bag and which she carried and struggled home through the thick snow.
What a strange world it is where this
girl cares for the goats dressed in the traditional clothes of the region, while
a picture of her taken by her brother on his phone ‘goes viral’. Old and new worlds collide! This is one of
the things I have always loved about Turkey.
By the way, the baby goat was named Snowball!
