Tuesday, 19 March 2024


Country Report/Turkey

A National Liberal in Turkey

Early 2007 just before an election, a question was always on my mind. Why don’t we defend our rights as independent citizens of our nation? A Nation is the product of the contribution of citizens; it is the identity of the citizens. The survival of a healthy and wealthy nation and the protection of individual rights within it are therefore in the hands of independent citizens. Thus an independent citizen must struggle to be part of that healthy and wealthy society within an independent nation.

I defend not only liberal values but national values too and thus become the defender of national liberal values. Furthermore I pledge to fight for those national liberal values until the end of my life.

In Turkey, the first time political people adhered to national liberal values was at the time the Turkish Republic was established at 1920’s and later the 1980’s. In the 1920’s the Government party was republican and populist and the first constitutional charter was created in the spirit of national liberal ideas and in its implementation was the establishment of a liberal party, although it was unsuccessful, was one of the successes of the founders of Turkish republic. In the 1980’s whilst the Government party had national and conservative goals they embraced a wider constituency following the end of the Military Coup) but at the time nobody was able to name some of the brave liberalization implementations as national liberal politics but nevertheless these were the first steps of national liberalism.

After that Turkey was not offered the choice of National Liberal values. Coalition governments were not helpful to their citizens’ individual rights or the creation of a democratic and wealthy nation. In the last 8 years the Government has been in the hands of a conservative and religious (Islamic) party (AKP). In summary this has led to slow destruction of the nation’s economic, social and cultural values. National companies, despite being highly profitable, are being sold as are precious natural resources. All the money spent is to fill the Government’s pockets. They proudly promote these actions as liberalization but they are worse than those liberal democrats who would destroy national values as by selling off national productive companies they are betraying the nation’s citizens. By naming these actions a product of liberalism is a lie used by liberal democrats to serve imperialists and totalitarians. The only liberalism that protects the liberties of individuals and the nation is national liberalism. During the last 8 years in Turkey you can easily observe that many people have been put into jail although their ‘crimes’ have not been tried in the courts and they languish in jail waiting for months and years before coming before a Court. The rights of independent individuals are being severely handicapped.

All these handicaps are created by the State. The state is sheltering all those groups which are willing to rule over other citizens for their own benefit such as political, religious, economic and culturally constituted groups. This corruption of the state should be replaced by the honesty of the nation. The State should be transformed into a Nation to govern the government with the power of independent individuals.

In year 2011 there will be an election for parliament members and as a direction of the constitutional law there will be a payment (for the preparation for the election) made to political parties but not all the participating parties will be paid only the top 3 because of their previous vote percentage. So the richest three parties will be assisted but all the others although small with little money to emphasis their ideas, will be paid zero monies to make propaganda for the election. Those larger parties are no different than business companies, for they not only collect money from their members but also rely upon the state to fund their election campaign. There is a need for justice in the electoral system and the state’s payment to a select group of parties.

During the 2007 parliamentary elections I entered into an alliance with the Liberal Democrats because of some of their specific ideas of liberalism. The list of the Adana city, the city where I live, should have a total 14 names on it for the each political party who are eligible candidates to enter electoral competition. The candidate list of the Liberal Democratic Party was rejected by judges because of some bureaucracy that they themselves created! So the liberals were not represented in 2007 election in Adana city.

I stayed loyal to the alliance with the liberal democrats and at the local elections in 2009 I stood for the Mayor of Adana city as a representative of the Liberal Democratic Party. During the campaign period none of the liberal democrat body politic helped me, neither financially nor in terms of man power, I was alone as a national liberal to defend liberalism with my own limited budget and my talents to organize TV programs and news papers speeches and visits to group of peoples, advertisements and flyers etc; all those were not only to support me but also for the liberal democrats and their President. I invited liberal democrats hundred of times to Adana city to introduce liberalism to the people of Adana but it was a kind of ‘favour’ to me to be there! Once again I see that I am right to specifically mention that we national liberals should never be compared to liberal democrats.

We are close to humanity and we have a heart to heart relation to the people and we believe that the survival of each individual in a healthy society with peace depends on the survival of the nation. Yet on the contrary, liberal democrats are selfish as they think only of themselves and no other body. Liberal democrats are ready to allow the destruction of personal values of human beings and for them the nation’s destruction is no problem. Their main aim is to leave the individual to him/her self without any values which is a liberalism that does not exists in any corner of the world i.e. individuals are left alone to protect their liberties which in reality will mean living under the slavery of unknown actors or unknown nations or totalitarians rather than a nation to which they belong. Only a nation of independent citizens can collectively protect their liberties.

Finally, I have a dream that the expectations of individuals will one day be answered and the identity of the individuals will be given. All these expectations in terms of liberties, independence, property rights, health and wealth, preservation of nature and justice and to have a national identity are national liberal values which are living inside the nature of all human beings. I am happy to announce that all the national liberals of the world should come together because the future of the world will arise in your hands.

As a last sentence of my writing I want to give place to the founder of Turkish Republic, Ataturk. The meaning of his name is “ancestor of Turks “. He pronounced that “peace at home, peace at world”. A fitting goal.

Ozgur Karakok
October, 2010

Biography of Ozgur Karakok:

Born in 1971, after his father’s job meant he lived in many cities he eventually settled in Adana City. A University graduate in English whilst at Bilking University in Ankara plus an MBA degree from the Social Science Institute of Istanbul Bilgi University in Istanbul he continues his higher education in economics and public administration.

Although running a family business for a number of years he presently works in production control and public relations for a Civil Engineering company. I have strong, powerful personality and I myself skillful and full of knowledge in many areas for example reporting several countries economical activities and strategies and constituting bilateral relations and friendship relations with other nation’s representatives and businessmen .

Politically he launched a ‘National Liberal Project’ in 2007 to discuss and promote national liberal ideas at his web site www.ozgurkarakok.biz . He says he decided to come to ‘aboveground from underground’ given all the negative conditions of his nation believing it to be the right time on the clock for defending his nation state (with national liberal values) which he says is under attack from internal and external enemies on all levels politically, socially, economically and culturally.

Later in 2009, he stood in the Mayoral elections (as an LDP candidate) in Adana City. He says he is still fighting politically (and now exclusively) for national liberal ideals.

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