One-party state

The lists of names of important civil servants who have resigned to run for office in general elections are printed in newspapers. These are, of course, the famous ones that the papers are interested in.

We know that the "real list" is much longer.

This is not a new situation.

I far as I know, before every general election, important public servants resign from their posts to enter politics.

Most of the resignations are to be a candidate from the ruling party, but we would occasionally come across governors, security directors, muftis and heads of several public institutions that resigned to become candidates from opposition parties.

That was so until these elections? I don't know if you have noticed it, but all the civil servants who have resigned from their posts this time want to be a candidate for the ruling party. There is not one governor, district governor or top civil servant enthusiastic about entering politics for the Republican People's Party (CHP), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) or any other party.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has molded the bureaucracy in 12 years to such an extent that it has almost become a "one-party state." 

It's very much like the "one-party era," when all the civil servants were from the CHP. This was an era we thought we had left in the past when we began multi-party politics.

Obviously, the first condition to hold a good position in the bureaucracy has become partisanship, not competence.

The separation of "from us and not from us" has become the "golden rule" of bureaucracy.

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