Elections again? We will soon go nuts

Elections are only a small part of what we call political participation. In true democracies citizens have the power to influence decisions and practices of the state at every level. This is the real meaning of political participation.

Here, on the other hand, let alone influencing decisions, most of the time we are not even fully aware of what is going on.

Even if we are informed, we have no say in countless decisions, from determining to go on a war to mad construction projects that would affect all of our lives. We cannot even decide on the shape of our Bosphorus passenger boats; take it from there.

The Gezi Park movement erupted exactly for this reason. Remember, certain city officials promised, in those days, to include us in decision-making processes, telling us that ?we will even ask people about the placement of bus stops.?

Since that day, nobody has asked us anything. Probably they were joking.

The regime we are living in, the one that is being imposed on us as an ?advanced democracy,? do you think it provides us adequate means of political participation? I don?t think so.

Even if we only express our opinion, that is enough for us to be labelled as ?terrorists.? Those who cling to ?security measures? instead of creating the security itself opt to issue laws that restrict or even abolish our fundamental democratic rights, as if to prevent us from voicing our complaints in the streets. As if that was not enough, they make those laws that are already unsuitable for democratic regimes even stricter with an emphasis on ?chaos.? 

We are very democratic in giving lip service. But we are not in reality. In our crooked democracy, elections and political participation are presented as if they are the same...