Tough run-up to the referendum, but the aftermath will be very tough

There remain a mere 27 days. Four Sundays from now we will be at the polls.

The title of the column does not mince words: 27 long and hard days lie ahead of us.

An individual whose longing for power, ambition for power and drunkenness with power have fused into one is asking – along with his party – not for an Ottoman slap, but for a hearty democracy slap, and delivering it will be no easy matter.

It is undoubtedly a waste of time and energy to try to win over to the ‘No’ camp those would be somebody’s hair in some place or those who profess a desire to lick him while grinning wildly in devotion.

On the other hand, it is of great importance to bring the large mass of the ‘undecided’, larger in number than we have encountered in virtually any election, into the democracy camp, and this will be worthwhile, decisive, and ...

And it will not be easy.

A truly herculean task.

Will the tough job be accomplished?

Naturally enough, if you restrict yourself to explaining to those who are already going to vote ‘No’ why they should vote ‘No’, it won’t happen.

If people really put their backs into it, perhaps!

***

Then, we will awake on the morning of 17 April.

The ‘No’ front, today seemingly pretty broad and widespread, will dispel regardless of the referendum result.

The MHP’s, BBP’s and Patriotic Party’s ‘No’ supporters will continue on their way, not deviating by a millimetre from Turkish nationalism and enmity for Kurds. For sure, nobody will say, ‘The Kurds are our enemy.’ But their affection will only be for Kurds who have abandoned such overriding demands as the native language and citizenship with equal rights; they will regard organised Kurds as being the enemy, indeed, the main enemy. Will the socialist left manage to mount a joint action that is grounded in and extends beyond the ‘common denominator of “No”?’ I do not know. I confess, too, that I do not imagine so. In that milieu, after the referendum, everyone will, like the rhyme in the kids’ game, ‘the married to their homes and the villagers to their village,’ go their own way and nobody will have a shred of doubt that their way is the correct way.

As to the CHP, it will continue to walk among the tides of the exercise in futility of trying to reconcile the irreconcilable contradiction between social democracy and nationalism.

***

Have I painted a pessimistic picture?

Yes, or indeed I have tried to further escalate the existing pessimism.

Because.

Because, on the morning of 17 April, whatever the referendum result, the party of political Islam will either, drunk with victory, step up the religious chicanery and the rupture with democratic values in a way that will make us long for these days – it will set sail on an undemocratic adventure in a tight embrace with despotic rule like Putin’s Russia and canoodling with Saudi and Qatari capital - or, in the anger of defeat and panicked over losing power, it will attempt to bear down on us using the weapons of lawlessness, tyranny and religious chicanery.

I mean, the aftermath of the referendum spells very hard and arduous days indeed for us.

Not to prepare for 17 April here and now will simply be further grist to the mill of the AKP and those heading it.

The pessimism I have tried to portray and escalate amounts to the endeavour to turn my worries into a warning.

Will it do any good?

I do not know.