Equal Citizenship or the Equality of Citizens?

By Prof. Dr. Ahmet Saltık

The equality of citizens defines a liberal legal position. It means that individuals are bound, in relation to the state, by abstract, general and objective rules. It is a product of Enlightenment rationalism. Its foundation lies in severing the individual from feudal bonds and establishing the individual as a subject of law. It was concretised with the French Revolution. Article 1 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “All human beings are born free and equal in rights.”

Equal citizenship is a concept centred in sociology and political science. It does not merely mean equality before the law, but the feeling of belonging in every sphere of social life. It is positive and demand driven. It seeks recognition of differences and equal representation in the public sphere. Equal citizenship represents a negative understanding of equality. The state does not discriminate. Its function is to provide so called legal security. It is a product of the nonsense of postmodernism, itself the child of collapsing neoliberalism.

Article 10 of the 1982 Constitution states, “Everyone is equal before the law without discrimination based on language, race, colour, sex, political opinion, philosophical belief, religion, sect …” Other relevant provisions include Articles 2, 5, 41, 42, 50, 61, 66, 70, 73 and 175.

Positive discrimination is not meant to turn individuals into subjects, disciples, followers or voting robots of the state or those in power, but to function as a lever to ensure the real equality of citizens. In the twenty first century, conducting politics through racism and religious exploitation is serving imperialism.

DEM and similar parties, along with formations whose roots lie abroad, must free themselves from this disgrace. Yet the so called leftist DEM can defend Islamic brotherhood and the granting of status to madrasas. This is a serious contradiction. It must be exposed. It cannot be forgiven. The patrons of DEM and similar groups, who do not rely on the people, especially in the East and Southeast, do not wish to abandon feudalism, tribal landlordism and religious exploitation. What truly needs to be eliminated is a medieval mindset, ethnic nationalist politics backed by imperial powers, and political baronage. These landlords turn our citizens of Kurdish origin into objects of political bargaining. It is deeply regrettable and absolutely unacceptable.

Globalisation equals new imperialism. It imposed this divisive dichotomy.

Forty years of destruction and drift. The so called new world order and postmodernity are based on the collapse of global moral standards.

Without universal ethical values and the rule of law that respects labour, there is no civilisation. Mere scientific and technological progress does not amount to civilisation.

The solution is not to fragment along ethnic and faith lines through federalism, federation, regional states, autonomous regions or local autonomy, concepts that may sound appealing. That path leads to division into small checkpoint like statelets and becoming prey to imperialism.

The existential foundation of the nation state is the principle of the equality of citizens. The nation state brackets differences in the public sphere and builds a supra identity to create cohesion. If only equal citizenship in the sense of group rights is emphasised, society is divided into compartments. This carries the risk of Lebanonisation. The ideal is legal equality within the framework of constitutional patriotism as formulated by Jürgen Habermas.

Nation building begins with the equality of citizens. A common unity of future is established. In democratic nation states, the essential principle is equality of all citizens before the law, the indivisible integrity of the country and the nation, and unity of language. The Republic of Türkiye is a democratic nation state. All its citizens are equal before the law and this is guaranteed by Articles 10 and 67 of the Constitution.

In the 1930s, Atatürk wrote in his own handwriting, “The people of Türkiye who founded the Republic of Türkiye are called the Turkish nation.”

The statement “Happy is the one who says I am a Turk” is the safeguard of the country and the nation. Not equal citizenship based on collective rights grounded in ethnicity or faith, but the equalisation of all citizens around common values, the equality of citizens, is the key.

The social contract as articulated by Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau requires compromise. The fundamental obstacle is capitalism and imperialism, the brutality of divide and rule. The West applies these principles firmly within its own borders, yet does not want countries such as Türkiye to remain nation states. The objective is clear. Divide, rule, exploit and sustain global hegemony.

Economic democracy, a secular and public oriented social state based on human rights and the rule of law, is the solution. The elimination of feudalism, landlordism and primitive exploitation is the solution.

Health, education, nutrition, housing, justice, internal and external security and the right to culture unite the people of Anatolia.

Social security, dignified employment and freedom from poverty and anxiety about the future unite the inhabitants of Anatolia.

A peaceful, freedom oriented, progressive order based on reason and science, respectful of the environment and historical heritage, is the equality of citizens.

At both national and global levels, an order based on solidarity, cooperation, universal ethical values and respect for the rights of future generations is the equality of citizens.

M. Kemal said, “Peace at home, peace in the world.” He set the goal of becoming a classless and privilege free unified mass. On 1 December 1921 in the Grand National Assembly, he said, “We are people who follow a path of national struggle against imperialism that seeks to destroy us and against capitalism that seeks to swallow us.” He also said, “Imperialism will disappear from the face of the earth and will be replaced by a new era of harmony and cooperation among nations without distinction of colour, religion or race.” This is clearly a declaration of historical determinism and hope.

Therefore, long live the Türkiye that belongs to all of us, an indivisible whole with its country and nation.