A 'trust' crisis...

Turkey has once again fallen into a debate over "trust."

The name at the center of it is Haluk Levent!

There are those who defend him, and those who accuse him...

Let us not condemn anyone prematurely; we will wait and see, but we can already sense that the matter is pregnant with major scandals.

The legal and political aspects of the situation are already being discussed; let us look at it from a psychosocial perspective.

Specifically, there is a critical question that needs to be answered.

Why did millions in this country, instead of trusting the Red Crescent (Kızılay) or AFAD, follow a non-governmental organization founded by an artist whose credentials are self-proclaimed, who tries to garner sympathy through Atatürkism, and who has a long criminal record for financial crimes that even the average person views with suspicion?

This is what we really need to talk about!

Because the answer to the question does not only concern AHBAP or Haluk Levent; it also points to the most troublesome issue Turkey is facing socially today.

That is, alongside inflation, the cost of living, social decay, and disintegration; and of course, closely related to these—perhaps to some extent as a cause and to some extent as a result—the collapse of the "social trust" mechanism...

This observation is not mine.

The world's most respected research institutions have been measuring it for years using different methods.

The picture revealed by the Pew Research Center, the Edelman Trust Barometer, Ipsos, and the European Social Survey is always the same, except for minor details.

Turkey is one of the countries where people trust each other the least.

In Pew's research, the percentage of those who say "Most people can be trusted" in Turkey is in the 10-15 percent band.

In countries like Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark, the positive response to the same question reaches 70 percent, and even 80 percent in some studies.

There is not just a statistical difference between them.

This is a result of the impact of politics on the social structure. In other words, "trust" is the invisible wealth of developed countries, what sociologists call "social capital"!

It is the infrastructure of the economy, the law, and democracy. If there is trust, people invest; if there is trust, people plan their children's future; if there is trust, the law works smoothly; if there is trust, people believe what the state says.

And if there is no trust...

Then even the most robust economy becomes fragile, democracy remains merely a formality, people seek their future in other countries, and no one takes what the state says seriously.

Perhaps the real question we should ask is this:

Why did Turkey end up like this?

Because this does not happen just with rhetoric. People believe what they experience, not what they are told. For example, for years, questions have been stolen in public exams that determine the fate of millions of young people; a generation loses its belief that it is competing based on the merit of its labor, and the conviction that loyalty rather than merit is the basis for entry into state cadres grows stronger.

Young people no longer start by saying "If I work, I will succeed," but by asking, "Who do I know?"...

Could there be a more severe destruction for them than this?

What about the judiciary...

While it should be the last refuge of democracy, it no longer enjoys anyone's trust as it has turned into an apparatus of the government since 2002.

The İmamoğlu example is there for all to see.

Operations against CHP-run municipalities, decisions made about opposition politicians, journalists, academics, and so on...

The vast majority of my fellow citizens do not think the judiciary is independent.

The failure to implement ECHR rulings, the debates surrounding Constitutional Court decisions, and the tensions between high judicial bodies have further deepened this perception.

People are not sure they will be tried fairly when they go to court.

This is the point where alarm bells are ringing for a state of law.

Of course, it is not just the judiciary.

What about the inflation figures announced by TÜİK? Universities are not independent.

Regulatory and supervisory institutions have become tools used recklessly by politics.

It is possible to multiply the examples.

In short, every debate about state institutions erodes the trust of my fellow citizens a little more.

Because trust is a whole. Erosion in one institution spreads to others.

Let us add to this the polarizing language that has been maintained for years.

Society has been constantly divided into "us" and "them."

The government has portrayed its political rivals not as elements of democratic competition, but almost as enemies.

Those who think differently were easily labeled. This language did not just poison politics. It also changed how society views one another.

Trust in neighbors has decreased.

Trust in institutions has decreased.

Trust in the state has decreased.

Yet, just as trust is contagious, distrust is also contagious. Once it starts to spread, it is extremely difficult to stop.

That is exactly why what happened during the February 6 earthquakes was very important from a sociological perspective.

Millions of people wanted to help. They had AFAD in front of them, the Red Crescent, and the aid mechanisms the state had built for years...

But a very large mass chose AHBAP. Let us say that this choice has a much greater meaning than Haluk Levent's personal success.

Our people trusted AHBAP more than the state's institutions, even though Haluk Levent's criminal record, especially regarding financial crimes, was extensive!

For instance, it was not unknown that he was arrested in 1997 for issuing bad checks and spent about 9 months and 15 days in prison.

Furthermore, a lawsuit had been filed against him for being a member of a criminal organization for profit and attempted extortion, and he was acquitted in 2018 after an 8-year trial.

My fellow citizens, in all likelihood, thought, "It can't be worse than the Red Crescent or AFAD," and followed Haluk Levent.

This was the crux of the matter.

The government—whatever psychology it may have condemned them to—has left my fellow citizens desperate to create an artificial hero, putting aside his criminal record and putting whatever they had into the aid basket without hesitation.

Could there be a better example of social pathology than this?

As for the latest AHBAP investigation...

Haluk Levent was arrested on charges of violating the Law on Associations, laundering assets derived from crime, and membership in an organization. It is hard to say when and how this will end, but let us make our note:

As we emphasized with sensitivity in Tuesday's article, if it is proven that even a single penny of the aid collected for earthquake victims was used for purposes other than intended or transferred to dark structures, this will not remain just a financial irregularity; it will go down in history as a grave betrayal committed against the nation's conscience and spirit of solidarity.

In conclusion, all of these are actually the results of the deep distrust my fellow citizens have toward the government and state institutions.

Let us underline that the greatest capital of governments is the trust their citizens have in their state. When that trust is lost, rumors get ahead of official statements, conspiracy theories replace facts, and crises grow...

Society loses its common goals. People live under the same flag but do not believe in the same future.

That is when the real existential problem begins, and with that, we end our article.