Fear of the street!

It is very clear; one way or another, it wants to completely silence the voice of the street now.

It wants no one to speak, no one to object, no one to react, and heaven forbid, no one to even raise an eyebrow; God forbid, no one to have the last word, so that the order of this despotic mentality, which has been strangling the country for 22 years, can continue.

But no matter what it does, it is no longer holding together.

The straitjacket that this so-called nationalist-conservative hybrid mentality is trying to force upon the country simply does not fit.

It is bursting at the seams.

On the street, a critical threshold has been crossed, or is about to be. The government is aware of what kind of threat this poses to its power. People are like a powder keg.

Turning a deaf ear to the growing grumbling of my fellow citizens and closing one's eyes to avoid seeing the boiling pot only works for so long.

In the Dilruba case, we understood once again that fear haunts the halls of power.

The government has rolled up its sleeves to intervene in street interviews and YouTube.

It is extremely uncomfortable with the fact that journalists whose voices it tries to silence are finding refuge on YouTube, that millions are following the broadcasts they make from there, and that people are voicing their reactions loudly in street interviews.

If we check the pulse of our people, the country has tachycardia. We are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.

Let us put aside the masses that it carefully nurtures to perpetuate its power or that feed off this mentality, but the vast majority of our people think more or less like this young woman.

Let us rewind the tape a bit.

When Dilruba criticized the access ban on Instagram during a street interview conducted by the YouTube channel "Tüylü Mikrofon," she was arrested on charges of "inciting the public to hatred and hostility" and "insulting the president," and was released quietly 18 days later.

Neither her family nor her lawyers were informed of her release. It is clear that they resorted to such a method to prevent people from flocking to the prison gates to support this young woman and show their reaction to the government.

It is obvious that the CHP's tactical maneuver of embracing Dilruba and even hosting her at the opening ceremony of the 93rd İzmir International Fair has made the Beştepe Palace more than a little anxious.

Ömer Çelik stated, "It is absolutely unacceptable for a person who has insulted our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Presidential office, and our citizens to be hosted, applauded, and even rewarded in the protocol by the CHP Chairman. The administrators of a political party cannot be the patrons of hate speech and insults. Giving value to hate speech is a complete lack of consciousness."

AKP Group Deputy Chairman Özlem Zengin was also angry that she said "I have no regrets" after her release.

She also came out and said, "The statements are impolite and inappropriate. What she said after getting out is even more irresponsible... She says, 'I have no regrets.' I would have expected her to say, 'I am sorry.'"

Yet, there was neither incitement of the public to hatred and hostility, nor humiliation, nor insult to the president in what she said. Her sentences were not "impolite and inappropriate," and they were far more naive than what His Excellency says in his speeches without a "teleprompter."

Moreover, her trial had not even been held, and no verdict had been reached regarding her. But Ömer Çelik, with the instruction he received from the Palace, had already broken the pen and passed judgment.

Dilruba had made a highly accurate assessment of the situation with a wisdom and courage that many politicians who claim to be in opposition lack.

It was this assessment of the situation that bothered the government.

God forbid, if a leak were to start from here, they might not be able to stop it.

That is why they launched a comprehensive psychological operation to suppress it where it broke out and to intimidate those who stood by her.

Take what they did not say and present it as if they had, take it out of context, load negative meanings into the sentences, repeat this constantly, and stir it up as much as you can on pro-government channels and social media.

This is the simplest formula.

That is why they extract "incitement" and "insult" even from perfectly reasonable and logical statements. They are even suspicious of people's gestures, mimics, emphasis, and intonation.

However, this opportunistic shopkeeper mentality seems to have also set aside its "strategic mind," which it feeds with Oriental cunning. If they had not stirred it up so much, Dilruba's interview would have been forgotten by now.

The government wanted to set the millions who think like this young woman straight, but this maneuver of theirs also failed. Not only did it fail to gain psychological superiority or fortify its position, but it was also forced into a defensive posture.

Dilruba will appear before the judge today.

We do not know how long her trial will last or what the decision will be, but let us end our article by saying that in all likelihood, years from now, Father History with his white beard will open a special page for her in his book.