If our fate is left to the retirees, God help us...

If the government had given the retirees a substantial raise before the local elections, they wouldn't have suffered a defeat on March 31!

I am not saying this; the public opinion research company Metropoll reached this conclusion in its survey.

Between April 17 and 24, while the dust from the local elections was still settling, they asked a total of 2,235 people in 28 provinces: "Do you think the AKP would have emerged as the leading party in the local elections if a raise had been given to retiree pensions?"

Almost half of the survey participants answered this question with a "yes".

The results of the research require a detailed evaluation from sociological, sociopolitical, and psychopolitical perspectives.

But let us look at the issue through the eyes of a journalist.

There are approximately 16 million retirees in Turkey. If we make a rough calculation, this means around 30 million voters including their spouses. Considering that the total number of voters is 61 million, the retirees of our country hold incredible political power.

It is debatable how aware they are of this, but before March 31, when Tayyip listened to Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek and did not open the purse strings, the pot cracked, and the CHP emerged as the leading party in the election.

The results of the research have more or less identified this.

For the AKP, which has been financing its politics primarily through the rent of the municipalities it holds since 2002, feeding sects and communities, transferring capital to a fanatical religious minority, and providing resources for a charity-based economy, this was a nightmare scenario.

On the morning of April 1, what they feared came to pass.

Since that day, they have been questioning the defeat they experienced in the election.

The list of reasons why the government lost is quite long.

Until now, Tayyip's policy of polarizing the public through rhetoric about religion, faith, God, the Quran, the homeland, and the nation, and consolidating his own base by shouting at the opposition, had worked.

The vast majority of our country's retirees, especially the nationalist, conservative, and pious segments, would go and vote for the AKP, saying, "We may go hungry, but we won't let them take down the Reis (Chief)," regardless of their rumbling stomachs.

Since last year, let alone their prayers being answered, the situation must have become truly unbearable, so they either did not go to the ballot box or, with heavy hearts, cast their votes for CHP candidates.

When we compare the local election results with the ratio of retirees to the population of the provinces, this becomes clearly evident.

For example, in 7 of the 10 provinces that passed from the AKP to the CHP, and in all 5 provinces that passed from the MHP to the CHP, retirees make up more than one-fifth of the population.

From this, we understand that the attitude of the retirees was decisive in the election result.

The government's own base is also in a state of great dissatisfaction.

According to Metropoll's research, two-thirds of AKP voters attributed the election defeat to the failure to provide an additional raise to retiree pensions. This alone shows that the AKP base is now disintegrating.

70 percent of our country's retirees receive a pension below the minimum wage. The average retiree pension is around 13 thousand liras. The picture is extremely dire. As they become poorer by the day, the eloquence they listen to is no longer reflected as votes at the ballot box.

Now let's pause here, play devil's advocate, and read the tape in reverse.

Metropoll's research also tells us this: For them to realize the political power they hold, they need to hit rock bottom and be dragged through the dirt.

Only when they are starving do they think of voting for the CHP.

Well, from now on, will they say, "If you give a raise, my vote is yours; if you don't, it's for someone else"?

Now let's ask without beating around the bush:

Was the whole issue just about a retiree pension raise until today?

Does this mean our country's retirees;

Do not go to the ballot box thinking about the future of their children, grandchildren, and descendants as much as they think about a pension raise?

They do not see the refugee issue, which has almost silently occupied the country, shares the jobs and bread of the Turkish people, and will turn into a serious survival problem in the foreseeable future, as very important! They are not aware that retiree pensions have remained meager due to the billions of dollars spent on them.

They do not believe that Turkey will face a severe threat from the terrorist organization nesting in northern Syria due to the policy the government pursues through ideological glasses.

They do not take into account the plundering of the country's land, the destruction of its forests and streams, the handing over of national assets to foreigners, and the corruption that is exposed day by day.

They do not care about the collapse of the health and education systems, the elimination of secularism, the damage to the foundations of the republic, nepotism, and the sharing of state institutions among sects.

The list is very long...

Yet, shouldn't retirees be the most sensible segment of Turkey in terms of their age, what they have seen, what they have experienced, and their life experience?

The country is on the verge of a major collapse in almost every respect, but for them, the critical threshold is a pension raise!

Of course, whether the pot boils at home is very important.

But only up to a point.

Oh, retirees of my country!

If Tayyip had pushed Mehmet Şimşek aside and given a substantial raise to retiree pensions, would you have ignored the state and conditions the country is in and gone and voted for AKP candidates again with peace of mind?

If Murat Kurum had been elected in Istanbul, Turgut Altınok in Ankara, Hamza Dağ in Izmir, and Fatih Mehmet Kocaispir in Adana, would you have said, "I only care about the pension raise, friend, the rest doesn't matter"? For example, if a project like Kanal Istanbul, which would devastate not only Istanbul but the entire Marmara Region, had been implemented along with Murat Kurum, would your conscience be at ease?

It is worth sitting down and speaking honestly; as long as this mentality is at the head of the country, no matter how much they raise your pension, you will continue to live at the hunger threshold!

The inflation monster will eat you up.

This is the truth you don't want to see!

Will you continue to hope for help from this government, which has knowingly and willingly fueled inflation to transfer more capital to the new rich who have been sucking your blood like leeches for 22 years?

Unfortunately, from now on, you will not be able to buy a new house or a new car.

Going on vacation as a family, and going out to eat with children and grandchildren even once a month will continue to be a dream.

More painful and dire than that;

If this continues, there will be neither a state nor a country left to pay you a pension.

In the research conducted, if the retirees had come out and said, "The raise is of no importance. We will not vote in any way for a government that has brought the country to the brink of an abyss," then we could have nurtured our hopes for the future to some extent.

In short, the issue is not just a pension raise. It is not about saving the day with a three-penny handout either.

What should be done is to go to the ballot box for a country where one can live like a human being with its minimum wage, retiree pension, social justice, democracy, human rights, equal opportunity, and law, and with that, let us put a period to our article.