May 19

Of course, all of our national holidays are meaningful!

April 23, the transition of sovereignty from the palace to the nation...

October 29, a choice of civilization; the Republic revolution...

August 30, the name of the historic slap dealt to imperialism!

But May 19 is different...

Why, you ask?

It is the will to start over where everyone says "it's over"; the determination to refuse to kneel at a time when the circumstances and conditions of the country were exceptionally unfavorable; the courage to stand up simultaneously against the great powers, the occupying armies, the domestic mandate-seekers, the surrenderists, and the climate of fear.

When we look back today, we sometimes confine Mustafa Kemal, who landed in Samsun, within a history that is too sterile. As if everything were planned in advance, as if Anatolia were waiting for him, as if the people had risen as one body...

No!

On the contrary...

In 1919, this country was not only occupied; it had also collapsed mentally. The 600-year-old empire had disintegrated, the palace had surrendered, the people were exhausted, and the army had been fragmented. The vast majority of people did not even see salvation as a possibility.

Mustafa Kemal had neither a regular army, nor money, nor media, nor crowds aligned behind him...

Most of the time, even his political legitimacy was debatable.

The only things he had were his determination, his intellect, and his faith!

And that is exactly what changed the course of history.

Mustafa Kemal never lost his psychological and moral superiority. He lifted a people who had mentally surrendered and were exhausted by years of war back onto their feet. He made people say, "This country can still be saved."

A nation rises first in its mind. Let us underline this with a thick pen.

Let us come to today's Turkey...

There is a severe economic crisis in the country. As for rights and law, they are nowhere to be found... The sense of justice has been torn to shreds. Institutions are decaying. Corruption is no longer an exception; it has almost become the country's new norm.

The youth are hopeless...

University graduates have packed their bags and are looking for a country to escape to. Merit is destroyed. Nepotism, cronyism, and favoritism are no longer things done with shame; they have become the way the system operates.

But more painful and dire than all of this is that the people of my country are on the verge of losing their belief that change is possible.

We know that this is the true collapse for a society.

Because people struggle with poverty, they struggle with oppression, they struggle with crisis. But when hopelessness sets in, the soul of society collapses.

And after that, it's a deluge!

Let us come to the circumstances and conditions of today...

Therefore, reading the operations against the CHP merely as investigations opened into a few mayors, a few detentions, arrests, an effort to completely suppress the opposition, or a few television headlines remains incomplete.

We can even include the government's intention to lock the doors of the CHP within this framework.

Because the issue is not just legal or political. There is a very serious psychological siege at play.

On one side, the stick of the judiciary; on the other, smear campaigns...

A media order that constantly pushes the CHP into a defensive position...

Today, the government is not just trying to defeat its opponent. It is also imposing the feeling of "You are dependent on me!" on society.

In fact, the entire political atmosphere of recent years is built upon this.

One must look for the success of authoritarian systems here.

Through pressure, they largely achieve the political results they want.

That is precisely why the spirit of May 19 is so important for the opposition.

Because that young Pasha who landed in Samsun stood exactly against such a psychological surrender.

While everyone was saying "let's be realistic," he rejected the reality imposed upon him.

In today's Turkey, we see that the opposition's biggest problem stems exactly from here.

For a long time, the CHP has appeared as a party that objects to the government and raises its voice, but cannot generate the energy to govern.

Winning the local elections is important, sure, but giving a society a sense of historical direction is something else...

Does the CHP know this?

The political tradition that founded the Republic was once a movement of extremely radical transformation. It was trying to create a modern nation from the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. It was changing the law, transforming education, expanding women's rights, and rebuilding the economy.

Today's CHP, however, often seems more like a movement trying to save the day—itself, its leader, in short, the status quo—rather than one trying to build the future.

Constantly on the defensive...

Constantly controlled...

Yet, politics is also the art of showing people that another life is possible.

That is exactly what Mustafa Kemal did.

Even in the darkest days of Anatolia, he showed people that there was "another possibility."

Today, while operations against the CHP continue, the feeling that has emerged in a significant part of society is not just anger; it is also fatigue.

Operations...

Detentions...

Arrests...

Discussions of political bans...

Court processes...

Television lynchings...

At the end of the day, that defensive psychology from which the CHP cannot seem to escape...

The painful part of the matter is this:

The political tradition that once made a revolution under the most impossible conditions of Anatolia is drifting further and further away today.

Mustafa Kemal's name is there... But its most defining characteristics, his rationality and courage, are missing.

Perhaps the biggest problem of today's CHP is not having sufficiently internalized Mustafa Kemal.

Because Mustafa Kemal did not just found a state.

Throughout the War of Independence and during the Republic's revolutions, he did not instill a sense of inferiority in society. He did not make people bow their heads. He kept the feeling of "we can do it" alive.

And today?

It has turned into the political whipping boy of the government.

It presents an image that retreats further into defense after every operation...

That closes in on itself more after every attack...

That loses more self-confidence after every crisis...

Yet, the essence of May 19 is precisely to reject defeat; let us ask whether those who manage today's CHP are aware of this, and put a period to our article.