The year we left behind: The impoverished and deprived human

2023 was a very difficult year. Our colleagues at work, our spouses, friends, neighbors, schoolmates, the people we greet on the street, the shopkeepers we shop from… Faces are not smiling; a large segment of society is unhappy.

The effects of the pandemic, the devastating impact and pain of the February 6 earthquakes, the deepening economic crisis, incomprehensible practices in the field of law, increasing reactionary practices in education, and much more…

The human who is becoming increasingly impoverished and deprived…

Conflicts and wars incited by imperialism, especially in our region… Israel’s unending cruelty toward the Palestinian people, which has even reached the level of genocide…

This is how we bid farewell to 2023…

But there were scenes from 2023 that I can never forget. Those etched into memory like a nail…

The photograph of the father holding the hand of his daughter, who remained under the rubble in the February 6 earthquake, and refusing to let go, and the pain in our hearts… His words: “I tried to dig with my bare hands to save my princess, but in the end, I had to leave her in the wreckage.”

While the pain of those who passed away is still so fresh in our hearts, people in the earthquake zone are still experiencing great difficulties. What has been done in our country, an earthquake-prone nation, over the past year, and how much progress has been made? We must all ask these questions!

I also cannot forget the words of the worker who attended the minimum wage determination meeting.

“We also have children. Inevitably, our children also want to eat fruit. Our children also want to eat cheese. They cannot eat these. Their development is weak…

Our children go to school, they ask for 10 liras, and we cannot give it…”

In a way, these words are a summary of the situation of many laborers trying to get by on minimum wage. Laborers are the ones who are forced to pay the bill for the crisis in almost every period…

And before the eyes of the world, a people are being massacred…

According to information provided by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 22 thousand 185 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks during the 88-day period since October 7. The number of injured is 57 thousand 35. 70 percent of those killed are women and children!

Opposing the cruelty that the Palestinian people have been experiencing for over 70 years and standing by them is a humanitarian stance. Regardless of what it is called—the Greater Middle East Project (GMEP), Greater Israel, the Expanded Middle East and North Africa Project—protests are being held in Turkey and all over the world against the genocide committed by Israel, which is nurtured and grown for the plans and interests of imperialism, against the Palestinian people. Sanctions, boycotts, and diplomatic initiatives to stop Israel must be increased.

We stand with Palestine and the Palestinian people’s struggle for existence. This issue is humanitarian. It is unacceptable for this to be taken out of context and abused.

2023 arrived with disaster... It began with great pain.

It was a very difficult year.

2024 will be an even more difficult year…

Pessimism, gloom, anxieties, and troubles are on one side. But hope is on the other. When I say ‘hope,’ I am not trying to portray the period we live in or the conditions as anything other than what they are, nor am I trying to engage in empty ‘flattery.’ As long as life continues, contradictions will also continue. One side of us is “shedding leaves,” while the other is “blooming in spring”…

Despite all that has happened, we are witnessing that our century-old plane tree, our Republic, and its founder, our great leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, still unite us. Our source of hope is this legacy and accumulation of enlightenment that spans over 100 years.

Note:

In our country, discussions on the “caliphate” have been ongoing in recent days. For those who want to have information about what the caliphate is, how it was assumed, and how it was abolished, and who are curious about its historical background, I recommend reading the reference book “Halifelik” (The Caliphate) by historian-author Mahmut Goloğlu (Tarihçi Kitabevi, 2012).