Doesn't the person taking the kickback have any fault at all, my friend!

I am putting this mildly: this issue of kickbacks has caused a lot of pain and ruined many homes.

I won't delve too much into the spiritual dimension of the matter.

I will just write this: in my relatively young life, I have seen quite a few people whose lives were devastated and whose families faced hardship because of kickbacks.

A close acquaintance of mine, who secured work from a public institution through political connections and shady dealings, fell below zero because of his son's gambling addiction. Then, his wife kicked him while he was down.

I cannot know the reason for this collapse, but perhaps the envy of the people played a role.

For those who don't believe, maybe there is no problem.

Perhaps illicit gain only strikes those who believe.

I don't know that yet.

It's fine if we don't learn.

I am looking at the technical dimension of the subject.

It is generally believed that people from the Middle East, like us, are very preoccupied with this kickback business.

Those bow-tie wearers, graduates of priest schools with their half-baked French, consider Francophones to be paragons of morality and symbols of honor.

Someone died recently—may they rest in peace. They used to say they didn't want to live in Turkey and that walking down the worst street in France felt better to them.

They would say, "I wouldn't trade the most foolish Frenchman for the best Turk."

These fake Westernized minds, who manage the Turkish visual and written media, have spent years belittling the people of Anatolia, calling them "kickback seekers."

Well, weren't they?

Of course, they loved kickbacks.

It was even the subject of Yeşilçam films, with Şener Şen and İlyas Salman's Şekerpare and Kemal Sunal's Zübük.

Besides, who doesn't love them?

Over the years, with the diversification of the press, even the riff-raff like us began to hear a little bit about kickback stories that were previously unheard of, spoken of only in secret rooms.

For example, the mess that French football giant Platini got himself into.

A long-time footballer, a role model for children, and one of the most admired players of the last century, Platini sold his fame for pocket change.

A total disappointment.

Today, if this "chouchou" were to go on television and say, "send money to this account," he would collect at least a thousand times the kickback he took, yet he ruined himself.

Was he alaturka (traditional Turkish style)? No, he was completely alafranga (Westernized style), this "chouchou."

The World Cup held in Qatar.

In exchange for the kickbacks given, leagues all over the world stopped for a month.

Who were the ones slurping up the kickbacks?

Were they alaturka? No, they were completely alafranga, those who slurped them up.

Who was collecting the kickbacks at the NATO summit?

Or at the United Nations?

Who pocketed the million-euro kickbacks?

Were they alaturka? No, they were completely alafranga, those who pocketed them.

What about the "nigger" (foreigners) who robbed us and made off with our millions of dollars for the sake of a housing permit or a simple fire department signature?

Is that alaturka too?

It doesn't look like it at all.

In the EU parliamentary assembly, there are those blonde, blue-eyed, kickback-taking sirens, six feet tall, whose looks make your heart melt when you see them, just to influence simple decisions.

Alafranga women who look like top models.

If you say, "Well, ours don't have a set price, they take whatever you give, at least the alafranga ones have high service fees, they swindle millions upon millions," then you are right.

You could say that this "chouchou" behavior is worth that kind of money.

Naturally, the one taking it doesn't have much fault either.