Is the 'Amele-i Mükellefe' (compulsory labor) making a comeback?

Population has become a serious problem all over the world.

'Low fertility, which was the main reason for the collapse of Rome and other great empires, also became a problem for the Ottoman Empire.

Today, the main reason why even Russia struggles to protect its vast territories is a lack of population.

For now, they are standing tall thanks to the threat of nuclear weapons, but the low birth rate will become a major problem for them.

Population is low in countries with money, that is, developed countries, and high in those without money, that is, underdeveloped countries.

The world population, which was 1.6 billion in the 1900s, reached 2.5 billion in 1950, 6 billion in 2000, and is now 8.5 billion.

It has reached this point, but the balance in the increase has been in favor of underdeveloped regions.

While the population has not increased on the European continent, it has increased logarithmically in Africa, the Far East, and Asian regions.

The people carried by inflatable boats in the ocean consist of these individuals. 

The populations of these regional countries have long since exceeded a billion.

In fact, the margin of error in their census counts is said to be larger than the entire populations of other countries in the world.

The population of Turkey also began to increase with the establishment of Modern Turkey, along with the 'Amele-i Mükellefiye' (compulsory labor) law remaining from the past. 

It was a law applied in the Ottoman Empire and the early years of the Republic (between 1862-1952), which imposed a mandatory physical labor obligation on the civilian population for the construction of roads, bridges, and infrastructure by the state.

Male citizens within a certain age range (usually 18-60) were responsible.

It was mandatory to work personally on the state's road construction projects or to pay a tax fee instead.

With the Road Tax and the 1929 Highway and Bridges Law, this obligation was tied to an annual tax of 8 liras; those who could not pay the tax were made to work physically on road construction.

This obligation, or duty of citizenship, was mandatory until one had 6 children.

When there was no money to pay the tax, there was only one solution, and despite the hygiene and health infrastructure problems of that time, it created the Turkey of one hundred million people we have today.

If it weren't for the economic and social troubles of recent years, a Turkey of 150 million would not have been a dream.

However, it did not happen.

The population has begun to decline.

If this decline continues, our schools will remain empty, the energy produced by our dams will be in excess, vehicles will not pass on the roads, and airports will become ghost ports like those in Europe, which were the very investments that caused the inflation that has plagued us for years.