Izmir's trash and a 4,000 lira holiday

Almost every holiday, unfortunately, the same expressions remain valid: “This is the economic situation; if the pot isn't boiling, what kind of holiday is it, and for whom?” Indeed, if Izmir is buried in trash and the Mayor has rolled up his sleeves; if 4,000 lira is deemed appropriate for retirees who have almost begun to consume their own muscle mass due to malnutrition; if some people are waiting in visa queues to spend their 4-5 day holiday abroad, while others cannot even scrape together enough money to travel to their village, then there is something wrong with these affairs.

And if this is the situation while a party with the words “justice” and “development” in its name has been governing this country for 23 years, then there is something wrong with it. What isn't wrong? Even a party with “nationalist movement” in its name has been able to give its consent without any reservations to the policies of recklessness, selling off the country to get by day to day.

While we think we are being governed by a democracy, however limping or crippled, we are being led through environments where unstamped ballots are rendered valid; while it is assumed that the terms of political cadres and leaders depend on the will of the people, there must be something wrong with the fact that the duration of power is tied to the condition of “the inevitable arrival of death”! While all this is happening, it is of course understandable that politicians, whose health and retirement rights(!) are secured, rest peacefully in their warm seats as if everything were normal. After all, with the weather so cold outside, which brave soul would have the heart to leave their warm seat out of respect for the voters who carried them to those positions?

After the CHP, which also earned the title of Founding Party after a tremendous War of Independence, showed the dignity to leave power in the 1950 elections, and while the system worked quite regularly in one way or another in subsequent parties, can the AKP's attitude be explained by the voters' sense of loyalty, or by a sense of survival bestowed upon politicians by some mysterious power? Why can people be so bound to one another like slaves in power within a political organization? Perhaps the loyal deputies, who have become inseparable by hardening around a party, prefer the slogan they hear so often: “All for one, and one for all!” May God not grant success to politicians who cling to each other so sincerely that they would stop at no sacrifice for the sake of the nation; may God not take them away from us!

Engaging in politics as part of a political party is the art of governing society for a temporary period through the authority received from the voter, by forming a parliament within the framework of rules and customs determined by the constitution, and through the oversight of state apparatuses. Having gained the title of deputy after an election held according to the current constitution, and having taken an oath of allegiance to the constitution, politicians must keep the promises they made to the nation, even if they constitute an absolute majority; they cannot violate the constitution, and they certainly cannot draft a new one.

However, they can make minor amendments to the constitution, provided they do not contradict existing constitutional provisions and principles. The procedures and principles for creating a new constitution, that is, a social contract, are clear. For an established parliament to draft a new constitution is like players who have taken the field with given rules pausing the game to change the aspects they do not like to suit their own desires, and then setting their own rules. It is also out of the question for an established parliament to draft a document and submit it to a public referendum. Because, as a very technical subject taught for a year in law schools, containing a series of philosophical debates ranging from state theories to human rights, taking a public vote on constitutional discussions is not a rule of democracy, but forcing the public to find an exit in a complex labyrinth, and it is absolutely impossible for the general public not to fall into the trap of the team that cunningly constructed the labyrinth's lines. Such a cunningly constructed game has nothing to do with concepts like democracy or respect for the people, and it is more realistic to see it as a result of some people's lifelong passion for survival and staying in their seats.

Society must be vigilant and, while granting authority to politicians who use the one-man regime as they please, must be aware of which circles other than the relevant politicians desire the one-man system. Turkey is an economy with a peripheral position in a capitalist world drifting into crisis. Under these conditions, strong central economies are forced to draw resources from peripheral economies like ours to maintain their current economic conditions. Today, values generated from production are being moved around in the financial sphere in an attempt to draw potential resources to the center. In other words, power struggles today have shifted from the geographical sphere to the financial arena. The wars taking place in the new model where capital is shaped are not virtual, but real; however, the wars are not fought with weapons in geographical areas, but in the financial sphere with exchange rate, price, and interest rate movements. The build-operate-transfer and public-private partnership models fed to our people as an AKP skill, and the similarly designed Istanbul Canal, constitute the real battlefields of such wars. If the Straits Convention prevents the US from entering the Black Sea during wartime, what could be the function of the Istanbul Canal? One reason for the deep crisis we have fallen into today is the effort to pay the interest burden of the covert war being waged on a global scale, which will last until our grandchildren's time.

Yes; we started with Izmir's trash, wandered through the troubled economy and the prosperous areas rising above those troubles, and finally tied the issue to the hardened power and our responsibility toward our grandchildren. Under these circumstances and conditions, I wish all readers a wonderful holiday!