That was a century ago!

March 18 is the anniversary of a victory, glory, and honor won under extraordinary conditions that almost no other nation has ever been granted—a victory in which even 15-16-year-old children became martyrs, and where the great commander Mustafa Kemal gave the order to his soldiers: “I order you to die.” It is the bloodiest, yet for our nation that won the war, the most extraordinary victory in history. May it be blessed for our nation! I have not a single word to add here to the records of pride written in golden letters in the pages of history for that magnificent victory, or for the commander who managed that war with such superior military intelligence and intuition that he made the whole world admire him; I can only bow with respect before this splendor! I want to leave this magnificent historical event here and look at where we have taken the country a hundred years later.

Yes, history was written a century ago, but is our nation today worthy of this history, and does it hold a distinguished position in the international arena? This is exactly what I want to discuss with my dear readers today. How is it that this nation, which worked as one body to save the country, can now allow itself to be fragmented and leave the nation's fate to the fate of a political organization! Did the 15-16-year-old children who willingly gave their lives at Çanakkale, and all the educated personnel of that time, make this sacrifice for us to bring the country to this state today? While handing over all the country's values to imperialists; while building that ominous bridge by incurring debts that will take over the future generations of the country, as if trampling on that magnificent victory at Çanakkale, which could not be passed a century ago; while designing Kanal İstanbul by once again indebting our nation to future generations, without listening to any scientific suggestions or caring about warnings, as if creating an artificial sea in front of the lands sold/given to foreigners of Arab origin—do we not consider our loyalty to the past and our debt to the future at all? What kind of thought system is this; let's say we don't consider our past, but why are we putting our future in such danger! Have the games of capitalism and imperialism darkened our hearts and blinded our eyes this much?

Let us please be aware of what purpose we are serving and where we are taking our society, which capitalism has divided into classes, by paving an asphalt road in front of a political cadre that is also fragmenting society! World capitalism, being squeezed, is attacking peripheral economies like ours like a hungry wolf. Because central developed economies are trying to prevent the extreme erosion of their own welfare levels with the resources they extract from us. The educated and promising young brains they take from us, our doctors and engineers who are our social treasure, are the country's invisible blood loss. So, what could be the real purpose or the hidden function behind the visible goal of a political structure whose sole aim is to close down municipalities, take over the public, and move toward a constitutional change!

Let us wake up now! The subject of religion is not the business of the state. The business of the state is to ensure justice in the country, to maintain employment at a certain level, to establish price stability, and to present a stable future outlook to the entire society. As someone who has witnessed all periods of government, including the recent period of the CHP, I have not seen another era in political debates where such unrealistic and indecent statements, and ugly expressions and accusations that could not even be used in street fights, have flown through the air. Every politician goes down in the black book of history with their good and bad management and words, and they are inevitably judged there. A politician's virtuous and prudent behavior should be such that they can feel at peace in the moment they live, with the future image they can perceive. Yes, today is today, but the future will definitely come; there is no escaping it!

The state is the political cover, the surrounding envelope, in which politicians—that is, public servants—elected to serve the society for a certain period, will operate in accordance with the constitution they have sworn upon. The truth that both our people and politicians must hammer into their heads is that the state is one thing, and the government is another. If politicians elected for a temporary period to govern attempt to seize the state, this is beyond anarchy; it is an operation to violate the existing constitution. Just as an organization is branded as a terrorist and severely punished for a crime committed against the state when it carries out such an operation, the same result should apply to the cadre elected as the government seizing the state apparatus. Anyone who shows the way to dictatorship, opens the path, or provides service for this purpose to government agents—thereby eliminating the principle of separation of powers, which is the indispensable rule of bourgeois democracy—is equally guilty before society and will go down in history with this black mark.

State property is social assets given to the government power for a temporary period to be used within fair and legal boundaries. Scientific and legal rules apply to the management of assets. Government actions that lead to the change of ownership of social assets or their concentration in certain hands by exceeding these rules can result in endangering the country's economic future and the well-being of the country's people. Causing social income to change hands in a short time through exchange rate and interest rate suppression, which has no place in any economic rule, results in the impoverishment of the people despite statistical calculations showing that the country is getting richer; in such conditions, one cannot even speak of a democratic or reasonable capitalist administration. A reasonable government can survive for a day by destroying education and impoverishing the people. However, an ignorant doctor takes lives, an ignorant engineer's building collapses, the future of a lawless society disappears, and a virtue-less society disintegrates and is buried in the darkness of history. Yes, a political cadre that supports such policies may remain in power for a while, but it too will go down in history as a black cadre.

As I mentioned, every politician or cadre will inevitably be placed on the evaluation board in future periods, whether they are alive or not. This situation may not be taken into account by the politician's momentary ambition and darkened heart. But if such a course brings to the agenda the condition of darkening the people's horizon, impoverishing them, and making them settle for leftovers from neighborhood markets, it means the society has entered a path from which it is very difficult to return. The picture reflected by the situation of the laborer, the retiree, and the low-income earner today is the first reflection of such a course. The impoverished segment cannot have held the political administration accountable for the suffering they endure just by blaming them. They must exercise their political preference. If the country's assets are being captured by imperialists for next to nothing, politicians alone cannot be held responsible for this. In the entire formation, the people are also responsible with their political preferences. Yes, elections can be influenced and even directed by internal and even external forces. Let us not forget that such manipulations can only be effective in election results by around 5-6%.

So, even accepting all manipulations, if a political cadre that the people do not want receives at most 10-15% of the vote, or even if they received a little more than that, is it possible for internal and/or external players to be effective on the result? What I mean is that no one can hold on in the face of the people's voluntary participation in the election; the people can be the absolute master of the final situation. Isn't the last Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality election proof of this! Why do we hesitate to use this power while complaining about everything? If the existing political cadre is giving us social support, wouldn't we be taking a more honorable stance if we shouted this to the face of that political cadre: “Do not enslave me by giving me aid as a party/sect donation; legislate social aid as a citizenship right, and let me be free in my political preferences”!

The time to wake up has long since come, and it is even passing!