Be upright as you have been commanded... Is that so, Ömer Çelik?

The AKP, the party of endless grievances, and the political Islamists, the victims of endless grievances, have once again been victimized.

The protagonist of the event this time is a student who displayed a banner with a Quranic verse on it at the Yeditepe University graduation ceremony.

Following allegations that a student who opened a banner with a verse at the Faculty of Law Graduation Ceremony held at Yeditepe University was interfered with, the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) launched an investigation.

The university was forced to issue a statement.

However, no physical intervention against the young man is visible in the footage. It is clearly recorded that the student carried the banner until the ceremony, which lasted about 6 minutes, was over.

So, what did the student carrying the banner, Mustafa Malo, do? He accused the university administration, claiming that his banner was deliberately covered.

First and foremost, I would like to state that I have witnessed many times that people who sincerely believe do not derive profit or advantage through 'faith'. I have known many such people and have always respected them.

As for this student named Mustafa Malo, he was clearly pursuing a goal with an action he knew would absolutely bring him into the spotlight: Creating a new story of victimization.

And naturally, the highest levels of the state began to sip from the syrup of victimization once again.

Just as President Erdoğan's photos of him arm-in-arm and laughing with Trump were dominating the entire Turkish agenda, they turned to the emotions of believing people with a new literature of faith-based victimization.

By the way, one should not underestimate the power and intellect behind political Islamists; they have had extraordinary expertise in producing grievances and strategies for years.

Anyway, no need to drag it out. Let's assume the event took place in its natural course; a grievance to be exploited was created nonetheless.

One of the first to use this situation was AKP Deputy Chairman and Party Spokesperson Ömer Çelik...

He immediately tweeted and said:

“Greetings to everyone who voices the truth of 'Be upright as you have been commanded.' May our brothers who strive for this truth to be seen be blessed. This truth is the banner of our hearts always and everywhere. Shame on those who try to prevent this truth from being heard and seen. Those who engage in barbaric acts have only written a great shame on their own foreheads.”

I would like to ask Ömer Çelik a few questions. The verse written on the banner carried by the young student says, "Be upright as you have been commanded."

Well, Ömer Çelik...

You have been in power for 25 years; have you been able to be upright?

How many thousands of spouses, friends, and relatives were placed in positions they did not deserve during your tenure?

How many unqualified people received salaries with the public's taxes and continue to do so?

How many tenders were distributed to cronies?

While feeding the giant media organizations you created with taxes collected from the public with billions of liras, turning each into a massive propaganda machine, hiding the facts, and marketing illusions to the public, did you follow an upright path?

How many party members did you appoint by heartlessly eliminating deserving young people through interviews?

Were you upright while distributing public duties to friends and acquaintances?

While devastating not only the students but also their hardworking parents, was your path on the side of justice?

While the country has been fighting terrorism for nearly half a century, and thousands of its citizens have been victims of terror, were you on an upright path when you set up the 'solution process' tables?

One day you say one thing, and the next day you claim the exact opposite. In every election period, slanders are thrown at people, and there are those who are unfairly judged; were you on an upright path during all these processes?

"Be upright as you have been commanded..." What a striking sentence...

But is this word, this command, applied in public administration, tenders, merit, the judiciary, and politics, in your opinion?

Were you upright while enriching a tiny group like Karun while condemning laborers, retirees, and workers to hunger?

While your own children were studying at the world's best schools and private schools in America and managing massive fortunes; were you on an upright principle when the children of the poor died in the mountains and Turkish flags were hung on their unplastered houses?

The streets have become impassable due to the shameless, the dishonorable, murderers, and thieves. Gangs have surrounded the country; was your path upright while you could not prevent the murder of 15-year-old children?

Were you on the right path while condemning us to insecure cities?

While the country's coasts, bays, and underground and above-ground riches were being sold to foreign companies, were you moving on an upright path?

Were you upright while buildings built on fault lines and rotten structures legitimized by zoning amnesties collapsed; while young bodies remained under tons of soil in mining disasters caused by lack of supervision; while the bodies of children were torn apart in derailed trains; while life in the forests burned and scorched?

For example, 78 people died in a fire in Bolu Kartalkaya. Because the hotel owner was close to the government, the lack of supervision was ignored... Was everything upright then too?

Children were murdered in schools; what did you do? Wasn't all the power and will in your hands?

While fathers committed suicide out of poverty, and mothers tried to warm their babies with a hairdryer while hanging themselves in the other room, did you ask yourselves, "Where and what are we doing wrong?"

Have you looked at the statistics of suicide cases in Turkey? For example, why do young people take their own lives? Is it because everything is upright?

Were you upright while arresting Turkey's most honorable journalists one after another?

If even market tradesmen are deathly afraid of the oppressive regime while talking on WhatsApp, is all this related to your being upright?

While making politics over the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Gaza and posing arm-in-arm with Trump, was everything right?

Or what was wrong? Being sad for Gaza, or being friends with Trump?

While recklessly selling public assets created with a thousand efforts, your path might be very correct in terms of your personal interests, but it was never so for the public.

For example, the revenue obtained from privatizations in Turkey during the 2003-2025 period when the AKP was in power was recorded as 192 billion 610 million 599 thousand 549 TL. The cost of the privatizations the AKP carried out in 2025 alone was 61 billion 541 million 586 thousand TL. In other words, public resources were looted and handed over. Were these all out of uprightness?

It is endless to count.... It is endless to count, Ömer Çelik….

You have even found something to write immediately about the claim that the front of the banner carried by student Malo for minutes was blocked. Even though the truth is obvious... The published footage reveals that the situation is not like that at all.

How good it would be if you applied this sensitivity of yours to the dozens of issues I have listed above and those I could not list...

Because the real issue is not carrying that verse on a banner; it is being able to carry the requirements of that verse in state administration, justice, merit, and conscience.

I have absolutely no hope for you, I never did.

But I will never lose my hope for my country regarding those days when conscience, merit, and justice will sprout and flourish.

Sooner or later....