Heel mine!

I have been on the road for days. My goal is to fulfill a youthful ideal at this age.

I set out from the westernmost part of Turkey, with the intention of going all the way to Kars.

But not by just looking out of a car window…

By spending a few days in each province…

By eating local dishes and absorbing the historical and cultural heritage.

In other words, by fully smelling, tasting, and experiencing it…

I don't have a car or anything. I didn't even get on a plane!

I travel with whatever comes my way. Mostly buses, trains, even minibuses…

I chat for hours with poor, troubled, long-suffering people!

The first week is behind me; I am writing this article from a hotel room in Sivas.

Look at the irony of fate; my Sivas adventure coincided exactly with the July 2 Madımak Commemoration.

THE REACTION OF THE TRADESMEN!

I gladly joined the march… But to be honest, there were not many Sivas locals in the convoy…

The crowd of ten thousand consisted mostly of active members of Alevi organizations who rushed in from all four corners of Turkey!

The first thing I felt was that the Sivas locals are seriously uncomfortable with their city's name being associated with such an atrocity…

They defend their city by saying, “The people of Sivas did not burn those people; those who committed that baseness were bigots brought in from other provinces.”

Perhaps that is why they don't show much interest in the commemorations held every year on July 2!

ALEVI ORGANIZATIONS HAVE BEEN 'DEM-ED'!

One observation I had regarding yesterday's march was that the organizing committee had fallen heavily under the control of DEM…

Okay, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel was there, as were TIP Chairman Erkan Baş and the leaders of other leftist parties…

But Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association Chairman Cuma Erçe gave such a speech that it felt like we were not at a Madımak commemoration, but at a DEM Rally!

Throughout his speech, he mentioned “peoples” at least ten times…

Forget saying “Turkish people,” I would have been satisfied even if he had said “people of Turkey.”

But he didn't even mention Turk or Turkey…

I was next to a shopkeeper who listened to the speech from beginning to end at the door of his shop; he turned to me and said exactly these words:

“These people are dividing us just as much as those bigots! Look, they keep saying 'peoples.' How can I support these words?”

KADIKÖY IN KAYSERI!

Anyway, let's change the subject:

If you ask, “What did you learn in this one week?”…

That I knew nothing about Central Anatolia…

And that those living there do not experience any of the problems we face in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, and other provinces in the West…

For one thing, there is absolutely no traffic problem…

All the cities are equipped with much better urban infrastructure than Istanbul…

No chaos, no noise, no pollution!

For example, there is a tram system in Kayseri; transportation is no longer an issue.

I claim that the university city of Talas rivals Kadıköy in terms of human and living quality, and even surpasses it!

In the middle of the night, the streets are full of modern young girls walking alone.

Everything is lush green.

You know how one of our most important agenda items right now is stray animals…

I didn't see a single dog, or even a cat, in the city centers.

This problem has been solved through “spaying” campaigns that have been going on for years.

In other words, there was no need for “murder” or “mass slaughter”!

PRICES ARE HALF OF ISTANBUL'S

Of course, these cities have also been affected by the high cost of living, but prices are almost half of Istanbul's…

I don't know how much you pay for summer fruits, but the best apricots here are 30, and the best cherries are 50 liras!

Housing prices are the same… The sale price of a 130-square-meter, three-bedroom apartment in Kayseri is 3-3.5 million liras... And that's in the most luxurious neighborhood!

It's even lower in Sivas; I looked at the ads of a real estate agent in the Mevlana district, a 160-square-meter, four-bedroom apartment was being sold for 1 million 800 thousand liras.

You wouldn't even find a chicken coop for that price in Istanbul or Ankara!

That's not all… The tradesmen still treat you like a human being.

Cultural and historical heritage has been seriously protected.

THE HEART OF THE REPUBLIC

In this one week, I have had my fill of the Seljuks and the Ottomans… I visited museums, where you would wait in line for hours in any other country in the world, almost all by myself. Because there are no tourists!

As far as I can see, there is no special effort to attract tourists either…

Yet, this geography is history from beginning to end!

Moreover, it is not only the cradle of civilizations that have passed through since ancient times, but also the cradle of the Republic!

I would not be exaggerating if I said I left the republic and national struggle museums in both Kayseri and Sivas in tears…

AND HERE IS THE HEEL MINE!

Take a good look at the photo I shared with this article…

I saw this object at the 100th Year Museum from Çanakkale to the Republic in Kayseri Talas…

At the very top of the photo is a Turkish soldier's rawhide shoe (çarık). It just lifts the foot off the ground, that's all!

Below the same photo is the military boot worn by the British soldiers who occupied our lands.

Steel-soled…

It protects the soldier from harmful objects they might step on.

You see that iron at the bottom? That is also placed on the sole of the boot so the soldier doesn't get injured! In other words, double security… It is also hobnailed… So the running soldier doesn't slip…

So; why is the British Army so meticulous about the foot health of its soldiers?

Because these bastards have equipped the entire front with the “heel mine” you see in the middle of the photo.

When their own soldier, who is launching an attack, steps on it, nothing happens, but when our unprotected, makeshift “heroes in rawhide shoes” step on it, they are “put out of action.”

THE PHILOSOPHY OF IMPERIALISM!

If I hadn't visited this private museum, which is free to enter for the “love of the homeland,” I wouldn't have learned this information.

You might say, “What's the big deal? It's just a trap?”

Believe me, it's not…

This is a “state policy…”

It contains the Western arrogance and hostility that despises and wants to destroy all humanity other than themselves.

It contains treachery, baseness, and cunning.

It contains the first traces of the “diabolical plan” that imperialist states have been implementing for two hundred years…

The “set a trap, neutralize, and capture” plan, that is this plan!

And believe me, this plan is still being implemented by Britain, the EU, and the USA.

They are planting thousands of “heel mines” in our lands and living spaces.

And when we are preoccupied with our own troubles, they capture our country!

The only thing that has changed today is the type of these heel mines…

Now they do what they do with their banks…

They do it with arms companies, giant corporations, and foundations that make diabolical plans while appearing to “support democracy.”

I HAD TO WRITE!

Actually, I was going to keep this trip to myself; I wasn't going to write anything.

But when I learned things I couldn't learn by reading and researching for years, thanks to this object I saw in a tiny museum in Talas…

I couldn't help but write!

My plan is to go all the way to Kars… Erzincan and Erzurum are next!

What do you say; should I keep writing?