Spineless or a project?

Who is failing to govern the country?

Who is it that keeps retirees living below the hunger threshold, condemns workers to starvation wages, and makes the rich richer while the poor get poorer?

Who is it that, by constantly saying “A woman is a mother, and the feet of mothers are to be kissed,” has rendered women unable to work and condemned them to hunger, while serving the explosion of the prostitution industry?

Who has turned the country into a haven for the world's mafia, granted citizenship to anyone who pays, and left our borders in tatters?

Who grants every kind of privilege to Syrians and Afghans and fills the country with them?

Who has destroyed the principle of “separation of powers,” which is indispensable to democracy, buried the rule of law, ignored the constitutional order by failing to implement Constitutional Court rulings, and turned judges and prosecutors into partisans?

Who is it that brought the Supreme Election Council to this state, where it canceled one of the four votes cast in the same envelope by the same person?

Who has left education to religious sects whose activities are still prohibited by the Constitution, and by saying “We will raise a religious and vengeful generation,” has condemned Turkey to the bottom ranks of the world education and training league?

Who has made democratic mass organizations unable to seek their rights and boasts, “We did not allow workers to go on strike during our term”?

Who has ruined the social security and health system under the guise of “improving” it, and transferred health services that should be free to the private sector?

Who has turned the great Turkish Armed Forces into a nest for religious sects and closed down Kuleli and GATA?

Who insults experienced ambassadors in the Foreign Ministry by calling them “Monsieur” and replaces them with former politicians or “almond-mustached” figures whose corruption has been proven?

Who has turned 80 percent of the media into partisans, funneled public bank funds to them, and rained penalty after penalty on newspapers and television stations that resist surrendering to them?

Who has left more than ten thousand journalists unemployed and filed lawsuit after lawsuit against opposition writers and commentators?

***

If I were to try to list all the troubles we face, pages wouldn't be enough, and you would get tired of reading!

The ones responsible for all of this are the AKP-MHP Coalition…

But who are we talking about at every opportunity?

The CHP…

Well; are we wrong?

Unfortunately, we are not…

Because the reason this bad coalition has caused us so much trouble for all these years is those who manage the CHP…

Note that I am not saying the CHP itself…

I know that the real CHP is the well-intentioned citizen who votes for this party, who is a Kemalist, a democrat, and in favor of secularism.

As for those who manage the CHP, they have been making mistake after mistake since the Baykal era, as if they are acting with a “hidden agenda”…

One pins a CHP badge on a woman in a black chador, another makes Ekmeleddin a presidential candidate…

For the first time in twenty years, we were hopeful; but Özgür Özel disappointed us too.

He even devastated us.

MHP Chairman Bahçeli called him “rotten.”

Then, without even apologizing, he looked him in the eye and consoled him by saying, “Don't be upset, sometimes there are things we have to say for political reasons!”

Özel, however, could not say, “You are the one who is actually rotten.” He could not invite him to political civility.

After mumbling, he could only say, “I offer my respects.”

***

The man insults you, and you offer your respects.

In other words, he slaps one cheek, and you turn the other.

Let's say Bahçeli didn't say it to Özgür Özel, but Özgür Özel said “rotten” to Bahçeli; what would happen?

Let me tell you:

He would be lynched!

He would be subjected to a stone-and-stick attack.

***

Yesterday, I went to the CHP organization and the Association for Kemalist Thought in the town where I live.

Everyone is in a state of great disappointment…

A lady about ten years older than me spoke with a trembling voice:

“Brother, please write this: Are these people also a project? Why can't they stand up for their dignity? Why can't they raise their voices? First, Özgür Özel upset us by having the audacity to apologize on behalf of Dilruba Kayserilioğlu, who stood up to the government, and now he has offered his respects to the man who called him rotten. Why are they so spineless? Does this much spinelessness befit the Chairman of the CHP?”

And so I am writing…

Tell me, Mr. Özgür, are you spineless, or are you a project?

***

Yes; the AKP-MHP Coalition is governing the country, but we are dealing with the CHP…

Tell me; if we don't deal with them, what should we do, should we offer our “respects” instead?