Line maintenance officer Mustafa...

We have stepped into the new year. From yesterday to today, brand new attitudes and behaviors have surprised society. It almost overshadowed inflation, poverty, and the struggle to make a living. The astonishment we experienced or witnessed deeply affected not only us but also the politicians. In short, we started the new year with great hopes. 

Even Ahmet Türk from the DEM Party delegation seems quite affected by the rapidly developing events. What does he say in the statement he gave after visiting Devlet Bahçeli in his office with the delegation? "One is shocked when seeing Mr. Bahçeli's attitude." You dismiss him from the Mardin Metropolitan Municipality Mayoralty out of the blue two months ago without question, appoint a "trustee," and today you seat him in the seat of honor. Look, look at what Bahçeli says: "The doors of the lords are open, and their food is plentiful." I am speechless! What should one say? Ahmet Türk also emphasizes the 1000-year history of Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood and touches upon our unity. Peace is hope everywhere. We must nurture hope. 

I made my first visit of the new year to my distant cousin, Şakir Demir. I hadn't been able to visit for a long time. When you are a doctor, health is at the top of the list of things you must talk about. After talking about illness and treatments without dragging it out, we delved into the past. Şakir complained, "I did my military service in Muş. I walked the mountains of Muş one by one. I was a gendarme. I started smoking because of these things. Now I am struggling with this illness. So many people fell as martyrs. They became veterans. They got sick. Did they just discover peace now?" 

As the conversation deepened, we also remembered Mustafa Demir, the son of my grandfather Osman's brother, Recep Demir. Şakir said, "My father, like me, worked and roamed the mountains day and night. He worked and strove for the peace, happiness, and development of our country." My late father "was a Line Maintenance and Repair Officer. He would take the wires coiled like a hoop on his shoulder and hit the roads at the crack of dawn. He wouldn't say day or night. He would repair wherever there was a toppled pole or a broken telephone wire." "Imperial powers wasted our country's resources for years with their intrigue games. We spent most of our resources, especially our people, on terrorism. All the struggle we put up brought our country to these days. It brought us to the difficult conditions we are living in. We became impoverished. On top of that, the refugee problem, which has exceeded 10 years, was the icing on the cake. Our country has entered a severe economic bottleneck." "Should I deal with my illness or try to make a living with my pension, which is given like alms? I am sitting in this one-room house you see here." My greatest consolation in this year we have just entered is the sound of the rain falling on the tin roof. While Şakir was doubled over and coughing frequently, the late Line Repair Officer Mustafa Demir came to my mind. It was the 1970s; he would come home exhausted and as soon as he lay down on his sofa, he would take the "Son" newspaper in his hand. He would read it down to the advertisements. Its price was 15 kuruş. Today, one newspaper is 15 Turkish Liras, that is 15,000 kuruş. 

While I was thinking about these things, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel was addressing his people on television from Ardahan. "Erdoğan says, 'I did not let the retiree and the minimum wage earner be crushed by inflation.' Unfortunately, he is not telling the truth. Before Mr. Tayyip came, during the 3-party coalition period that he disparages, that is, in the last period of Ecevit, the lowest pension was 1.5 times the minimum wage. Today, the minimum wage is 22 thousand liras; if it were 1.5 times that, the pension should have been 33 thousand liras. Now they are preparing to make it 14 thousand liras. 14 thousand liras is a starvation wage for the retiree," he said. The minimum wage received by a worker has become 22,104 TL. Inflation figures differ according to the government and the ITO; they do not match. TUIK says 44.38%, ITO says 55%. 

School and educational supplies, especially notebooks and pens, are the champions of price hikes, and house rents come in second. The state of the poor is miserable. As Özgür Özel said, "If there is no livelihood, there is an election." 

Is the "peace" environment in the Middle East and Syria, which is my greatest wish to be permanent, leading us to an election at the end of 2025? What do you think? I am very happy to have met with you again in the first days of the new year. I offer my wishes for peace, health, and tranquility in 2025. 

Health is the foundation of everything, followed by peace!

Prof. Dr. Nurettin DEMİR