Cash Register

For a quarter of a century, we have been waiting like lambs before the wolf. Naturally, our story ends in the wolf's stomach. However, as an African proverb says, unless lions write their own stories, hunting tales will naturally glorify the hunters. In this country, what purpose does our way of reacting to injustice serve other than the delusion that one can actually react to injustice? Protests are not held in remote corners. A protest is held in a form and place where the protester can demonstrate both their demand and their power. We have seen many times in Europe that farmers who cannot get what they are owed dump tons of manure in cities. By protesting in areas far from everyone and everything, such as Saraçhane or the Maltepe/Yenikapı waterfront, we are merely venting our stress. The French tore down and rebuilt Paris to keep protests under control. Unless a protest is powerful enough to force the city to be torn down and redesigned, and unless it is held right in front of the target, it will not achieve results.

The area in front of the former workplace of the arrested İmamoğlu can only be a gathering point. A reaction is shown in front of the one who caused it. In other words, one must gather directly in front of whoever had İmamoğlu arrested. A protest is a crisis that is consistent with the law. The protester holds their protest either in the heart of the city or right in front of the target, meaning they create a legal crisis by exercising their right to protest. The authorities then try to persuade the protester to resolve the crisis. Let us think of children trying to get what they want from their parents by crying. If a child goes to the back room and cries with their face pressed into a pillow, the sound does not disturb their parents; they are just tiring themselves out for nothing. If Ahmet Çakmak, who changed all of our lives—even if unintentionally—by using his legal right, had thrown his cash register on the ground in Taksim Square instead of in front of Ecevit, would any of us have heard about it? The AKP is very successful not only in writing alternative history but also in creating an alternative democracy.

"Opposition" and "main opposition" are concepts in political literature that determine the hall where parties under the roof of the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) will hold their group meetings. However, "dissident" (muhalif) is a word used consciously and placed into political discourse. Every political party is naturally an alternative and an opponent to parties other than itself. People who do not share the same opinion on any subject are the same. The reason the word "dissident" is persistently used is to position the AKP in the mind as the absolute power, that is, the state. After the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) presidency changed in 2019 and the İBB Assembly majority changed in 2024, the phrase "the opposition of Istanbul" used for the AKP sounded strange for this very reason. The state has been equated with the AKP in the public mind. For this reason, comments like "the state knows what it is doing" are being made regarding the second peace process. However, the stakeholder in the process is not the state, but the ruling bloc.

Since those born in 1982 and later began to vote, the AKP/People's Alliance has won the general elections, and because our country is governed in an anti-democratic manner, the ruling power has been equated with the state in the eyes of the public. I mentioned this yesterday; we are merely residents who carry the passport of the Republic of Turkey. And we are the most docile, the most productive residents who provide the most milk and wool. The state of which we are citizens was a state that made those who deserved it judges, prosecutors, soldiers, police officers, and civil servants, and whose last Prime Minister was Bülent Ecevit. Currently, only doctors, nurses, and other healthcare personnel are being recruited into the public sector from every neighborhood out of necessity. And it seems this necessity will not last very long either. Likewise, our country opened its arms to non-Turkish foreigners many years ago, and we have guests of Arab origin who could be preferred for such positions requiring technical training. Moreover, the voters of the ruling bloc see themselves as the sole owners and masters of the country. They do not even consider those who are in the "opposite camp" politically as human beings. The shopkeeper cheating the customer, the peasant's cunning, the farmer's use of pesticides, and the public official's indifference are entirely due to this.