So who is going to pay the bill now?

A few months ago, at the end of one of the constitutional workshops, we were sitting at a restaurant in Sütlüce, saving the country in broad daylight accompanied by lion's milk (rakı). The pain of the fraud committed in the Maltepe primary, where candidates for the March 31, 2024 local elections were determined using the open-vote, secret-count method reminiscent of the 1946 elections, had not yet faded. After the manager responsible for legal affairs in Istanbul said, "you're only angry because you couldn't steal," we got up, paid for what we ate and drank without leaving the tab to the Istanbul taxpayers, and left the venue. The current deputy head of the bar association was also sitting on our other side. No one said a word.

Our colleague, who made a name for himself as İmamoğlu's lawyer, was arrested on allegations of being the leader of a sub-scheme of lawyer organization, by joining the legal wing of an alleged criminal organization to prevent organization members from becoming informants. Since there is no indictment yet, it is difficult to say anything legally grounded. In the first few days, the prosecutor's office likely baited everyone by circulating information such as secret witnesses and hearsay. In other words, we do not yet know what the state knows and to what extent. I do not think the public would have reacted so harshly if we were talking about a lawyer who defended a DHKP-C leader and worked to ensure the organization did not collapse or that members did not become informants. For this reason, I suggest waiting in silence until the cards are on the table. It is clear that the prosecutor's office wants to hang every sheep by its own leg. In essence, this is the foundation of criminal law.

Murat Abbas, the first person to regain his freedom from this corruption file, is a former client of mine. I haven't seen him for years after our business was finished. But we all heard on TV that someone like him, who has dedicated his life to art and is a very successful and kind-hearted person, was able to give his confession-like statements by running away from the lawyer assigned to him.

Going out to drink lion's milk after any political hearing involving İmamoğlu has become an unwritten rule of the 100-year-old plane tree founded on battlefields, as they say. Now that our colleague has also been arrested, another extra excuse has emerged to gather and save the country. Thank God, I have never been a burden to the Istanbul taxpayers. But I am very curious about who will feed those who know nothing but exploitation in their lives. After all, even a mountain cannot withstand constant consumption.

A dear journalist friend whom I have known since childhood told me years ago that alcohol, especially rakı, had become the most fundamental way to hold onto, integrate into, and rise within the party, and that this unspoken problem could cause a lot of trouble for the party. Unfortunately, time proved him right. This business has gone off the rails, and it is clear that the entire system is in need of a real reset.

Of course, I have no right or standing to interfere in anyone's private life. However, since municipal councils and TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) sessions are public spaces, I believe it is my most natural right as a citizen to request that entry be made with breathalyzer checks at their doors. Our "premium" citizen members of parliament, whose salaries I pay, can eat and drink whatever they want while tweeting, appearing on the TV channels they have turned into their own private cash cows, and even during live broadcasts. However, in these days when the gates of hell are being pried open for our homeland, our geography, and the whole world, I would like to inform them that they are obliged to use 100% of the intelligence the Creator has bestowed upon them when making decisions on behalf of the people and the state.

I have just one small request; please do not do this without notice. We are already hanging our heads because of the "Yetiş Ya Starmer" (Help us, Starmer) issue, and I don't think we can handle the results of a breathalyzer test right after that shock.