The 100th anniversary of the Republic

We have reached the 100th year of revolution, freedom, equality, and modernity in our beautiful country. 

And I have reached my 30th year in the profession… 

This means that when I started journalism, the country was 70 years old, having emerged from crises and coups, bruised and battered, and fallen into the darkness of the Susurluk gangs… 

People were holding protests in the streets for “a minute of light…”, this ‘dirty money and gang’ order was being discussed until dawn on news bulletins and on the program Siyaset Meydanı, and news magazines were carrying a new file on their covers every week. 

I entered the profession with the wind of that hope, starting as a reporter at ATV Haber. 

I thought that the demands and will of the people would cleanse politics and this darkness as well. 

I thought that as brave journalists wrote and spoke, this order would change… 

I was wrong. 

** 

Look, 30 years have passed, and today we are still talking about the actors of Susurluk, and what’s more, the darkness is even deeper than it was in those years… Our beautiful country has become known for gangs, mafia settling of scores, and drugs. 

And that’s not all; on top of that, the trolls of the social media dump, their lies, and self-proclaimed “influencers” who boast about spending who knows how many millions a day have been added! 

In the 100th year of the Republic, politics is not solving problems; on the contrary, it is constantly creating its own crisis. 

The opposition is more scattered and dysfunctional than ever, offering neither hope nor excitement. 

Education and academia have fallen to a level below mediocrity. 

I won’t even mention the media and freedom of expression; we are last on every list. 

We have lost our joy so completely that you would have to search hard to find it! 

** 

This was never the 100th anniversary I dreamed of… 

Yet, I don’t feel defeated, just unfinished, like all of us. 

In this country where no one can be themselves, where people live lives that ‘happen to them’ rather than lives they choose, I wonder if we will ever be complete? 

I have had a similar experience in my journalism career; I started, it was left unfinished, then a new beginning, and it ended again… 

But we do not give up; we continue to try. 

Just like how everything can suddenly change with a spark lit by ordinary heroes… 

We are working. 

At 12punto, I want to tell you the stories of success and hope created by those people whose names you don’t even know. 

The determination of the honorable people who will lift this country on their shoulders… 

Welcome, all of you, to this new beginning.