Creating a Frankenstein while trying to create a super-youth

We have been in horror for two days. 

In the past, when we watched the news bulletins, we would look from afar and be horrified by reports saying, "A student attacked a school in America, massacring their teachers and friends." It always felt distant to us. However, everything we called "distant" and thought "it won't happen here" has started to happen to us. 

First in Şanlıurfa, then in Kahramanmaraş, two children raided schools with guns and massacred both their teachers and their friends.

So, what was the first thing we did after these horrific events? Of course, censorship. A publication ban was imposed on the news...

What was our first order of business? A few inspectors were assigned, condolence messages were published, and it was stated that "We are on top of the situation with all our units."

Well, don't those who ignored this danger, which was screaming "I am coming," have any fault at all?

You know how we ban series on certain platforms because they damage our society's national values; citing sexuality, alcohol consumption, or "lifestyles that do not fit our society" as reasons...

In fact, we apply censorship to many things that are happening but that we pretend do not exist. But what do we not ban? Encouraging children to use guns, the mafia-like lifestyle... On the contrary, we support and applaud these. Turn on the television and look; there is not a single character on any channel who does not hold a gun, beat women, shoot someone, engage in illegal business, or walk around acting like a "tough guy." 

Even in those historical series we boast so much about, everyone has a sense of "toughness" and a rush to "lay down the law" (racon)...

When this is the case, while saying "we will raise children in accordance with our national values," we are raising street gangs and murderers. Remember that children and young people take what they see as an example.

We ban alcohol advertisements and lynch our national athletes who advertise them globally, saying this is not our national tradition. Well, is the mafia and thuggery our national tradition? Why are these series not being audited?

How quickly we forgot? Ahmet Minguzzi may not have been at school, but he was killed by child gangs in the marketplace. 

We watch street interviews; children openly say they are prone to all kinds of crime. It is not just boys; even girls are forming gangs, saying, "We can handle anything, brother, this place is under our control." 

There is bullying in schools every day; children stab each other, threaten each other, and then post it on social media as if it were an achievement.

So, what are the authorities doing? Instead of fighting these, they work with sects they call "non-governmental organizations" and grant them privileges in schools. 

Of course, our Minister of National Education, Mr. Yusuf Tekin, must also be very saddened by these losses. However, being sad is the job of ordinary people; the duty of authorities is to take precautions.

For instance, while society has fallen apart to this extent and children are being dragged into crime every day, do the authorities not see the lack of security measures in schools? 

We see it. 

Now let's come to what taking precautions should look like... 65 thousand former expert sergeants have left the profession or could not be appointed. While there are 65 thousand trained security personnel, ignoring them instead of assigning them to schools is both endangering our children and leaving these people unemployed.

There is the "Butterfly Effect"; a small touch changes many things. The opposition had a legislative proposal on this issue; it came to the agenda but is still pending. If these expert sergeants had been appointed as security guards in schools, perhaps these attacks could have been prevented. Both employment would have been provided and innocent children would have been protected. But instead of this, we preferred that structures we call "NGOs" but actually know to be religious communities (cemaat) open stands and hold talks in schools.

Just as we were experiencing the shock of these events, we learned yesterday that a student was detained in Sivas; they were also sending similar threat messages to a school via social media. Normally, in developed countries, such events are handled collectively, not individually. Is there something else behind this? Did these children commit these massacres only because of their psychological crises, or is there an organized movement? Are they organizing on social media? Are they being directed by a game? Are criminal organizations involved? The world employs special units to find the answers to these questions.

For example, it was revealed that İsa Aras Mersinli, who committed the massacre in Kahramanmaraş, killing eight students and one teacher and wounding 17 students, used a picture of Elliot Rodger on his WhatsApp profile. Rodger had killed six people and committed suicide in an attack he carried out in America in 2014; İsa Aras Mersinli also committed suicide after the attack.

Just as they miss many details, perhaps they are missing this detail as well. I want to make an open call to the official units of the state from here: Are there other truths behind these events? It needs to be investigated by a commission. Such consecutive attacks do not seem normal.

Simply saying "we are very sorry," imposing a publication ban, and wishing for mercy will not find a solution to these events. The ancients have a beautiful saying: "Prepare for winter, let summer come if it will." Let us take our precautions so that such events do not happen again. 

These precautions cannot be taken with the effort of sects to enter schools to teach "moral values," to spread religious knowledge, and to recruit followers. We have seen this clearly. We have to work scientifically and take professionals in the world as examples.

A total mobilization is required. Psychologists, pedagogues, sociologists, and real educators (not madrasa instructors!) should be brought together and a commission should be established quickly. And as I said at the beginning; it should start with these mafia series. We must show children love and tolerance, not violence.

But you will say: "We have no tolerance for love and tolerance." Because we have learned to separate, to polarize, to not love those who are not like us, to marginalize, and to hate. If you do not move away from this, whether you call it "national" or "spiritual," you will fail in that social engineering you are trying to implement.

We are losing our youth. Those who are successful do not want to stay in the country; they flee abroad at the first opportunity. The path of young people who try to think and question is blocked. Young people who fall into financial hardship either emulate the mafia in the series and form gangs, deal drugs, fall into the swamp of gambling, or are dragged into prostitution.

Unfortunately, the youth you imagined did not form. Your social engineering resembled the doctor who, while trying to create a "superhuman" in the laboratory, turned his creation into Frankenstein.

You say "there is no politics of pain"; yes, there really isn't. Now it is time to put the "others" aside and bring together qualified educators, law enforcement, and experts who can truly handle this business to produce solutions.

Otherwise, we will suffer more pain.