Have you ever seen an imam transfer to a church?

There is a saying that football fans know very well: “If you cut my veins, my blood would flow black and white”… Or whatever color the team they support is… It describes belonging. It describes the refusal to give up on one's love and the commitment to the values of the team one supports…

A sense of belonging is a requirement of being human.

For instance, in our country, there is a sense of regional solidarity. In the military, at the hospital, on the bus, or on the ferry, we immediately ask, “Where are you from?”

The team, city, village, school, or unit we belong to is important. It cannot be changed.

For example, someone from Manisa cannot say, “I am no longer from Manisa, I am from Aydın.” Someone who did their military service in an artillery unit takes pride in their regiment, company, and branch; they cannot say, “I am no longer an artilleryman, I am a sailor. The artillery was wrong. I changed my mind.”

For example, football players transfer and change teams. They say, “Actually, I was a fan of this team from birth!” The fans of the team they transferred to do not take this statement seriously, but for the fans of the team they left, they are now a traitor. Songs are composed about them…

Transfer is a professional business. You go to the team that pays better, but fans do not change teams easily. And those who do are labeled with, “Forget it, that guy even sold out his team.”

As I said, transfer is the business of a professional. You rent out your labor and talent for money. But you do not make your values, principles, and beliefs a matter of negotiation, and you do not transfer for any personal gain.

The question is, have you ever seen an imam who transferred? Would they say, “Such and such church offered me better opportunities, from now on I am not an imam, I am a priest. I will no longer lead prayers, I will hear confessions”?

So, can you wrap your head around these transfers in politics? Can you understand how someone who has believed in the principles of a party for years and worked for it can abandon their values and switch to a party that is their sworn enemy, the one they criticized the most, and the one they thought was not beneficial to their country or nation politically?

Do all opinions change with a lapel pin?

How do they manage to become the number one soldier of the opposing view they perhaps cursed and fought against for years?

In developed countries, when a professional thinks they will be successful in politics, they engage in politics in a party close to their worldview. When their term ends, they return to their job. In other words, politics is a service, a matter of the heart, not a professional career!

But here, we have a concept called professional politics. “What do you do for a living?” “I am a politician.” One day in this party, the next day in that one…

In Turkey, politics is a profession! The office of serving the public has become a line of business as you know it. With its salaries, pensions…

Leave the top positions aside; even the provincial staff are professionals. They see there is no work in this party, and suddenly 35 people switch to the other party and put on a new pin. And what happens after that? All doors open in their new party…

But there is a reality that professional politicians overlook. Since we started with football, let's finish with football. For example, a star of one team transfers to other teams. They play and earn their money. When they retire from football, they want to become a coach. The community they belong to does not open its doors to them. They become a commentator on television, and they receive the biggest reaction from the fans of the team where they were a legend. Their sense of belonging is so lost that even they forget which team they support.

Take Tümer Metin, for example, who is the best example of this. When he transferred from Beşiktaş to Fenerbahçe, the Beşiktaş fans turned their backs on him. He never became a Fenerbahçe-supporting Tümer either. But today, he cannot be a Beşiktaş-supporting Tümer either.