Why are young people on the streets, does anyone know?

The process that began with the detention of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has brought with it reactions from many segments of society.

A portion of the public rushed to the squares to support the CHP's potential presidential candidate. Some artists shared posts on their social media accounts. Others joined the protests from their balconies with pots and pans.

However, there is a detail that everyone is overlooking! As always, it is the young people who are showing the most reaction. So why?

Do you think their reaction is solely to İmamoğlu being detained or his diploma being cancelled? They are reacting to the Turkish politics, economy, and democracy that have become deadlocked. 

Let no one think that the voices of the youth are rising only against the government. 

A young person approached the microphones of Sözcü Television, which was filming the protests in Saraçhane the other evening. Leaning toward the reporter who was making an announcement, they expressed their reaction by saying, “I want to address Özgür Özel from here. You are even receiving help from the state. You have plenty of money. We are on the streets. Are you going to support us by drinking your tea inside your homes? Those participating in the protests here are hungry and thirsty. Why aren't you organizing?” 

In other words, young people are no longer blindly following anything. They are questioning, holding people accountable. They expect a return. 

ARE ALL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS CHP SUPPORTERS?

METU (ODTÜ) students have been on the streets for days… Other students have also lent them their support. In fact, if it weren't for them, the protests might have ended by now. Do you think their only concern is that İmamoğlu is being tried…

The youth have a different concern! Young people now want the country to keep up with the times. With its government, opposition, non-governmental organizations, universities, and all its units, Turkish youth now want to live at the level of contemporary civilization.

It appeared on my social media. In a street interview, another young person who was handed a microphone was asked, “What do you think about the detention of İmamoğlu?” Everyone expects the young person, who appears to be conservative with his skullcap and trimmed beard, to say “Serves him right.” But on the contrary, he expresses that this issue could be solved differently in democracies and that what they miss now is not political fighting but political peace, and he ends his words by saying, “God willing.” 

Unfortunately, neither the government, nor the opposition, nor other institutions in our country understand the expectations of the youth. They do not understand their language… They are chasing their own political anxieties, caught in a blind fight over the struggle of ‘the seat will be yours, it will be mine.’

It must never be forgotten that the future of countries and societies always lies with the youth... 

Let them remember their own youth. Let them remember their expectations and worldviews before they entered the political turmoil. 

Young people no longer want political powers to interfere with what they eat, what they wear, what they study, or what they watch. Young people are looking for paths and leaders that will shed light on how they can study, how they can travel the world, and how they can add value to themselves. 

The decrepit politics in Turkey currently does not provide an answer to these young people. The best example of this was shown by a banner opened during the protests. “We are not resisting under any party. We are the people,” was written on the banner prepared by the youth. In other words, the CHP should not take these children for granted. Their concern is truly not political fights. 

THEY ARE ANGRY THAT THEIR INTELLIGENCE IS BEING MOCKED

They can now see so well the value placed on young people in the developed countries of the world…

Even if you ban them, try to keep them away, shut down social media networks, or restrict the internet, they find a way and know very well how their peers live in the world and what rights they have. Even if you exhaust yourselves trying to make them hear what you want and not hear what you don't want, they do not like their intelligence being mocked at all. Because they find a way. Remember, every ideology that does not listen to the voice of the youth is doomed to disappear. 

For this reason, there is no right or left, no AKP or CHP! It is not the government or the opposition, this leader or that leader; if you do not listen to the youth, none of you have a place in that seat. 

You will say that every party has youth branches. They exist, but they are youth branches consisting only of partisans who continue the current decrepit politics. The young people you see at the head of youth organizations are no different from their political older brothers and uncles, wearing their ties and pontificating. They are never the representatives of the young people on the street. 

I claim that no political party, no leader, and no member of parliament in Turkey knows ‘what young people are talking about, how they communicate, what their view of the world is, or what their expectations are.’ 

“What does which color mean to them, what does which emoji mean, what kind of language do they use among themselves? There is no one who knows this!

And this is not just something I am saying. Experts say that with developing technology, it is difficult to keep up with the speed of change and the perceptions of children and young people in the new world. 

There is a popular and equally striking series that everyone in the world has been talking about lately: “Adolescence”… The series tells a story by emphasizing how even parents miss their own children's language and do not know what things mean in their friend circles. 

In this period when parents have difficulty understanding their children, it is hard to understand what young people are talking about and what they expect, and it is even easier to miss these things if your concern is the seat. 

HOW WILL YOU GET THE SUPPORT OF THE YOUTH?

There is only one immortal leader who has come to these lands and understood the youth, and that is Mustafa Kemal Atatürk!

A leader visionary enough to entrust the future to them, to gift them a holiday, and to do everything in his power to broaden their horizons. 

Do you want to be in power?

Do you want to stay in power?

There is a very simple thing you need to do. Anyone who follows in the footsteps of the Great Leader always takes the youth behind them. Otherwise, they will disappear into the dusty pages of history like the others.

When you go out on the street today and ask young people something about Turkish politics 20 or 30 years ago, young people don't even remember the names of the famous politicians of that period. 

The leaders who came saying they were conservative, suspended democracy, hung out with singers, or went to the gallows due to corruption…

The leaders of the 80s during Turkey's years of chaos, the so-called painters who came with a coup and seized politics… The former party leaders, the Metropolitan Mayors… The most powerful names of the period who left their mark on Turkish politics… They don't remember any of them.

But even the young people whose hearts you have filled with anger against him know the name of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk by heart, the country he entrusted to them, the holiday he gifted them, and the ‘Address to Youth’ he penned because he trusted them. 

Politics that does not advance with his vision is doomed to disappear in the eyes of the youth to whom he entrusted and trusted the country. 

One day, today's youth and tomorrow's youth will forget your names just like the political characters they forgot in the past, and all your fights will be in vain. 

Look, Mustafa Kemal even gave you the key with this quote; “True happiness and well-being in life can only be found in working for the honor, existence, and well-being of future generations.”  

If you work for the youth, they will reward you by immortalizing you. Just as they did for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk…