SPIRA, SPERA

The great name of Turkish literature, Yaşar Kemal, says: “To live is to produce hope from hopelessness. Humanity has reached this day by producing hope from hopelessness.”

It is not our place to comment on the words of the great master, but in the current state of affairs and conditions, our strength to produce hope from hopelessness has reached the point of exhaustion.

We are in a dystopia where we cannot breathe, where we are gasping for air, and where we desperately search for a way out, saying “The earth is iron, the sky is copper.”

We are being tossed from right to left, from left to right.

For 21 years, Turkey has been governed by a power that seems sworn to destroy the values and achievements of the republic.

We are gradually being buried in the darkness of the Middle Ages.

While the country's resources enrich interest groups clustered around the government, large segments of society are writhing in poverty and deprivation.

The country's mountains, stones, soil, streams, forests, and seas are being plundered.

Agriculture is at the point of collapse, and industrial production is dependent on foreign sources and is steadily declining.

Democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and secularism are no longer even lip service!

The country is governed by a “one-man” rule that has opinions and makes decisions in almost every field, from foreign policy to the economy, from national security to politics, from culture and art to tourism, and from media to magazines.

Every word that comes out of his mouth is like a sultan's decree.

The opposition is barely visible!

Over the last 30 years, as the Turkish left remained motionless like a deer in the headlights in the face of the identity politics wind blowing from the other side of the Atlantic, Islamism became the rising value.

Religion is now the most important element of the public sphere in Turkey!

If the President of Religious Affairs could find a way, he would declare himself “Sheikh ul-Islam.”

One step beyond this is an “Islamic state” where Sharia law is applied.

The youth are hopeless!

Turkish women are being pushed into the background more and more every day.

Violence against women is fueled by the mentality of the government.

Illegal immigrants coming from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and African countries are quietly occupying Turkey.

Through strategic migration engineering, a “Salafi vaccine” is being administered to Anatolia, and the concept of the “ummah” is being implanted in minds.

More painfully and gravely, the youth, who are the true owners of Turkey, are looking for opportunities to leave the country.

The list is very long!

However, even in these circumstances and conditions, we do not have the luxury of “losing heart” or “falling into despair.”

Even though our power to produce hope from hopelessness has reached the point of exhaustion, we will continue to fight!

We will not give up.

In defiance of those who try to silence us and take our breath away, we will be in a brand new medium with our hope and energy.

As the Carthaginian commander Hannibal said, we said, “We will either find a way or make one.”

We may not have found a way in the press world under the country's current conditions, but we decided to “make a way.”

Without straying from the compass of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, without compromising on enlightenment and republican values, we will continue our journey from now on at 12punto.com.tr.

Let us put a period to our first article by saying a heartfelt, big “hello”!