The issue of sunbeds and umbrellas is political!

When summer arrives, the same problem always arises in the country's coastal regions...

Sunbeds, umbrellas, exorbitant prices...

De facto obstacles that make it impossible for the people of my country to reach the sea in their own homeland, to benefit from the beaches, and to simply spread out on the sand with their children and enjoy themselves...

Some see this as the inevitable tension of the tourism season, an ordinary supply-demand issue, or the work of a few shrewd tradesmen.

I do not share that opinion.

Those who take the issue so lightly are those incapable of reading the asymmetric threats Turkey is facing.

Let me try to explain the naked truth as best as I can.

For instance, the power of a state is not measured only by how it protects its borders.

Just as much as the justice it distributes in courtrooms, the extent to which it can protect its citizens' most basic rights on the seashore is an indicator of being a state and of sovereignty.

That is why I see the sunbed issue not as an economic one, but directly as a political and security issue.

There may be those who think I am exaggerating, those who bury their heads in the sand.

The question that must be answered here is this:

Do Turkey's coasts really belong to the public as written in the Constitution, or have they been left to the control of factions that effectively threaten our sovereignty?

Let me write clearly what I mean by "other factions."

In other words, let us name this critical issue correctly.

The issue is by no means the profit greed of three or five greedy operators.

The issue is the ethnic mafia-ization that has seized the corners of our beaches and turned them into virtually liberated zones.

It is the fact that the terrorist organization PKK and its affiliated structures, political extensions, drug traffickers, and separatist networks have turned these beaches into financial and logistical bases.

The vandalism experienced on many beaches today cannot be explained solely by high-price policies.

Let us read the picture before us well.

Is the law of the Republic of Turkey decisive in the public space, or are the illegal power relations established by the ethnic mafia?

Let us take a tour of the map of Turkey and face the concrete realities:

Who are the extensions of those "valet" and "security" types who guard the doors of luxury beach clubs in Bodrum and Çeşme and decide who can enter and who cannot?

Did those organized structures that drive illegal piers into public land in the most remote coves of Marmaris and Fethiye, drive citizens away from the shore at gunpoint, and beat local tourists who want to lay down a towel in front of their families, fall from the sky?

Have we forgotten the beach-raiding incidents that took place in broad daylight on the coasts in recent periods, or the guns that went off in the rent wars of the sunbed mafia?

These structures, which close off coves in Çeşme and engage in parking mafia activities, or squat right next to public beaches in Bodrum and intimidate citizens, derive their power not from the law, but from the ethnic gang-like structures they have established on the ground.

A significant portion of the coasts is under the dominance of these ethnic mafia-like structures, not the citizens.

This illegal order did not form on its own.

Over the years, deliberate lack of inspection, licensing confusion, weaknesses in local administrations, and the withdrawal of public authority from the field have allowed this monster to grow.

But more importantly; it is the flow of black money obtained from drugs and terrorism into these coastal strips, and the political power turning a blind eye to this—and even supporting it—by saying "let the money come, no matter where it comes from."

The most painful part is that the dirty political bargains carried out under the name of "urban consensus" in recent times have granted these ethnic structures a legal and political shield at the local level.

Through municipalities and under the pretext of political alliances, the way has been paved for these factions. One would have to be blind not to see how the political extensions behind these gangs run rampant in many coastal municipalities from Bodrum to Çeşme.

Nature abhors a vacuum; where the state retreats and vacates an area, illegitimate power centers always fill it.

We all see the picture of humiliation that emerges as a result.

The people of my country are forced to pay a kind of "tribute" to illegal structures just to be able to swim in their own country. Those who do not want to pay are beaten in front of their families, shot, or dragged off the beach.

The authority to impose penalties and maintain order, which should belong to the state, has passed into the hands of the mafia.

Yet, coasts are common living spaces under the protection of the Constitution; they cannot be anyone's private property, let alone a source of finance for terrorist factions.

Is there anyone on the ground who cares about the mandatory provisions of the Constitution or the decisions of the Court of Cassation?

Of course not! Because one end of this ethnic mafia-ization is inside the government! If we do not write this, what we want to explain remains incomplete.

Let us not ignore the other side of the coin; let us be self-critical.

A significant portion of those who want free beaches today unfortunately do not show the same sensitivity when it comes to protecting those beaches.

Plastic bottles left on the shore, diapers buried in the sand, cigarette butts...

Unfortunately, the people of my country are not at all at peace with nature. This degenerate mentality that can turn common areas into a garbage dump in a few hours is just as harmful to this country as the ethnic mafia occupying the beaches.

Let us not see benefiting from public space only as a right; it is also a responsibility to protect the homeland.

When the people of my country do not protect their common property and land, the state mechanisms that should protect it become dysfunctional over time.

Perhaps that is why thousands of citizens turn their direction to the Greek islands every summer.

Not just because it is cheaper...

They go because they find a more predictable, peaceful environment where the law works, which is more orderly and far from the threat of the ethnic mafia. They are looking for a state order where they can swim without being subjected to anyone's arbitrary, barbaric practices. This picture, which drives its citizens to the other side of the Aegean, is the shame of those who govern this country.

Turkey's need is actually extremely clear and distinct:

First of all, public authority and the powerful hand of the state over the coasts must return to the field in an uncompromising and operational manner. The distance between the rules written by law and the mafia-like reality experienced on the ground must be eliminated by the state's striking power. It should not be superficial municipal police inspections in Bodrum, Marmaris, or Çeşme; the state's organized crime fighting teams must be permanently stationed on those beaches.

Secondly, the central administration and local governments must put aside the separatist bargains and vote calculations under the name of "urban consensus." The coasts must be removed from being a financial tap for ethnic structures and must be protected as a common public area through a radical cleanup, not through indicators.

Finally, the citizen must develop the consciousness of a "citizen" who protects every square meter of the homeland, its law, and its sovereignty, not just a consumer looking for a place to lay a towel on the beach.

It is impossible to break this organized siege without strengthening civil society, establishing a national legal culture, and having people protect their common property at the cost of their lives.

Law is more than just a set of rules written in a book; it is the will the state shows in the field and the character of the society.

That is why it would be a great folly to see the sunbed debate on the beaches as a fight over a few square meters of sand or a simple municipal inspection.

Let us conclude our article by saying that the real issue is how much the state authority can make its sovereignty felt in the public space and to what extent it can protect the life and property security of its citizens against these ethnic gangs.