Where is Turkey heading?

Our country is facing major economic, financial, political, and social security problems. The policies to be followed to solve these problems are known to us. It is very clear what needs to be done and what should not be done, from economics to politics. Because liberal and neo-liberal methods, which do not want to implement the necessary policies, are being applied, the problems cannot be solved; in fact, they are becoming even more severe.

As is known, the phenomenon and onslaught of globalization have wiped out the concept of the social state and the welfare state along with many other values. In their place, it has left poverty, corruption, blood, and tears. We have reached such a stage that health and education services, which are social goods and services, have been left almost entirely to the mercy of the market and have become paid services. Apart from the right to a pension, citizens have no rights or social security left.

As a result, our country, as a consequence of global impositions, has moved away from the concept of a social state that protects and develops human dignity and honor, and has rapidly become a police state.

Under neo-liberal prescriptions, our country has been rapidly transformed into a society that earns its income from speculative financial games and consumes without producing. Ultimately, capital in the domestic market has changed hands, and foreign monopolies and states have become dominant.

When we look at the state of our country today;

A debt trap, foreign trade deficit, current account deficit, low savings, zero investment, expensive, paid, and inadequate health services, low-level education, deteriorating social infrastructure and distorted urban planning services, a greedy, "get-rich-quick" class unique to the ruling power, the existence of true parasites on the legal platform, deepening discrimination, the problem of poverty and corruption, the spread of social hopelessness, the massification of a culture of widespread crime, violence, and drugs, moral and political decay and collapse as a result of mass propaganda by visual media, a decline in civic consciousness, an increasingly evident sense of spiritual emptiness, ever-increasing injustice in income distribution, distrust in justice and the state, and the changing of hands and alienation of national capital are our primary problems.

So, while we are facing such a structure, what are we doing or where are we heading? There is no need to go very far. When we examine the points listed below in our country, it will be seen that nothing is improving; on the contrary, everything is deteriorating and getting much worse.

To summarize; in recent years, the Turkish economy has been made increasingly dependent on the outside world and indebted, the private sector and households have fallen under a heavy debt burden, agricultural production has declined, unemployment and especially youth unemployment have increased, and the quality of health services and education has decreased. As a result of globalization and neo-liberalization, we have reached the end of a debt- and construction-driven economic understanding.

The political structure has created a class within its own central and local administrations, and by including players who want to get a share of the pie into this immoral growth process, it has tried to keep the system in its hands through jobs, bread, promotions, interest, rent, and land rent; those who are partners in this system have also become involved in injustice, lawlessness, and immorality. The system, unique to those who profit from this business, has been stretched repeatedly in line with their interests, and in our country, where the institution of law is not binding and works sluggishly, an immoral growth, an immoral understanding of law, and an immoral educational structure have taken root.

Institutions that are constantly changing, presented as reform or innovation in Turkey, have created a slippery ground and have constantly made people miss the old ways. What is presented as new has disrupted the structure and backbone of the current situation and made it even worse.

The equivalent of hormone-fueled and immoral growth has returned as deindustrialization, construction, debt, unemployment, corruption, poverty, and immorality. However, it should not be forgotten that countries with high debt (state, private sector, and households) have little resilience and honor.

As a result of all these policies, income distribution has deteriorated, poverty has increased, trust in justice has diminished, and legal security has ended. We could not produce, but we deindustrialized; we grew with debt, we were happy with construction, we could not create jobs, and we could not put forward innovations that produce added value. As a result of all this, we have become a country that cannot develop and is dependent on the outside world. There is an urgent need for a new war of independence, national unity, and national struggle economically. Atatürk did it during the years of foundation and liberation; we can do it now too.

PROF. DR. DURAN BÜLBÜL