What kind of contradiction is this that we are living through?

You must have also followed these three news stories that have appeared in the media one after another. One of the stories is, ‘Foreign Bidders for Bridges and Highways to be Privatized Have Emerged’; the second is, ‘2nd Wave in Citizenship Investigation’; and the third is the fund crisis that shook society last week. While all three events could be perceived as very different, independent, and innocent news, they actually resemble each other in some respects. Perhaps the Minister of Justice, who acts with a sense of duty, should turn his attention to certain public offices. 

Let us first address the first story. It appears that some individuals have acquired Republic of Türkiye citizenship through irregular, collusive real estate sales. Judicial proceedings have been initiated against about eighty suspects, and 72 suspects have been detained. It seems people wanted to obtain citizenship in some way, whatever the reason may be. Since one way to do this is to invest a certain amount of money in property, it appears people found a way to undervalue the property, bought it, and thus qualified for citizenship. Now, an investigation is being conducted based on the price. Before briefly analyzing this, if we look at the second strange event, we are faced with the fact that the customers for the bridges and highways to be privatized are occupying our country. In short, if we combine these two stories, we can interpret them as an unfair occupation of the country; in one, there is an injustice committed against the state (that is, society), and in the second, if our late Professor Mümtaz Soysal were alive, he would have taken the matter to court and obtained a ruling of “violation of public interest” from the high judiciary. In both cases, the public interest has been destroyed; in one, an individual is being prosecuted for the act they committed, while in the other, because it complies with formal law, the state is not being prosecuted for having committed it, and who knows in which transactions the rights of future generations will be squandered! The third story is about the fund, in which thousands of our citizens placed their hopes, evaporating like a mountain giving birth to a mouse. 

Where should one start, as all three events occurred as a result of the incompetence, opportunism, and negligence of all parties involved. So, why does the state exist? Can we conduct a soil analysis when buying a house? No, that is the state's job. When depositing money into a bank or a fund, can we see the background of the management? No, we have to trust that the state is constantly monitoring and protecting the rights of the citizen. If the state is not equipped with competent personnel, puts only the issue of survival at the center of all its policies, and consists of tissues that are connected to the center in a way and with a mechanism that will not dissolve like concrete, then in that state, first, the audit collapses, and second, the administration collapses. In fact, in such structures, auditing is done in a way that appears legitimate, but is actually dismantled. However, this situation is masked by making it appear as if there is an audit. 

When people who want to obtain citizenship buy real estate at a cheap price, how does the land registry office and the bureau that carries out the citizenship process miss this situation? These people must have submitted their title deed documents to the relevant authorities for the transaction to be completed. With what logic can one explain not thinking that this process could be used as a tool for such a game! If citizenship can be obtained by buying property, someone who sets their mind to this will naturally research, and even scrutinize, some side paths. 

When we look at the second event, bridges and highways have been put up for tender, and potential buyers are lining up. I am ashamed of this situation. From whom, you ask? I am ashamed before our future generations, our children, and our grandchildren. Do the public officials who sign these agreements never think about the future, do they never think that they are encroaching upon the rights of the next generation; what kind of negligence is this, or what kind of unbridled greed for resources is it that they are eating the rights of our children? And this is from a political cadre that should know that the right of the public is the most difficult right to account for, or that we mistakenly thought was such! 

The third issue is even more dire. Thousands of our citizens, seemingly trusting the fund but implicitly trusting the state in the background, entrusted the resources they had saved with great difficulty to an institution they thought was legitimate and acceptable. Yes, if there is a state, if the state has sub-institutions to audit its financial and administrative affairs, and if there is no interference in these institutions, why shouldn't the citizen deposit their money! Now, the state is intervening in the situation under the guise of an irregularity having been committed. When we look at the managers of these institutions, we see that the senior management consists of people appointed by the state to various high-level positions here and there. What kind of intelligence is this that people appointed to the highest levels have held positions in such fund management, and this fund has become mired in a swamp. Well, can the state be unaware of this trend? Let's say the state was not paying much attention to these places amidst a thousand tasks from afar, but were those glorious managers also unaware of the situation? Can your mind accept such a thing? 

Well-known artists and TV actors are constantly receiving audit, and even partial detention, decisions on suspicion of heroin or substance use. Isn't exposing people before a result is obtained a crime at the level of heroin dealing, if we want to create a society that respects personal rights? If this process is allowed to continue in this manner, we could be dragged into very dire consequences. If there are so many addicts in Türkiye, how is it that this addiction only appears among members of the art or show business world? Can such a statistical probability exist? Similarly, how is it that all local administrative crimes occur only in administrations affiliated with a single party and after a certain date? Such a probability cannot even exist in one in a billion. 

Please, let all institutions, offices, and even individuals enter a process of social purification. How will this happen? This issue is not my concern, but it is a matter that the relevant authorities and the legal scholars serving at the state level should rack their brains over.