Beyond the point where words fail in the face of injustice and the process of disenfranchisement

The operation conducted against Üsküdar Municipality and the detention of Mayor Sinem Dedetaş is the final act of AKP lawlessness—which has become normalized and to which the public has become desensitized—and represents a threshold beyond all thresholds. 

It is a civil coup where the scales of justice have been completely shattered and the law is being used as a weapon. Even the voters who have supported the ruling party since its inception know this truth deep down.

The target is clear: to usurp the will of the people, to render voter preference meaningless, to crush hopes, and to uproot democracy.

Those who watch this lawlessness in silence today must know this very well... Evil and injustice are like a boomerang; one day, they will strike those who remained silent as well. This order, in which violating rights has become normalized, will slap you in the face with all its ugliness tomorrow when your child's rights are violated or when someone "more powerful" than you unlawfully seizes what you possess. 

In my twenty-six years of journalism, I have witnessed this many times. It has always been these same people who, when they were wronged in the past, sought refuge in the very people they had marginalized by calling them "leftists" or "communists," and who knocked on our doors when they were in trouble. Because the fire of injustice eventually burns the one who stokes it.

Evil is destined to lose, sooner or later. It must not be forgotten that those who issued a "non-prosecution" decision for the former AKP mayor of Üsküdar, Hilmi Türkmen—who faced countless corruption allegations and files—are today conducting an operation against a mayor elected by the people under the guise of "law." Those who use religion for politics and who never let the justice of Caliph Omar fall from their lips are today rewriting the book of injustice. Everyone should engrave this into the deepest corners of their minds: where justice decays, society decays; where there is no justice, one cannot breathe, and life ends!

The issue is not just about revenge for the billions of liras of resources poured out for years or the cutting off of funding to crony foundations. The issue is the blow dealt to the mafia-like order that plundered Salacak and left the public with no space to breathe. It is the punishment of a will that defended public rights against foundations that said, "The 32 public properties had no legal infrastructure, we will never leave here."

We are facing a massive "criminal empire" that they believe is unshakable, which has become state-like and serves only a privileged clique.

This empire is sending a clear message to the public: "It does not matter who you vote for or what you prefer. You will either be a slave to our interests or you will be destroyed." The operations carried out by the police and the efforts to discredit [the mayor] through crony media outlets fed by public money have only one translation: "This is how we crush those you elect!"

This is an open usurpation of the right to vote and be elected.

This is proof that we have no legal security left and that all of our lives have been left at the mercy of an organized structure.

However, there is another truth as clear as the sun... History is full of the absolute defeats of those who oppress, lie, slander, and violate rights. They will be written into the dark pages of history with curses.

Now is the time to look not at the past, but at tomorrow and what we will do!

Leaving aside those who disregard the law and those who collaborate in this oppression, it is time for a resistance where intellectuals, journalists, students, laborers, and every citizen with a pricked conscience stand shoulder to shoulder. This is not just a political issue; it is a struggle for existence.

A very fast, very resilient, and unshakable united front of struggle must be established immediately.

Because there is no other way out.