The most dangerous turns of a quarter century

In the 25th year of AKP rule over Turkey, we find ourselves at the most dangerous crossroads we have ever faced.

The latest developments — particularly in the context of the PKK issue — and the separatist propaganda being openly conducted on social media once again lay bare the gravity of the situation.

Even the most radical PKK sympathizers no longer feel the need to conceal their views. Anti-Republic rhetoric is being published under real identities, citizens are being threatened, and a language laced with insults and abuse is being used systematically. (A brief scroll through TikTok is enough to see the reality.)

Behind this audacity lies the "process" — one that the ruling power itself manages and turns a blind eye to. We call it a "process," but what is meant here is not peace or social reconciliation; it is a political engineering project aligned with imperialism's plans for the region, aimed at dismantling Turkey from within.

Today we are witnessing a terrorist organization that has cost the lives of thousands of soldiers, police officers, teachers, and civilians gaining new political ground — an era in which its supporters are openly revealing themselves.

Moreover, this is the result of a roadmap built step by step, with meticulous care.

The real problems of citizens — unemployment, poverty, injustice, and crises in health and education — have been deliberately pushed off the agenda, clearing the way for identity politics and constitutional engineering.

Devlet Bahçeli's move to "invite Öcalan to parliament" was the opening signal of the process.

Afterwards, President Erdoğan, true to his classic tactic, stayed in the background for a time before stepping onto the stage at the most critical moment, declaring the AKP–DEM–MHP alliance at his party's consultative meeting with the words: "The three of us are together on this path."

Following this statement, social media erupted — there is no other word for it.

Accounts defending the PKK began enthusiastically sharing the organization's anthems and producing content openly demanding partition. In full public view, with not the slightest hesitation, and with breathtaking audacity.

As expected, the propaganda machinery controlled by so-called journalists who have turned into trolls also mobilized all its units and all its channels in a chorus of applause.

Hired guns who put the armistice press to shame began displaying all their skills.

These shameless opportunists, having lost all sense of decency, erased all the pain of the past and marketed today's developments as "normalization."

They never touched on the plans of the United States or Israel. They covered up the truth, as they always have.

These structures, which serve the imperialist objectives and centers behind political Islamists, continue to be one of the most critical instruments of the manipulation being carried out on behalf of the ruling power.

Today, anyone who calls themselves a "journalist" but merely parrots the ruling power's talking points and defends the palace's agenda rather than the interests of the people is tarnishing the honor of the journalism profession. Neither their pens are independent nor their consciences free.

Erdoğan operated with a political mindset that did not hesitate to smear opposition leaders with doctored videos during election campaigns. Yet today, he showed no discomfort whatsoever in describing the alliance he has comfortably forged with the DEM Party.

The process of partitioning Turkey is now being conducted not through indirect hints but through what amounts to a "soft transition" strategy. To fail to see this, we would have to lose all our senses.

Remaining silent in the face of this process is nothing other than fleeing from a historical responsibility.

To make any sense of this, to try to understand it, one need only look at what Syria and Iraq have lived through. Governments that do business with imperialism drive their peoples toward catastrophe, burning their societies' futures while protecting their own seats.

A terror process that caused thousands of people to lose their lives was covered up under the name of negotiation.

Society's burning problems — job insecurity, the struggle to make ends meet, and crises in health and justice — have been deliberately made to be forgotten. The working class is being ignored. Workers' right to organize is being suppressed. The political consciousness of the people is being destroyed.

The country is being plundered on every front. While millions of people live on the edge of hunger, all of the country's resources have been allocated to a handful of major capital barons. This order, created through privatizations, incentives, and tax amnesties, is not merely an economic model — it is the very system that keeps the regime alive.

A regime that is the enemy of labor, the enemy of the public, the enemy of the people. And the ideological carrier of this regime is Political Islam...

Religiously reactionary policies do not only target secularism; they also destroy the consciousness of earning through work.

This mentality, which encourages laziness, submission, and a culture of obedience, distances workers from production and from the struggle for their rights. Through a charity economy, by making poverty manageable, it condemns the people to the grotesque system they have created.

The demand for peace is of course legitimate — for the welfare and brotherhood of the people. However, this process is a plan of surrender and dissolution dressed up as peace. The Turkish people must not turn a blind eye to the pain of the past, the tragedies of our geography, and the destruction experienced by neighboring peoples.

Our country has no other alternative. It is the duty of all of us to stand up for this land, this labor, and this Republic. Defending science, reason, secularism, the will of the people, and the public good is the responsibility of every patriotic citizen.

Those who today attack people who question this course of events by saying "are you afraid of peace?" are exploiting the concept of peace. No sane person wants war; no one wants people to die. But using peace as a cover for a plan that negates the country's integrity and the people's future is the very definition of immorality.

In the face of demagoguery, distortion, and hypocrisy, we must defend the rights of the people, the dignity of labor, and the gains of the Republic.