The Republic and feudalism

The Republic of Türkiye was founded as a result of an anti-imperialist War of Independence. Therefore, it is anti-imperialist in its founding process, its founding cadres, and the values that give it its essence.

At the same time, it is against oligarchy, which signifies the rule of a group that holds economic, political, social, and cultural power.

Feudalism is a collaborator and satellite of imperialism. It defends medieval values, concepts, and relationships. It is an ally of oligarchy and imperialism. This is the case both in theory and in practice.

For example, our country's pro-US and pro-EU parties are those that lean either toward religious reactionism or ethnic separatism. These parties, which seek solutions not in Ankara but in Washington or Brussels—not only in domestic politics but also in foreign policy—have provided the greatest support for the US invasion of Iraq and have taken on roles in the Greater Middle East Project. They have tried to mask this with "libertarian, democratic, and civil" rhetoric.

The Republic turns the public into a nation. Feudalism, on the other hand, defines the nation through sub-identities, ethnic, and sectarian affiliations. This is one of the reasons for the hostility of religious merchants and separatists toward the Republic. That is why they cannot tolerate the Republic's statism, not only in the economic sense but also in the political sense. Because the Republic knows that if the state shrinks, the nation will also shrink, and if the state does not remain standing, the nation cannot remain standing either.

For a republican, if there is no planned development, there is no industrialization, growth, nutrition, health, education, or justice. Because they know that while the state shrinks, courthouses grow.

Democracy is not neutral. It is on the side of the Republic. Democracy does not emerge from medieval institutions; what emerges from the ballot box there are sheikhs, dervishes, tribes, sects, community leaders, and ethnic-feudal relationships. This does not make the nation sovereign.

The Republic is revolutionary, populist, statist, egalitarian, public-oriented, collectivist, national, and enlightened. For this reason, it is fundamentally opposed to feudalism. It does not think like today's liberals or conservatives who compromise with feudalism.

It opposes leaving the citizen to their fate. Therefore, it does not compromise with those who advocate Social Darwinism or those who see the concept of the social state as meddling with the order created by God. It does not compromise with those who reduce social life to the rule of economic efficiency. It does not compromise with those who argue that the poor, the defeated, the oppressed, the downtrodden, and the losers are in that position because they deserve it.

Feudalism does not oppose fatalism. There is no contradiction between capitalism and neoliberalism, neoconservatism, or postmodernism. But there is a contradiction between the Republic and feudalism, and between liberalism and conservatism.

The Republic does not look at its citizen's religion, sect, gender, sub-identity, or ethnic origin. According to the Republic, the citizen, who is the addressee and party to the social contract, has freedoms, rights, duties, and responsibilities that stem solely and exclusively from being a citizen.

The Republic is collectivist and populist. It is not individualistic. It does not worship the market economy at any cost.

It sees that one cannot be libertarian without grounding the oppressor-oppressed contradiction on a class basis. Most importantly, the Republic knows that where there is no social state, equality, freedom, and the rule of law cannot survive.