What does this country mean to us?

One person says they will flee this country if a war breaks out. Another insults the President just to get sent to prison. 

One is young, the other is 66 years old. 

One explains that they have no patch of land worth dying for, while the other gives up their freedom just to find a roof over their head.

At first glance, these are two unrelated news stories. 

Yet, both are stories of the same country, the same order, and unfortunately, the same quarter-century.

There is no longer just an economic crisis; there is a much deeper collapse. The collapse of being a society, the collapse of the feeling of sharing the same homeland…

“I cannot die to protect the homes of landlords, to protect the cars of car owners, to protect the plots of land of landowners.”

That is what the young citizen says in the video they recorded. Almost everyone has shared messages agreeing with them. How could one not agree?

In the face of this sentence, it is easy to rattle off a few nationalist slogans on social media, and then talk about patriotism, the flag, and sacrifice. What is difficult is to confront the social conditions that forced this sentence to be uttered, this system that crushes the poor, and the governing mentality.

Because our young friend is not actually talking about war. 

They are talking about property. 

They are talking about inequality. 

They believe that even if they work for years, they will never be able to own a home, that they will spend their life as a tenant, and that they will not be able to get a share of the country's wealth. 

And they ask why sacrifice is always demanded of them in a system where they own nothing.

This is the very feeling that creates the real collapse in the country. And the number of those who share this feeling is increasing day by day.

Any patriotic speech made without answering this question will be nothing more than bombastic rhetoric. 

On one side, there are young people who start their lives with the opportunities provided by their families' political and economic connections, who at just 20 years old manage millions of liras in the management of large companies, and who are protected by a transparent shield when they make a mistake.

On the other side, there are young people who graduate from university only to remain unemployed, working for minimum wage and unable to pay their rent.

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Another striking piece of news comes from Alanya…

The news shared by 12punto's Instagram account is as follows: 

66-year-old R.K. was arrested on charges of insulting President Erdoğan because he had nowhere to stay. R.K., who had faced the same accusation before, said in his statement, “I have no place to stay, I sleep in garbage dumps. That is why I resorted to this path.”

Just think, a citizen of this country who should be living their retirement in prosperity at the age of 66 is willing to go to prison and give up their freedom just to solve their housing problem. 

Can this be seen merely as personal desperation?

If the warm bed of a prison replaces the social security that the state cannot provide to its citizens, what kind of social state can one speak of there?

These people are at the two ends of the social landscape created by the AKP government, which is approaching 25 years in Turkey. 

Moreover, these stories are not just exceptional incidents.

According to 2025 data from TUIK, one-quarter of young people in the 15-24 age group are neither studying nor working. In the same year, youth unemployment is 15.3 percent. This rate reaches 22.1 percent among young women.

The situation is no different for the elderly. 

As of July 2026, the lowest pension is 23 thousand 552 liras. 

Again, in TUIK's 2025 poverty and living conditions survey, 22.8 percent of those aged 65 and over are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

These are not just dry statistics. They are indicators of millions of lives that could not be lived.

The picture is clear. This country is not a poor country. It is a rich and growing country, just as those at the head of the government boast.

But while some take from this wealth with a ladle, others cannot benefit even a single drop. 

In short, a country's enrichment and the enrichment of those living in that country are not the same thing.

The 66-year-old man in Alanya and the young person who says they will flee if a war breaks out are perhaps completely unaware of each other. But both are asking the same question: What does this country mean to us?