A public meeting was held in the Hopa district of Artvin as part of the Black Sea meetings organized by Halkevleri under the title "An organized public solves every problem." Speaking at the meeting, Halkevleri Eastern Black Sea Regional Representative Haktan Özkan stated that the economic situation in Turkey should not be viewed as a "crisis," but as a political and economic choice.
Özkan noted that the government emphasizes the rhetoric that "we are in an economic crisis," and added, "We start from here and say no, we are not in an economic crisis. There is no economic crisis in Turkey. There is no crisis that lasts for ten years with this kind of fluctuation. Crises are confined to certain periods. They emerge, are resolved, the system restores itself, and so on. No, on the contrary, this is an economic choice," he said.
In his speech, Özkan criticized the tendency to confine economic expectations to election periods, arguing that the public's fundamental problems become invisible with this approach. Stating that the current model is exhausted, Özkan claimed that a "ruleless form of governance" has been created for capital accumulation and transfer.
Özkan also evaluated the discussions surrounding fund-related scandals within this framework. Stating that what has happened cannot be seen merely as the actions of "a few greedy individuals," Özkan used the expressions, "This is something that can only be done with lawlessness, and only with lawlessness. It is a plunder."
EMPHASIS ON SOCIAL OPPOSITION
Arguing that oversight and rule-setting mechanisms in Turkey have been rendered ineffective, Özkan pointed to the judiciary, bureaucracy, Parliament, and various public institutions, stating that all that remains is "social opposition." For this reason, Özkan expressed that they attach importance to the discussion of organizing around the axis of public struggle.
Evaluating the upcoming election processes, Özkan stated that election expectations would not be enough to solve the public's daily problems. Özkan expressed that after the elections, citizens will once again face issues such as bills, rent, poverty, problems in education, and workplace homicides.
Speaking at the meeting, Halkevleri Organizing Secretary Nebiye Merttürk said that economic, social, and ecological crises cannot be handled independently of one another. Merttürk said, "The government itself, which we describe today as the palace regime and which we expect to solve these crises, is not only failing to solve them, but is intervening in our lives from a position of creating the crisis."
Merttürk stated that rights have been usurped one by one under conditions of pressure for a long time, and that they are discussing how the public can organize again as a social force. Arguing that the government has lost its capacity to solve problems or does not have the intention to do so, Merttürk said that the current administration has become the "source of the problems, not the place for their solution."
News Source : 12punto
