Turkey’s Problems

O, human!
Make less excuses for fate.
As if you planted wheat but reaped barley.

Fuzûlî

Education System

Equal citizenship rights and equality of opportunity in education are the most important problems. In a system where the principle of equal opportunity has been eliminated, those who can afford it receive education at private institutions, and those who cannot afford it have been forced to attend Imam Hatip High Schools that have become widespread across the country, and have turned into a reactionary system detached from science and based on faith with the inclusion of religious sects. It would be more accurate to call it an education system that teaches helplessness instead of teaching remedies against problems. The current education system strongly conveys to individuals what they cannot do in the culture of learned helplessness, so these individuals accept losing in advance, without giving it a try and examining their inherent will to succeed, opportunities and conditions.

The main reason for religionizing education at Imam Hatip High Schools, which have become widespread across the country, was to impose faith, belief and submission upon young brains instead of science, and AKP achieved it to a great extent. As a consequence of this achievement, Imam Hatip High School graduates are in charge of almost all institutions of the state (28 institutions and counting … ), adequately explaining this situation in our country.

How is a Society of Submission Formed?

In the education system that has been implemented for 20 years, children are commonly raised to learn without asking questions or thinking and to believe without understanding. Can you expect free thinking to become established as a social value in an education system like this? Concepts such as independent identity and freedom of thought cannot gain value in wider social layers in a society dominated by individuals who do not perceive themselves as free and independent and cannot think freely. As a result, there is no or weak social resistance against laws that restrict freedom of thought and expression and autocratic governments in power that pass such laws. On the other hand, beliefs and traditions that restrict free thinking are inherited from generation to generation. Therefore, social and political movements based on faith prevail against free and rational thought, and hypocritical politicians, who seem to value freedom of thought but act differently every time, can dominate the masses with this method. 

There is only one way to prevent bigotry, a society of submission and, thus, regression: being able to build a secular and democratic social order and, consequently, mainstreaming democracy. For this purpose, we need to switch to an EDUCATION SYSTEM open to questioning, researching and criticizing, and based on science, respect and love, instead of fear …

Political Parties, Parliamentarians and Society 

Most people in Turkey complain about the functioning of political parties, focusing on the leader’s domination in most parties. Although the people seem to elect their own representatives in the elections, the parliamentarians they elect are actually the ones preferred by the party leader and presented to the people. Therefore, the elected parliamentarians are the representatives of the party leader, not of the public; they are responsible and accountable for the party leader, not for the public. However, politics is essentially the struggle between powers supporting the continuation of the social order and powers wishing to change this order. The best way for a political party to put up this struggle most effectively is to ensure that the representatives composing the party are candidates who come from within society and support the change. Unfortunately, this basic rule is not applicable in Turkey. 

Why Is This So?

Because the people of Turkey are not aware of their own power. Due to this backwardness and lameness inherited from the Ottomans, the people of Turkey could not be aware of their own power, except during the Turkish War of Independence, which was fought under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal and defined as the Sacred Rebellion. Although a radical solution to this problem that required education was offered with Village Institutes for the enlightenment of the Anatolian people during the first years of the Republic, this process was brought to an end with the closing of Village Institutes after Atatürk’s death, through the intense works of extensions of imperialist powers in Turkey and representatives of landlords at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT). 

It is easy to find fault with the people, who are not aware of their own power. We should basically look at the reasons for this backwardness instead. To begin, the government should introduce an education system based on equality of opportunity, science and technology, human rights and freedoms for the purpose of raising people with freedom of thought and conscience. A culturally intense lifestyle to raise the awareness of the people should be redesigned by encouraging children to read books, increasing the number of libraries and museums across the country, especially ensuring that children adopt the habit of visiting libraries and museums, and infusing the love of nature. 

And what is the situation in our country? 

A quarter-century spent to raise a religious generation!

As a reflection of this situation, we see an increase in the masses dominated by the culture of submission today. The purpose of the mastermind that created this picture was to ensure that the public believed in foreign powers, and not in its own power! However, the people include everyone as the only competent power, who authorizes the rulers of the country in the ballot box, that is, in the elections. Therefore, they are the only power who has the right to call the authorized persons, rulers, parliamentarians, etc., to account when they fail to take responsibility in every possible adversity. 

Why is it so Important to be Aware of One’s Own Power?

If the people are aware of their power, they will pave the way for the parliamentarians, whom they voted for and elected in the ballot box, to represent themselves, and not the party leader, at the GNAT. However, it seems that the people of Turkey are not aware of the individual rights they have, even in the election of their representatives; therefore, they cannot exercise this fundamental right. As I explained in the beginning, this is because our youth accepts the candidates presented to them in the elections and in every aspect of social life, without questioning their characteristics with the spiral of “learned helplessness” we teach them in our education system centered on religious-fatalist belief.

What Happens if the People’s Candidate is Not Elected?

If you closely look at the political parties in Turkey, and especially the ruling party, you can see that the elected representatives support and strongly applaud whatever the leader says, regardless of whether it is right or wrong. From this picture, you can understand that the ruling party does not work for social change, but it has been turned into a political party where people submitting to the leader unconditionally, expressing pleasant words and reciting praises for him become parliamentarians. 

Does the GNAT Represent the People?

In the current government system, the presidency does not represent the people, but it is made to look like it does, as all executive decisions are taken by the president as part of the one-man regime. Voting at the GNAT is accepted as the decision-maker wishes under any circumstances, and any objection is not even a matter of discussion. The reason is that the majority of the GNAT consists of AKP and MHP parliamentarians, and the elected representatives submit to and follow the leader unconditionally, and do as he wishes, instead of representing the people, as I stated above. 

For example, before the earthquake disaster that caused the loss of 50,000 people, parliamentary questions of the opposition party that objected to the acceptance of the omnibus law proposal — which was called “Zoning Reconciliation” and passed for unauthorized/unlicensed buildings across Turkey — and demanded the examination of the reconciliation scope was rejected with the votes of AKP and MHP parliamentarians, ending up like hundreds of parliamentary questions previously raised on issues concerning the people.

Political Parties, Incorporated Companies and Governing the Country! 

Political parties in Turkey act like incorporated companies. For example, the leader of the ruling party obviously rules his party and the state as if he manages a company.  

The state is an institutionalization of institutions. A state functioning with its institutions and rules differentiates from a company in several basic aspects. In the simplest terms, a company’s employees serve the company in return for a certain benefit, audit and control can change depending on the employer and the treasury of the company belongs to the employer. 

The state belongs to the citizens. The treasury of the state also belongs to the citizens. Accountability to and auditability by the citizens is essential in the state. Article Five of the Constitution gives the following definition: “The fundamental aims and duties of the State are to safeguard the independence and integrity of the Turkish Nation, the indivisibility of the country, the Republic and democracy, to ensure the welfare, peace, and happiness of the individual and society, the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual in a manner incompatible with the principles of justice and of the social state governed by rule of law … ” 

If a political party and its leader elected by the people to govern the country attempt to manage the country as if it is an incorporated company, doesn’t this mean that it did not aim for a regime open for transparent audit in the very beginning and pursued an execution process free from accountability? In fact, we have seen that the system was built this way, the Council of the State and the Court of Accounts, which are the highest courts, do not legitimatize their Constitutional duties in auditing both administrative and financial execution, and the reports prepared are not taken into consideration at the GNAT since the presidency system came into effect in Turkey after the Constitution Referendum on 16 April 2017. Surprised? Of course not! But why?

Remember that in 2015, AKP Leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “Turkey should be governed in the way that an incorporated company is managed. Or they lay you by the heels, and you cannot walk even if you want to … This country cannot leap in this way.”

Even if it was applauded back then with the assumption of good faith, was this unscientific and unrealistic discourse able to make way for the mentioned leap in Turkey? Or was Turkey brought to a point we do not deserve at all? 

Judgment is to rest with the reader, of course.

Restoring the Factory Defaults!

We often say “restoring the factory defaults” in a faulting system. In the ongoing process today, the state is at this exact point. Institutions constituting the state, rules defined in such institutions and capable persons running these institutions were what added value to the State of the Republic of Turkey, which was born out of the ashes of the Ottomans in 1923, thanks to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his friends. 

The earthquake that occurred in our southeastern provinces on 6 February 2023 and the subsequent flood disaster in Şanlıurfa, showed once more that the institutions constituting the State of the Republic of Turkey only have their names now. They have been eviscerated and made nonfunctional by incapable administrators who fail to fulfil their responsibilities and cannot provide their citizens with the services they deserve.

The way to get out of this process should be to change the system in force beyond all recognition and to restore the state to its factory defaults.

Who Should Be Blamed for These Harms?

After each disaster that occurs in Turkey — whether fatal mining accidents, earthquakes or floods — this is a question that awaits reply in society: Who should be blamed for these harms? 

In primitive societies, the answer to this question was, “Disasters come from God.”  They believed that everything good and bad came from God.  Although such a primitive definition has still been used by rulers of Turkey with discourses like “It is in the faith plan” and “Everything comes from God,” developed societies changed it in favor of the people centuries ago. They accept that all harms suffered by the people due to disasters, regardless of their name, are results of the failure to take precautions in advance. In developed societies, rulers of the country are responsible for the harm that disasters cause for the citizens. However, in Turkey, rulers do not assume responsibility, which is always charged to the citizens. Of course, this is a gross injustice that should be changed.

Deviation From the Scientific Way Is a Disaster! 

We lost 20 citizens in the flood disaster that occurred in Şanlıurfa. Why?  Although it is known that precautions were taken against possible floods by the Roman Empire 1,500 years ago, the disaster occurred because Şanlıurfa is governed by administrators with a fatalist understanding of 21st century Turkey.  

People died in despair among floodwaters. Sadly, this primitive manner of death is worrisome in showing Turkey’s development level. Moreover, the citizens were again left alone in this disaster; both the municipality and AFAD disappeared.

The efforts to discharge thousands of tons of water at an interchange with an earth-moving bucket instead of using a few water pumps were reflected in TV screens. This unscientific, helpless and primitive way of working will not be erased from our memories for a long time.  

And just like the disasters in previous years and in the latest earthquake, none of the rulers of the country assumed responsibility or apologized to the people, and none of the administrators resigned!

Hope Should Always Be the People Themselves, Because the People are the Greatest Power!

Turkey is at an important crossroads for the elections to be held on 14 May 2023, Sunday. The citizens are aware that they live in a country where the supremacy of law and equal citizenship rights are ignored and justice is not dispensed equally, and that they become poorer and cannot get their well-deserved share in the economy, which is announced to grow every year, with the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer, injustice in distribution of income increasing ever before, and purchasing power decreasing even more. They are also aware that living conditions have become more expensive and more difficult for them with each passing day, due to high inflation as a result of wrong economic decisions. They can clearly see that a country’s economy that grows by keeping the internal market alive with government expenditures is unrealistic and unsustainable. Looking at the previous forest fires and fatal mining accidents, as well as the recent major earthquake and flood disasters, they believe that the institutions of the state were politicized and eviscerated, becoming incapable of providing services, and that the people were victimized during the despair they went through. As a result, they believe that the time has rightfully come to call the rulers to account, and they go to the ballot box on 14 May, with the awareness that the current ruling system should be changed …

As Mustafa Kemal Atatürk said in 1924, as if he foresaw these days, “The people should be supervisors of the government, because if they do not object to any unfavorable works conducted by the government, they will also be involved in all wrongs and crimes.” 

Thanks

Many colleagues and friends who visited our product promotion stands at the Asansör İstanbul Fair on 9-12 March 2023 stated that they have followed my articles in ELEVATOR WORLD magazine and expressed their appreciation in reading the contents. 

I extend my sincere thanks to my readers who support my efforts to add the needed value by writing for personal and social development in a magazine that primarily covers technical subjects such as lifts.