In Selçuk district of Izmir, 5 siblings aged between 1 and 5 died in a fire that broke out in the house where their mother Melisa Akcan (27) went to get the money for the scrap she sold after locking the door on them.
The bodies of siblings Aras Bulut Akcan (1), Masal Işık Akcan (2), Aslan Miraç Akcan (3), Funda Peri Akcan (4) and Fadime Nefes Akcan (5) were buried in a ceremony attended by their father who was on leave from prison.
‘Who is responsible?’ debate
The condition of the shack where the brothers who lost their lives in the fire lived with their mother has wounded the conscience of millions.
After the 5 siblings were buried, their father was on his way to prison, and the debate on ‘responsibility’ started between the government and the opposition.
After the incident, opposition parties reacted to the poverty created by the government in large segments of society and drew attention to the problem of deep poverty.
AK Party Deputy Group Deputy Chair Özlem Zengin said that the Ministry of Family and Social Policies had visited the family 18 times but the mother refused to give the children to state protection.
Saying that the problem is not only due to poverty but also the mother's lifestyle, she blamed the CHP Women's Branch Presidency and the CHP-affiliated Selçuk Municipality for not building a daycare center in the district.
Selçuk Mayor Filiz Ceritoğlu Sengel announced that the municipality has built 3 kindergartens in the district.
In this country, 5 children burned to death in a shack-like house and not a single person resigned. They were not even ashamed, let alone resign. They competed for words in Parliament pic.twitter.com/5uu2nyekC5
- Atakan Sonmez (@atakansmz) November 15, 2024
“If gangs are financing politics...”
Halkweb Writer Atakan Sönmez reacted with harsh words to what happened after the fire in which 5 siblings lost their lives in the ’Düşünme Vakti“ program on TV5.
Underlining that the problems of the people are no longer the priority problem of politics in Turkey as politics has prioritized the problems of the gangsterized big capital groups that finance politics, Sönmez said, “The whistle of the woman who lost her 5 children will not blow no matter who you bring in this political system. If gangs are financing politics, if big capital is financing politics, you can only watch the debates.”.
“Shame on you!”
Atakan Sönmez called the discussions on the political scene after the incident “disgraceful” and said, “The address was visited 18 times. What happens in the end? 18 times that address is visited to say ‘give us your children’. Shame on you! Which mother - no matter what her situation is - would tell you ‘take these children away’? And because she didn't give them to you, you turn around and go back. Didn't you see the shack where that mother lived with her 5 children? Are you a social state when you leave the family in that shack and give 2 food parcels and 3-5 thousand liras in aid?” he asked.
What happens in this country that makes you resign?
Reacting to the insensitivity of those in positions of responsibility, Atakan Sönmez continued his words as follows:
“What would make you resign in this country? Babies are being killed. No one resigns! It turns out they are killed for money. No one resigns! A 17-year-old boy is brutally murdered on the street, no one feels responsible. 5 children burn to death, again no one feels responsible. Agricultural workers die in truck accidents every year, again no one feels responsible. No one feels responsible for anything. There is such a strange political system. We are not doing populism. This is the main issue of politics. We are still talking about ‘how much was paid to which artist’.”