Politics in Turkey has long ceased to be a race to solve problems.
The race is now about who is more victimized.
Here's what's interesting:
Not only the opposition but also the government portrays itself as a victim.
Everyone is under pressure, everyone is targeted, everyone feels wronged.
Because in this new order, being right is not enough.
It is necessary to appear victimized.
How is victimization manufactured?
When an incident happens, the incident itself is no longer the first thing anyone looks at.
Everyone is asking the same question:
“From whom?”
If it is “ours”, it is defended.
“Of them” is condemned.
So the crime disappears,
is replaced by identity.
Parties are being talked about, not facts.
At this point, victimization ceases to be an emotion,
it becomes a strategy.
Victimization is no longer an issue;
It becomes a tool that is produced, nurtured and managed.
Power's Game of Victimization
A system in which the government produces victimization has been established in this country.
The opposition's victimization is understandable, because if there is victimization, there is a force that produces it.
This is one of the most basic facts of politics:
If you remove equal conditions, the race ceases to be a competition and turns into domination.
So where does the government's victimization come from?
How can a power that holds its own power, sets the rules, draws the boundaries of the game be victimized?
Is there a democratic equivalent of a government that victimizes itself?
We don't know yet.
But there is one thing we know:
This language is not used to explain the truth; it is used to cover up the truth.
Because victimization of the government is not a quest for rights;
it becomes the safest armor to escape responsibility.
At one point, this language even tried to rewrite economic reality.
As the cause of unabated inflation and the cost of living,
peasants producing potatoes and onions were shown.
Onion farmers were suddenly turned into “criminals” and even “terrorists” who victimized the public.
Almost every day with a language of operation,
onion warehouses and potato silos were raided.
But the nature of this work is clear:
Potatoes and onions are harvested, stored and released at the appropriate time.
But it was not the economy, it was the narrative.
Because when a “responsible” is produced instead of the real cause of a problem,
the real debate disappears.
And so a country, not with facts;
with manufactured stories.
All this, accompanied by the rhetoric of “I am a victim and I am a victim”,
over time it became absurd enough to be the subject of sketches.
This is precisely the kind of political language that has been established.
And here's the irony:
Today, the government speaks almost as if it is victimizing the opposition.
But whoever has the power is also responsible.
Silenced from the Inside
But I think the real victims are the opposition within the opposition.
Because they are left alone twice:
Under the pressure of the government and the intolerance of his own neighborhood.
Anyone who says something different, who objects, who questions;
Suddenly he is labeled a “traitor” or a “collaborator”.
So the controversy disappears,
replaced by labels.
Yet the essence of democracy is precisely the existence of that objection.
Who is the real victim?
At the end of the day, if we do an accounting:
The real victim of this system is neither the government nor the political institution itself.
The real victims are those trapped in the bubble of poverty,
It is the people who are lulled by stories of victimization and ruled by these stories.
Because they are neither the subject of the narrative nor the owner of the decision.
Only those who live the consequences.
And perhaps the most painful thing is this:
Their voice is the least heard where it is most spoken.
In the next article, we will look at why this language has resonated and why society has remained silent.