We have a saying in Sivas:

“Everyone praises those he loves.”

When we look at politics in recent days, we once again see how appropriate this statement is.

Özgür Özel wrote for Newsweek, a straightforward NATOist text. He could not stop praising the alliance. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, on the other hand, wrote an anti-imperial article in Theory magazine. Both of them have served as the chairman of the same party; one former, one current.

It would be less surprising if one's article was published in Brussels and the other in Cuba.

But this is not the only remarkable thing.

Politicians, who until yesterday used harsh words and threatened each other, today appear side by side and smile in the same frame at events organized by big capital circles. It is as if those harsh statements were never made, those challenges never happened...

The images that emerged recently at an event organized by Koç Holding showed exactly this. The names that had been attacking each other on the screens yesterday were chatting, shaking hands and posing in the same hall today.

Of course there is dialog in politics, people talk. But when there are ideological claims, harsh criticism and big words that have been defended for years, it is inevitable that citizens will ask some questions.

More interesting is the new political picture that has emerged.

Today there are social democrats who praise NATO. Following them are those who identify themselves as leftists and those who identify themselves as rightists. Political lines that once stood in direct opposition to each other can now fit into the same photo frame. It is remarkable in itself that structures such as the TİP and the Zafer Party, which come from very different political traditions, are mentioned in the same political equation.

The fact that those who showed up during the mine workers' resistance, those who said they were defending the rights of workers, those who made the harshest criticisms against big capital, appear at the activities of capitalist circles today is also a subject that needs to be discussed.

And how do we explain this?

“Transitional period”? “State wisdom”? “Real politics”?

Or is it the normalization of unprincipledness and pragmatism?

Because at the point we have reached today, politics is increasingly turning into a struggle not of ideas but of positions. Right-left, nationalist-social democrat distinctions are blurring. Those who yesterday criticized each other the harshest can meet at the same table today.

Former nationalists, former communists, so-called social democrats and so-called nationalists can be in the same photo frame.

Maybe the real question is this: Are there really strong principles at stake, or is it a question of seats?

So sometimes it is not a question of who is being praised. It is where the praiser stands, whether he has principles or not.

If a politician can be associated with the worker one day and with the boss the next; with anti-imperialism one day and with NATO praise the next, people inevitably ask the question: Is the problem the change of ideas or the loss of stances?

As I end, I would like to remind once again the words of my fellow citizens from Divrigi:

“Everyone praises those he loves.”

But let us not forget: The praise of the mass of those whose love is daily directed towards someone else will one day turn into cursing.