For the past few days, we have been talking about the abuse of a child in a daycare center, in an institution affiliated to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
Or rather, we don't talk.
We are waiting.
“I will not remain silent when it comes to children” we are waiting for those who say, "We are waiting for you to stand up. But there is a silence. A heavy, uncomfortable silence. As if the institution in question “from us” as if it is necessary to stop. As if when a politically close party is mentioned, we act as if such a thing cannot happen there.
But in this country, children are not harmed among strangers; they are harmed in the places they trust the most.
In the family, at school, in the hospital, in care centers...
Religion, spirituality, “God's relic” where the discourse is most established.
So “don't leave your eyes behind” everywhere it's called.
But when it comes to institutions that we feel we belong to, that we think we know, suddenly “let's wait” we're starting to say. We are silent.
This is not only a sick reflex; it is also a dangerous one.
Because both evil and good are trans-ideological.
No ideology, no political view is innocent in this regard.
That's why I'm looking for a place “from us” does not protect children.
On the contrary, it makes them more vulnerable.
Moreover, what we know and what is reported in the press is only the visible face. Every year, thousands of children report abuse, violence and neglect. Most of them are lost in silence, most of them are not even recorded.
What we remember is a very small part of what we have forgotten.
Every time “it will never happen again”, “we will never forget” and swearing oaths.
Then time passes.
And it is forgotten.
Sıla has been forgotten.
Narin is forgotten.
Leila has been forgotten.
Children who were abused in sects, foundations and Koran courses affiliated to the Diyanet were forgotten.
“Escrow” delivered by saying, “safe” children who were harmed in places they thought were forgotten.
Newborn babies who died in state custody were forgotten.
Babies who were crippled by negligence and starved to death were forgotten.
Children who burned to death in poverty were forgotten.
Dozens and hundreds of children who shocked us all when they were in the press were forgotten.
It is forgotten.
First we experience pain.
We are rebelling.
We are devastated.
Then we slowly shut up.
Maybe because we are human.
Maybe because we can't carry so much evil all the time.
Maybe because we think forgetting is a way to survive.
But with every forgetting, we also accept this:
How cruel people can be.
How quickly he gets used to it.
To pain, to evil, to the destruction of someone else's child.
Because in this country, pain is rapidly becoming an agenda that needs to be managed.
Institutions are trying to protect themselves, politics is trying to avoid the issue, and we are trying not to face uncomfortable questions.
And almost every day children are left alone;
abused, killed.
Then there is outrage.
News is being made.
Then life resumes from where it left off...
And
The streets are never full for babies and children.
Politics does not scream for babies and children.
We often find ourselves defending the mistakes of adults, not babies and children.
Maybe because it's hard to face.
Maybe because it's hard to accept.
But these children are not just the children of their parents;
bodies, memories, lives that carry the tomorrow of this country.
And we knead that tomorrow from infancy with fear, insecurity, violence and death.
Thus, with every forgotten child, we are getting used to a slightly darker place in this country.
And maybe we should stop right here and look at ourselves and ask:
What humanity are we giving up while children are going through this?