The most tragic thing about allegations of corruption and irregularities in Turkey is that no one is surprised. Our social memory has been so eroded, our sense of justice so battered, that even the most unbelievable scandals are buried in a habitual silence after a few days of a “social media wave”.
The last and most striking example of this was the case of the Justice and Development Party's Aksaray deputy's wife, whose household was issued a “poverty certificate” to avoid paying court fees in her legal case.
The incident comes to light and is followed by a feeble apology or a move to cover it up, but there is never any real accountability, resignation or legal purification mechanism.
Because this is not just about an irregularly printed piece of paper. The issue is the reckless use of state means, power and influence with the comfort of “nothing will happen to us anyway”.
Where Bureaucracy Goes Blind
While a normal citizen is scrutinized by the municipality, the court, the SSI for the smallest aid or transaction, and the assets of his seven generations are questioned, we see how the system suddenly becomes blind and deaf when it comes to the ruling circles.
The question to be asked is very simple: On what conscience, on what criteria was the wife of a member of parliament given a poverty certificate?
A poverty certificate is not just a piece of paper that is gratefully received in a neighborhood coffee shop. It looks at income, social security, assets and economic conditions in the household. Now the public is rightly asking the question: Are there really poverty criteria in the household of a member of parliament? If so, it means that the economy of this country is in a much worse state than the rosy pictures that the government tells from the rostrums. If not, with what influence and through what hidden hands was that document obtained?
What is more serious: What would have happened if this incident had not come to light? If the public hadn't learned about it, if the opposition hadn't pursued it, if the media hadn't written about it, would we still be saying “we didn't know about it” today?
From 2002 Promises to the “Order of the Privileged”...
What makes this picture even more painful is the historical contradiction itself. When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, it summarized its greatest promise to this beloved nation in three words: Fight against the 3Ws. In other words, Corruption, Poverty and Prohibition would end. The point reached today on that road, which was set out with the claim of being the “voice of the silent masses”, is a complete irony:
Corruption and Irregularity: It is no longer perceived as an issue of struggle, but as an institutionalized “right of privilege”.
Poverty While millions of the truly poor are lost in the corridors of bureaucracy trying to access the crumbs of the welfare state, the blessings of the system flow into the households of the powerful.
Bans and the Transparency Barrier: The reflex we see when the incident comes to light remains the same. There is no clarity, there is no documentation. Instead, there is immediately a literature of victimization, a defense of “slander” and an effort to prevent the dissemination of information. However, no one is talking gossip; there is a concrete picture that deeply hurts the public conscience.
Citizens Outraged by Double Standards, Not Poverty...
The social repercussions of this distorted order are the biggest threat to the future of a country. Citizens in Turkey are no longer just angry about poverty, the economic crisis and empty market nets; they are most angry about double standards!
Because millions of people in this country are really poor. They are really in foreclosure. They really cannot make a living and send their children to school without pocket money. But while the real poor are being crushed at the gates of the state with a thousand and one procedures, the idea that the powerful, the well-connected can get around the system with a single phone call, with a single “document”, radically rots society's sense of justice.
When people take these situations for granted and become desensitized, saying “this is how it always happens”, it is the biggest moral collapse that can happen to a society. People are forced into a climate where staying honest and obeying the law is considered a “sucker's game”. The sacred social contract, the bond of trust between the state and its citizens is being shaken to its foundations.
The Last Word;
Trust in politics and state governance is lost in the public conscience long before the verdicts are delivered in courtrooms. Today, the issue is not just a poverty certificate. Today, the issue is that the “order of the privileged”, which has been nurtured and nurtured by the AKP government for years, can no longer be concealed or disguised.
And there is only one question that the honest people of this country are still waiting for an answer to:
Are the poor and the righteous really protected in this country, or only the powerful and influential?
We will continue to speak and defend our homeland.