Some people in Turkey are not just one person.
It is a mirror of an era.
Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı is exactly such a figure.
Because the character we call ROK is not just a shouting commentator on television.
He is a living example of how the media in Turkey has decayed, how politics has become tabloidized and how the screens have turned into a propaganda arena.
Screens, which should normally generate ideas, have turned into stages for character performances.
Shouting instead of information, showmanship instead of analysis were highlighted.
And Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı has become one of the most visible products of this system.
For a while he marched with the liberals.
Then he turned into a star commentator of the ruling media.
It was said that he once took a position close to the FETÖ line.
Then he became one of the most fierce FETÖ opponents.
He was once a fervent advocate of the solution process.
He then became one of the most aggressive advocates of nationalist discourse.
In other words, there was not a line of thought with a backbone, but an ever-changing political adaptation.
This is where the problem starts.
Because the media in Turkey is no longer the domain of people seeking the truth.
It has turned into an arena of figures taking positions according to power.
ROK was kept on screen for years not because of his intellectual depth.
On the contrary.
It was the capacity to produce chaos.
Shouting, provoking, producing insulting language and raising tensions have been turned into “rating material” in this media system.
And over time something very dangerous happened in Turkey:
People who attracted attention, not people with knowledge, were highlighted on the screens.
ROK is a product of this era.
A television character...
Not a figure who analyzes politics, but a figure who tabloinizes politics...
Looking back today, one asks the question:
Has Turkey really become so opinionless that Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı has been one of the most visible commentators for years?
Because it is no longer just a matter of one person.
The ROK figure actually shows what the system in Turkey rewards.
It is not about consistency.
Not commitment
Not the principle
It rewards noise.
Being the most ardent defender of a political line one day, and then switching to the opposite the next day, normally destroys credibility.
But in Turkey, on the contrary, it increased screen time.
Because this system does not like people of ideas, it likes crisis characters.
This is precisely why ROK is a “cautionary tale”.”
Not only for himself...
And for the media system that kept him on the screen for years...
And for the system that markets him as an “opinion leader”...
And maybe the most painful:
And for a section of society to normalize this language...
Today in Turkey people do not listen to each other.
Shouting at each other.
The culture of debate has disappeared.
It was replaced by performance politics.
ROK is the symbol of this very decay.
ROK IS NOT JUST A PERSON, BUT A SYMBOL OF AN ERA
It would be a big mistake to see Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı only as a “colorful television character”.
Because the figure we call ROK is actually a living summary of how the media in Turkey has transformed.
Whoever is on the screens of a country is the mental climate of that country.
And for many years Turkey has been living with a media system that puts the shouter before the thinker.
ROK's rise was no coincidence.
Because this system has rewarded those who create crises, not those who speak calmly.
Sensationalism, not information...
Not analysis but provocation...
Not a change of principle but a change of position...
This is exactly how the media in Turkey has decayed.
When you look at Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı's career, you cannot see a fixed line of thought.
But you see a very clear reflex:
The reflex to sense the direction of power.
For a while he was in liberal circles.
For a while, he was one of the most ardent advocates of the solution process.
For a while, he took close positions with different political centers.
Then he moved to a completely different line.
But he managed to stay on screen no matter what.
That's exactly the point.
Because in Turkey, visibility, not consistency, is now rewarded.
Today, while an academic can work for years and not be so visible in society, a television polemicist can appear in front of millions of people every evening.
This is not just media choice, it is cultural collapse.
Because over time, screens have turned into a space for people who produce reactions, not information.
This is why ROK's language is important.
Insult
Humiliation
Provocation
Excessive emotional outbursts...
Over time, all this was presented as “normal discussion language”.
And society has lost this without realizing it:
A culture of thinking
Because thought does not develop where there is constant shouting.
Only partisanship grows there.
The figure of ROK is therefore more than a media character.
He is one of the symbols of the transformation of politics in Turkey into the language of the soccer tribune.
Today people no longer listen to analysis.
He is looking for a character who represents his own anger.
And the media feeds this.
Because anger brings ratings.
Fighting brings ratings.
Chaos brings ratings.
This is exactly why ROK was kept on screen for years.
Not because he was a man of ideas.
Because it is an “influence character”...
And perhaps the most painful part is this:
Many young people in Turkey learned political debate in this style.
Shouting
By insulting
By humiliating
Therefore, the issue is not only about Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı.
It's a matter of the media system that produces it...
It's a matter of the television system that makes it shine...
And the issue of a rotten political culture that takes it for granted that it takes new positions in every political period...
That is why ROK is much more than a person.
It is a testament to an era.
TURKEY'S SCREEN AGE: IDEA DIES, PERFORMANCE WINS
To understand Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı, it is not enough just to look at what he says.
You have to look at why it is such a big deal.
Because no media figure rises alone.
There is a system that elevates it.
The rise of ROK is a clear indication of what the media in Turkey has become.
In the past, people who appeared on television screens were expected to provide information.
Today, the reaction is expected.
Who shouts louder?
Who creates more crises?
Who generates more fights on social media?
This has become the criterion of the new media order.
And Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı has become a character of this era.
Once the most ardent defender of a political line...
Then a commentator of another line...
Then the propagandist of another position...
But there was one thing that didn't change:
Remaining visible in every period.
That is why this is no longer just a matter of Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı.
It is a matter of how unprincipled behavior has become normalized in Turkey.
Because in a normal democratic culture people ask:
“How can you defend today the opposite of what you defended yesterday?”
But in Turkey this question is no longer asked.
Because a significant part of society is not attached to consistency of opinion, but to characters who represent their own anger.
This is where the biggest decay began.
Information was not the reason why ROK was kept on screen for years.
It was the capacity to generate crises.
Because television is no longer searching for the truth.
He's trying to buy attention.
And in the age of attention, the one who shouts the loudest wins.
Today in Turkey, millions of people's perception of politics is shaped by shouting television commentators.
That is why society no longer thinks; it reacts.
One side gets angry.
The other side is generating anger against.
But nobody is really talking.
The figure of ROK is one of the most visible examples of this cultural collapse.
If the most talked about people on the screens of a country are figures who constantly generate polemics, it means that the life of thought is weakened there.
And perhaps the most tragic part is this:
While serious academics, thinkers and researchers remained invisible in Turkey for years, television polemicists were presented as “opinion leaders”.
That is why ROK is not just one person.
He is one of the symbols of Turkey's media tragedy.
A symbol of the mental collapse of an era.
Not your principle but your position,
not of thought but of show,
a symbol of a system in which ratings, not morality, prevail...
And when you look back today, this is what you see:
Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı was actually a result.
The real issue was the media system that made it possible.
Because this country has rewarded noise, not thought, on its screens.
The result is a media climate where everyone talks but no one really trusts.
That's why ROK is not just a TV commentator.
It is a great “lesson” in Turkey's media history.”