I WAS IN STOCKHOLM JUST BEFORE THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF 2023 -TURKISH ELECTIONS

Stockholm was my first Scandinavian capital, 13^th European capital and including Moscow and Cairo 15^th world capital.

I love being to other countries. I love being to their capital cities. If I were a rich man, I’d love to see the entire country but so far that’s the best I can do.

After arriving the foreign capital city, I love wandering around the streets and shallow roads that are unknown to me. And as I wander, I love to talk people that are unfamiliar to me also. In Stockholm many of these people (one of which I befriended I’d like to mention is Jan) asked me about Türkiye’s elections of the May 14^th. It was May the 11^th on that day.

First I was surprised. I was far far away from Safranbolu where I live -about 2250 kilometers- and in the very north of Europe someone was curious about my country’s elections.

So I get it. I always think about the European people has no further interest of who rules them. ‘They don’t give a shit’ if I may say. Because like the saying in Turkish ‘ununu elemiş eleğini asmış’ (sifted the flour and hung her sieve- have done with her troubles or work she has to deal with) they’ve dealt with all their troubles in early 70’s or 80’s or 90’s. And now they have ‘kapı gibi’ constitutions. ‘Kapı gibi’ can be literally translated as ‘like a door’ but it means ‘solid as rock’. I think the ‘door’ here represents not an ordinary door but the door of a castle.

In Europe, whomever and whichever party comes to rule the country, they count on this ‘solid as rock’ constitution. And other laws. Because executive, legislative and judicial powers are meant to be separate in their countries. The laws about education, health and taxing doesn’t change in every 5 years or so. But they wonder about a country in the middle of the Middle-east, Europe and Asia if the ruler changes or not. The ruler’s foreign policy has an interest about their country’s NATO membership.

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Here in my country, of course human rights are accepted. These rights are inherent to all human beings regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. They include the right of life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. That’s what’s is written in the text. But here, at home, we follow these rules a little bit like in Orwell’s book:

“All humans are equal”

“But some humans are more equal than the others.”

Regardless of the wing of the ruling party we’re used to change the laws according to that day’s needs. And when the ruler changes, the law changes also. It goes like this on and on and on.

As in 1965, the chief of Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi – CHP (Republican People’s Party- the founder party of Türkiye and the main opposition party now) İsmet İnönü (second President of Türkiye after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk) had talkes to a famous journalist Abdi İpekçi (whom was assassinated in 1979). His famous quote was:

“The line of CHP was statist and so it’s in the left of the middle way.”

I consider myself in the left of the middle way also. But I reject to belong to any ‘ism’s or I deny to be called any of ‘ist’s that appear to be in Türkiye. I’m an independent person considering human rights first but women’s rights after.

Let’s talk about Stockholm again. The city of prosperous people who rides more bicycles than cars. When I sent a video shot by me at 20.00 in the main but empty street of the Capital of Sweden, a friend of mine told me that “Let’s send all of the 20 million people (trying to) live in İstanbul and see what the Stockholm municipality does to deal with it. It was a joke of course but it has its reasons. As the population grows the troubles grow doubling or tripling. In highly populated countries they have to think about what the people will eat before what they will read. They have to think about how the people will be sheltered before their transportation.

Here in Türkiye, we celebrate our new ‘made in Türkiye’ car, as in Europe noone cares about who made the car but it has to be solid and reliable so they don’t have to be worried about their children’s safety at the back seat of their cars. They only worry about their children’s future. The times they are a-changing and when gold was money in the old world, in this brave new world data and intelligence and what your youngsters gotta do with AI is the money. Future is now and the EU, the US , China and Japan are getting ready for it.

We on the other hand, are living at the edge of a sword. A sword so sharp that it cut our country into two pieces as half just from the heart. Because we think and act with our hearts. But the people who stand in the right of the middle way and those who stand in the left of the middle way have to live together in peace, not in two pieces. I have to make a quote from Atatürk:

“Peace at home, peace in the world.”

Maybe it will happen after any election in the future that we won’t consider as a football game. In a football match there’a winner and a loser. But in the elections whole people have to face the consequences of the choice made by the ones that see theirselves as the ‘winners’ of this game.

The rightists come together as they are conservative mainly on religion but in all parts of life and they not only support their leaders but also they worship them and see them as invincible.

The leftists fail to come together like them because they reject to worship anyone.

I hope the sound of silence will soon become the sound of people on May the 28^th. I will be longing the days (If I may see or may not) of regardless of whom rules the country, we would be able to rely on our ‘kapı gibi’ constution.