The last statutory decree sets a dangerous precedent

There is a very dangerous issue regarding the most recently issued statutory decree (KHK).

In summary, it says, “If a citizen takes action to suppress terror activities or anything following up to it, then they cannot be put on trial.”

Those in the ruling power, the provision you have put forward is a very dangerous provision.

Above all, it is endlessly open for misinterpretation! They could shoot and kill people in this country and then those who did it would say, “Yes, I shot [them]… Yes, I killed [them]… But, they were terrorists” and wait to be exempt from the jurisdiction.

Friends, this is the state’s primary governing policy: “The duty to provide security and public order is in the monopoly of the state.”

Whereas with this new statutory decree, this monopoly will be destroyed and the state will no longer be a state.

In a country where the concept of “terror” has become this vague and this ambiguous, this uncertain and without form, bringing in a “judiciary exemption for civilians who prevent terror incidents,” God forbid, may lead to domestic turbulence that cannot be stopped, as well as chaos, bloodbaths and revolts. Those who put themselves in the place of police, gendarmerie and security forces may drive the country into disaster.

Those in the ruling power, I especially call on those among you who have not lost your common sense. Please take this matter into your hands and do not allow this to happen.

Was this the proverbial security?

After seeing that a citizen could comfortably approach President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, despite all the security personnel, could even touch him or hug him while he was speaking a platform in the southeastern province of Şırnak on Dec. 24, my belief that Erdoğan was well-protected, that the security personnel were keeping a sharp lookout and that an extraordinary level of attention was intact became shattered.

According to social media, a university student has been raped in the Central Anatolian province of Yozgat. Based on these rumors, all of the racist fascists on social media have insulted and sworn at the people of Yozgat and the city itself.

A couple of them have even picked on me, saying, “You had been defending Yozgat. Let’s see you talk now, Ahmet Hakan.”

Well, I’m talking. When Özgecan Aslan was brutally murdered in the southern province of Mersin in 2015, did people blame the locals of Mersin? When there was sexual harassment in the western province of İzmir, did people run a campaign saying “Talk, İzmir?”

Why give Yozgat a hard time in a disgusting way over a disgusting incident, when it’s not even clear whether it has actually occurred or whether they are merely rumors?

Pictures like this give us hope

Durmuş Yılmaz is the former governor of the Central Bank of Turkey and the vice chairman of the Good Party (İyi Parti).

He is taking the subway as if he’s doing the most normal thing on the earth, as if it’s the most comfortable way to travel in the whole world!

I think pictures like this can only give us hope now.