Strictly class warfare

College student Özgecan Aslan’a brutal killing in Mersin once again brought the usual discussion to the surface. Columnists, politicians, experts think and limit the scope of the argument to “violence against women.” Yet the real picture is far more complicated than the “men gone mad” cliché.

Özgecan Aslan is a symbol of a new generation of young, middle-class girls and women who want to break the chains of living in small cities. She had chosen psychology as a major so that she could cure people, heal people and learn about people. Unlike most young women her age, she was not seeking fame and fortune on fashion shows or TV dramas. She had grown up with wise and tolerant parents and had made them proud.

By killing her, the brutal murderer is sending the signal that no matter how well-educated and well-behaved you can be, your destiny is in the hands of someone much lesser, much worse than you. Someone with a dark life, someone who has been abused. In a country where Recep İvedik’s box office rocks 2 million, the mainstream life is the one of the killer, not ours. To be better is not valued, to get better educated does not guarantee one a good life in this country. On the contrary, the less humane, the more evil, the more brutal you are, the easier you can survive in this country. Even mediocrity is too much, you should choose to be demonic to live better.

Nuh Köklü, a journalist in his 40s, died because a mad shopkeeper stabbed him. It is the same pattern. You can be well-educated, tolerant, a supporter of values and almost a militant for environmental and animal rights. In this country, this not only does not guarantee a good life, it is an open invitation to be killed on the streets by someone who barely reads and writes, but is smart enough to know the pitfalls of the penal code.

Both of these examples show us clearly that the struggle that is going on in this country is not a cultural one, but clearly class warfare. As the educated masses slowly grow and a middle class real bourgeoisie emerges, the abandoned masses of this society are resisting to their presence. They are trapped in their small neighborhoods with coffee shops full of men. There is no cinema or theater, no place to socialize, and their only entertainment is TV and online profanity/gambling.

Poverty is not the sign of this. Nor is being religious. In fact, the past 12 years has made some pious people so rich and some traditional conservatives so incredibly wealthy that, in the heart of cities, some brutal killers are questioning, “I go to the same Friday prayers as these guys, how come I am not prospering?”

Such is the atmosphere of the political saturation. It is the result of someone who is incredibly ignorant, brutal, sad and lonely running the country. It is the atmosphere of shame and childhood traumas in the government seat. It is the poisoned air of turmoil before revolutions. It is the alarm bells of a bloody and costly change. It is the blindness of power and utter hubris.

Eventually someone will ring the bell and end this masquerade.