If that place is still Turkey

In the past, for instance, if it had happened seven years ago, with the mindset, the prejudices and the superstitions of the time, we had an easy job. We would say “It is the work of the deep state,” and move on…

Now, we do not have that excuse anymore. There is a government that has been ruling the country for 13 years, one which has turned the state into its party organ. Let alone deep state, there is not even a state left. 

If it had happened in the past, we would have said “JİTEM,” the unofficial war structuring within the armed forces. That army has been made dysfunctional with conspiracies and ambushes. 

That excuse is not there anymore. 

If it were in the past, we would have said, “It is for the anti-terror teams to solve.” But there is neither police nor justice left in the country. In the past, we would ponder how to solve the act and ask who would benefit from this attack. 

What is left here is “an Afghanistan” brought right across our border, a Syria that has been turned into Peshawar, and here in our own country, a polarized nation, separated into “ours and theirs,” with each side hating each other through the ambition of “raising revengeful generations…”

Now, I am saying if that town, Suruç is still a territory of Turkey, if such a massacre has taken place there and if the government is the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in Turkey, hey then, you are still the prime minister. The government is your government. 

What do you think? Do you still hold the fixed idea of doing your prayers at a mosque in Damascus? Are you still fixated on the Muslim Brotherhood? Do you still rush to the Syrian fire with an oil bottle in your hand? 
Yes, this is the result of the wrong policies the AKP pursued for 13 years. First they are responsible. But now it is Turkey’s problem and we are all responsible. 

We should know the issue is too serious to leave to the early election fantasies of the palace; it is too heavy for the 40 percent AKP to handle. It has exceeded the delicate coalition calculations of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s designs, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli’s keenness to “not be left out” and the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) autonomy maneuvers. 

This is now a colossal issue calling for a state administration mentality where the nation would regain its togetherness, face obstacles, again, hand-in-hand and shoulder-to-shoulder.  

We have to pull ourselves together. Everybody should know their place. Everybody should go back to the terrain allocated to them. Let us open a blank page. Let us mend the torn love and trust ties between the citizens and the state. 

Let us put our justice and police back to where they belong. Let us repair the broken honor of our army. Let us base our foreign policy, which we have buried in the Middle East quagmire because of personal ambitions, on wisdom and on the interests of the nation. 

We were, three years ago, at a place where we said, “The peace in the Middle East is our matter.” Now we have come to the place where “The peace of Turkey is in the hands of the murderers of the Middle East.” We have come to this point with our own hands, especially with our own tongue.

Those people conducting coalition talks should now assume their historical responsibilities. 

Major problems are solved through the courageous policies of major politicians.