Seeking

Turkey continues its search for happiness with the experiences and mistakes it experiences day by day. Since the goal of happiness does not remain fixed for a certain period of time and at a certain point, but is an abstract and ever-expanding concept such as the goal of modern civilization, both the rulers and the opposition will inevitably criticize this pursuit from within and from outside.

When we approach the issue through known realities, the most concrete indicator that the country is not struggling in the pursuit of happiness is that individuals feel happy and proud of being a citizen of the Republic of Turkey. Individual happiness, on the other hand, is the crowning of excellent economic and health conditions with a good mood. The mood of the country, on the other hand, is an important determinant of our own mood as it forms the background for the relations of the masses.

Unfortunately, the mood of our country, with its traumatic past, has an inhibiting feature in our pursuit of happiness. In the imperial past, the state of happiness did not envelop the masses of the people, but was blended first with the palace and later with the palace and bureaucracy and the commercial class that benefited from them. This commercial class, on the other hand, was not shaped as a bourgeoisie, but remained as compradors, the intermediaries of money and collaborators of powerful countries. Thus, while the happy minority was the palace, the bureaucracy and the compradors, the masses of people, who were not remembered except for military service and taxes, were handed over to the Republic as unhappy segments.

Unfortunately, the Republic could not produce happy projects that would embrace the masses of the people under the influence of internal and external conditions. Politics remained in the vicious circle of a single party and the Republic could not create its own bourgeoisie to accelerate the country. While it was aimed to develop commerce in the hands of local and national people, the economic difficulties in the world forced statism, capital could not be created to develop the country, and the wealth belonged to large landowners and local representatives of Western capitalism who were intertwined with politics and bureaucracy. The people are remembered only in times of taxation and military service. The people's inability to find themselves in politics is due to their own unconsciousness as much as that of the ruling classes.

Politics is blocked. The new world order of the post-1945 period has been added to the economic problems at home. The formal democracy of the anti-imperialist, anti-communist and secular state is in a deadlock in every respect. While communism demanded territory and bases, the solution was to implicitly approach imperialism. Although this is a method inherited from the Ottoman Empire and disapproved of by the founders of the Republic, it is the harbor of refuge for countries that cannot create their own channels of production and capital. This is good for the compradors who are in close contact with politics. Because production will increase with the help of capital and goods, and as the consumption category increases, domestic capitalists will benefit from imports or import substitution.

Although the people wanted to put forward the organization that would represent them in the experiences of 1925 and 1930, they could not find a role for the sake of the country's stability and took part in 1950. Or rather, they think they did. Because even though those on the stage are new, the role they play is a continuation of the old one and is a US-made theater. Paradoxically, the army, which is perceived as the savior, is at the command of the US in this play, with its lower echelon on the side of the people and its upper echelon in cooperation with politics.

The government's struggle is anti-communist and secular in appearance. This is also the image that imperialism wants. It was also the basic condition for existence in Turkish politics at that time.

Holistic development was replaced by material development; roads, dams and factories were prioritized while education, science and culture were pushed to the background.

In the government's policies, the wishes of the ruling class stand out. The land law is buried in order to support the big landowners, sheikhs and aghas. When a political party wins the sheikhs and aghas, it wins the elections. While state lands are distributed to the notables, the village institutes that would have awakened the peasants are closed down, the community centers are destroyed and agricultural loans are increased to the detriment of the peasants. Tractors were imported en masse and the rural labor force was blocked. The Industrial Development Bank was established and abundant credit was distributed to the private sector.

In 1951 and 1954, foreign capital incentive laws and the petroleum law were enacted to support foreign capital. In order to continue the support of imperialism to the ruling classes, soldiers were sent to Korea, NATO and the Balkan Pact were entered, and the Baghdad Pact was tried to be established. The National War of Independence was turned against the ruling classes. The right to strike was denied to workers in order to prevent justified resistance against the ruling classes. Everything was done to prevent the consciousness of the working classes.

The left front is relentlessly attacked. The means of the state and the slush fund are squandered for the favored masses. The government shows in every aspect that it acts in accordance with the interests of the class it represents. The state's finances collapse as a result of unplanned investments, corruption, and massive borrowing. All these weaknesses are sympathized with a content-free ceremonial Ataturkism.

Then, when imperialism also cut off economic aid, there was an economic deadlock and political repression emerged. The government that had come to power in the name of democracy had no qualms about slaughtering democracy. The government felt the footsteps of bankruptcy and did not know what to do. Ignoring international law and existing laws, the government found it expedient to apply what it thought was right as the law.

This political cadre, which aimed to bridge the gap between the people and the rulers, began to break away from the people as it facilitated a parasitic class that oppressed the people. The pro-Americanism of the ruling classes was instrumental in the complete handover of Turkey to the US. The politics of the country did not hesitate to take decisions in this direction.

Despite all these negativities, the new politics that emerged in 1950 was an important step in raising the consciousness of the people, making them feel their power and realizing that politics was not an unattainable activity. Just like today's political conjuncture offers us... No matter how backward we see a systematic, the results that emerge unknowingly take us forward. Because observations made through trial and error in the crucible of time make it clear even to hazy eyes that something is wrong and incomplete, and something is right and useful in finding ourselves and seeking the ideal.

The democratic spirit and the system of thought based on reason and science will always preserve its characteristic of being the last exit before the bridge for all the formations that hinder Turkey's progress, reduce our country to a semi-dependent state, plunge it into debt and bring it to the brink of chaos. And it should!