How Should We Decide on a Choice?

When you are driving somewhere, if you are driving the car, you have to keep your eyes on the road. No matter how long the road is, you have to keep your eyes on the road. Otherwise, God forbid, you will have an accident.

However, even though your main attention is on the road, your field of vision also includes the vast lands, fields and forests.  

Have you ever been on a long road trip behind the wheel?

I have done it a lot.

Once I drove from Ankara to Erzincan for example. I think I wrote about this adventure in a previous article.

I have also traveled quite a long distance behind the wheel a couple of times in Russia. 

Turkey also has a very large geography, but Russia is a country with very large plains. The road is endless and there are places where there is no sign of life between the distances.

An image from when I worked in the city of Norilsk just came to my mind.

I have written about Norilsk before, it is a mining city in the north. Since it has a very cold climate, its nature is mountainous and stony. Not even grass grows properly in those distant lands. 

The city is built on a limited space on that empty land. 

Unlike many cities, the city has a border, and beyond that border you can see only empty land, not a single man-made structure, not even a single man-made building.

That's when it occurred to me that there is such a vast expanse of empty land, and we humans are trying to live crammed into a relatively small space.

***

We call it homeland, and the lands we call our homeland are actually quite large.

Maybe we don't even appreciate it. Many places, especially towards the east, are empty, there are no trees, no visible life. There are mountains everywhere.

We also have forested areas, but I think they are quite insufficient.

Maybe trees don't grow in the mountains, but I guess we don't think about it too much.

***

Sometimes I think, there is a homeland discourse on everyone's lips. 

I don't distinguish between the ruling party or the opposition, both sides describe the homeland as a red line.

Although I guess the government does not call it a red line, I think they add the homeland to the list when they list it with the rabia sign, even though they have recently given up on it.

Whose land do these lands we call homeland really belong to?

Does it make a difference whether you are pro-government or pro-opposition?

Don't we all own this land? Didn't our ancestors shed their blood on these lands so that we can live in peace?

Didn't your grandfathers and mine fight the enemy for these lands?

Won't the soil gush with blood? There are Turks, Kurds, Laz, Circassians. Haven't all our grandfathers been martyred on these lands? Isn't that what Mehmet Akif Ersoy says?

***

On Sunday, everyone will go to that polling station and vote.

Some will vote for the government because of the manipulative campaign by the government. Let me not say the wrong things. Some will vote for the government because they really want the government to continue, because they like it, because they think so.

Some will vote for the opposition because they are no longer satisfied with the situation the country has been brought to after all these years. They will vote in favor of the opposition because they want a change, because they believe that the opposition will govern the country better.

Then we will open the ballot box and see, whoever got more votes will win and rule the country.

And we, the voters, will go on with our lives, we will continue to live somehow. 

Some of us will try to live in poverty, if you can call it that, in this struggle for life.  

Some of us will continue to live our lives as we used to do in the past, in fat and honey, in wealth.

We all have one vote. 

On Sunday, behind that voting booth, we will vote for whoever we believe will offer us a better future.

We will not vote by saying that this is my homeland, not theirs!

If we think like that, we are wrong, we should not vote thinking like that. 

Because this homeland is our homeland. This flag is the flag of all of us. 

All of our grandfathers shed their blood for this homeland, that huge land belongs to all of us, even if it is mountainous and rocky. No one can take these lands away from you, no one dares to do so. Because we are a very strong state. We were strong yesterday and we are strong today.

What we need to think about when we cast our votes are very different things.

We will vote for whoever comes to power, terrorism will end in this country. 

We will vote for whoever comes, neither FETÖ, nor PKK, nor any other terrorist organization will find a place in this land.

No good will come to this country from those who set up a FETÖ exchange for the sake of their interests, who bring letters from the imprisoned PKK leader for the sake of votes, who put his brother on state television, who make the country a shelter for ISIS or DAESH militants.

We will vote for whoever we think will send these asylum seekers, who are scattered everywhere, back to their countries. 

This government has turned our borders into a jungle and turned our country into a refugee camp for Europe. We will vote by thinking who can prevent this.

We will vote for whoever will fix our economy. 

This government has stubbornly and blatantly ruined the economy, made inflation skyrocket and left the people alone with the problem of making ends meet. There is not even a penny of foreign currency left in the central bank and our debt is through the roof.

There is not even enough money left in the coffers to buy natural gas for heating this winter, it is not even clear how we will stay warm this winter. Russia may not want its debt, but who knows what it wants in return? There are rumors that it wants BOTAŞ. 

We will vote by thinking about who will solve all these problems.

We will vote for who will not give away the ancient assets of this country.

We will vote for whoever comes, we will have a more respected place in the world as a country. 

We will vote for whoever comes, we will establish better relations with our neighbors, we will trade better, we will earn more money as a country.

We will vote for whoever comes to power, Turkey will be a more peaceful country.

We will vote for whoever comes, my child will get a better education.

We will vote for whoever will respect women more.

We will vote for whoever will better heal my earthquake wounds.

We will vote for whoever tells me that the state has to cover all losses and whoever will not take money from me.

We will vote for whoever will take better care of me as a retired person.

We will vote for whoever will provide better opportunities for me as a teacher. We will vote for who will give me an extra salary on Teacher's Day.

We will vote for whoever will solve the problem of unassigned teachers.

We will vote for whoever will pay me the real price of the product I produce.

We will vote for whoever will help me with fertilizer and seeds.

We will vote for whoever will end this polarized environment.

We will vote for whoever comes, we will be able to speak our minds more easily.

We will vote for whoever comes, we will vote for a more transparent state.

We will vote for whoever we think will respect the law more.

The list goes on and on, there are so many issues that we need to think about while voting.

Otherwise, no matter who comes, our homeland is the homeland of all of us, no one has a problem with the homeland, we all love this homeland very much. 

We don't take care of our homeland well enough, but this homeland is a beautiful homeland that can take care of us. 

The climate is beautiful, the nature is beautiful, the history is beautiful, we have a paradise-like homeland and as I said, no one has any intention of leaving this homeland to anyone else.

This is my homeland, no one has the power to tell you to leave. 

Neither those who are trying to organize people in mosques with the intention of provocation, nor those who have the intention to abolish democracy and rule the country with another regime.

This homeland belongs to all of us and we want to live in this land together in peace.

For this, we are holding an endless election, nothing more.

If you want to do something for the homeland, first go and make those mountainous stony places a forest.

In the elections, let alone manipulating people with slander and lies, does a Muslim have anything to do with lies and deceit? 

First of all it is a sin, God forbid you will burn in hell. 

Even Allah does not forgive wrongdoing. 

So let's have a peaceful election and let whoever the people want govern the country. And everyone should respect the people's choice. 

After all, we live in a mortal world, even Suleiman the sultan did not inherit the wealth of the world.

It is not easy to win elections against a mentality that characterizes elections as "a conquest". Believe me, I am appalled to hear this from the mouth of the person at the top of this country.

Still, I trust in the wisdom of the nation. I want to trust. 

This nation will choose the most suitable administration for itself this Sunday.

Every nation will be governed as it deserves. Joseph de Maistre's famous quote.

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow