20th – 21st Term Kırıkkale Member of Parliament Kemal Albayrak: “Will you cry or laugh?”

SHOULD YOU LAUGH OR CRY?

Journalist N. Başaran stated that investigations would be launched against Özgür Özel and several members of parliament. We will see in time. Because conformity with the regime’s system is expected. There is also talk that Özgür Özel may face a FETÖ-related investigation over financial matters. Should you laugh or cry?

In this country, it is no longer clear who is aligned with whom among the judiciary, institutions, power centers, and political actors.

Mr. Özgür, if you confronted your past; if you visited and listened to the officials who exposed corruption during the December 17–25 investigations, and if you impartially listened to those unlawfully dismissed under emergency decrees (KHKs), you would see whether justice truly exists in this country.

Resign en masse from Parliament together with your MPs and mayors, go out to Anatolia, and force an election. Otherwise, your political future could be very bleak; even a political ban may become an issue. Because these developments have come step by step.

You did not see the money in the shoeboxes. Moreover, you supported individuals accused in the United States. You did not want to see the secrets of those in power. You did not follow the cases as closely as journalist Müyesser Yıldız did. At times, you supported a government whose legitimacy was reinforced by exploitative systems. You did not even want to defend the rights of those unlawfully dismissed through emergency decrees.

What can we say? Why were you afraid of a regime that lacks justice?

Confront your past. The same injustices are now coming for you as well.

As the late Âşık Veysel said:

“No obstacle can stand in the way of a movement.”

It seems the pain of arbitrariness has now reached you too.

Justice cannot be defended through tribalism or factional loyalty. Truth cannot be defended through partisanship. Present your plans, your intentions, and your solutions. Because the witch hunt has reached you as well; in fact, it has already begun.

Blindly defending someone whom the law and an independent judiciary have found guilty is not moral. I am not saying, “Defend the guilty.” However, one must stand with the innocent.

As the late Professor Erol Güngör said:

“It is important to struggle against Pharaoh, but it is also necessary to stand beside Moses.”

Justice is necessary for everyone. Justice is the foundation of the state. Institutions of justice are not commercial enterprises or shopping malls. Such things should not happen in a state governed by the rule of law.

Kemal Tahir, in his novel The Weary Warrior (Yorgun Savaşçı), wrote:

“If justice in a country is distributed according to a pasha’s whim, an agha’s wealth, or a gentleman’s favor, there is no need to draw that country’s map; it is already fragmented.”

Nihal Atsız also said:

“A court that cannot distinguish the right from the wrong is more dangerous than an enemy army. The enemy strikes openly; such a court decays society from within.”

The deterioration of the justice system brings about internal decay. The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it comes to hate those who speak it.

Morality is the totality of behaviors that determine our responses to the situations life places us in. Human beings build meaningful lives upon wisdom, virtue, reason, and justice. The responsibility attached to every position and status ultimately passes through justice.

The duty of a party that inherits the legacy of the Republic is not to contaminate what is clean. Being deceived by the narratives of corrupt regimes and presuming people guilty, whoever they may be, is not the solution.

“The morality of a nation is like its teeth; the more it decays, the more its pain is felt.”

History does not forget those who stood with the people, the innocent, and the cause of justice—nor those who betrayed them.

Reason, science, democracy, law, and morality are the compass that leads to what is right. This nation does not embrace oppressors; it embraces those who resist oppression and defend justice. The fundamental social contract should be built upon these principles.

29 May 2026
Kemal Albayrak