ARE THEY TRYING TO COVER UP THE LOOTING?

Kemal Albayrak, Member of Parliament for Kırıkkale (20th and 21st Terms) and an AKP founding member, writes…

If justice and the rule of law cease to function in a country, thieves and those involved in looting no longer have to fear resigning or facing prosecution. Once hierarchical alliances are established, positions of power begin protecting one another, while responsibility is shifted onto others. As Ziya Pasha put it, “Everyone finds those who resemble themselves.”

When merit is destroyed, wrongdoing is no longer investigated among those responsible for corrupt practices; instead, mechanisms are activated to cover them up. Regardless of their status, honest and competent people are pushed out of the system. A corrupt order has no room for clean and qualified people. This is precisely where the systemic failure begins.

When the system becomes corrupt, the regime takes shape accordingly. Checks and balances disappear, power is no longer questioned, and legality turns into arbitrariness. As a result, every wrongdoing can eventually be legitimized through the use of power.

In 2010, German President Christian Wulff, who was then serving as prime minister, was forced to resign over controversy surrounding a €719 expense related to a holiday. Germany was outraged. Yet in our country, what happens in the face of private-jet pilgrimages, hotels, the use of public resources, and the attitudes of some people who appear on social media to defend moral values but whose positions turn into partisan support through pressure or vested interests?

Today, even expenditures made from state funds by officials facing serious allegations are being normalized. The understanding of law and morality changes according to hierarchical position. Honest and competent people are being destroyed within a climate of arbitrariness. This is the reason for the point our country has reached.

So, who will uphold the “morality of legitimate resistance”?

When civil society organizations, the press, professional associations, trade unions, bar associations, law faculties, scientific institutions, the judiciary and even religious institutions are systematically tied to power, we are all witnessing the consequences today.

Against an understanding that normalizes every wrongdoing and turns religion and ideology into tools for concealing and covering up dirty dealings, an independent judiciary is essential.

I am not saying that Mr. Bahçeli personally has any involvement in financial wrongdoing. However, I wonder what he has to say about everything that is happening.

While speaking at a rally in Istanbul on January 19, 2014, he said that he had seen a sign in Fatih and stated:

“It says ‘Wash this away’ over the map of Turkey. A clean Turkey is wanted. Let the shopkeepers hear this too; whatever Omo, Tursil and Persil there are, I will buy them all and pour them into the Golden Horn.”

Are Omo, Tursil and Persil finished, or have they simply expired? The Golden Horn has become very dirty. Has the cleaning been postponed until next spring?

And what is the opposition’s roadmap for fighting looting and those who steal from the people? Wouldn’t it be good for society to know?

Will this fund looting be covered up? Or will the people’s rights be protected through a genuine struggle for social justice? What does the Speaker of Parliament say about these “Croesus” affairs? Will these matters be brought to light in Parliament and across Anatolia?

This should be the agenda. It must be pursued to the very end, and nothing should be covered up.

Stories about “foreign powers, Mossad, Israel and America’s plot” no longer put food on the table. Are those who say “We gave it legitimacy” the ones responsible for all this? Is this how things are going to continue?

The people are tired of poverty, yet they have not been able to escape it. If there are too many poor people in a country, know that there are also too many thieves consuming what belongs to them. And if those thieves occupy positions of responsibility and authority, the situation becomes even more serious.

Let it not be forgotten: Our common principle must be to unite in justice against injustice and fight together. In a society without the morality of legitimate resistance, it is impossible to seek human rights; the path to truth and to God does not lie in remaining silent in the face of oppression and injustice.

As the late Cemil Meriç put it, “In the struggle between the dishonorable and the honorable, standing on the side of the honorable” is important and is what it means to be human.

October 4, 2026

Kemal Albayrak