Kemal Albayrak, a former Kırıkkale MP from the 20th–21st parliamentary terms: HOW DID THE JOURNEY TO A QUARTER CENTURY UNFOLD?

HOW DID THE JOURNEY TO A QUARTER CENTURY UNFOLD?

Seeing the AK Party’s “quarter-century” campaign brought a particular story from mythology to mind.

A dervish breaks a bird’s wing. When the bird is asked, “Why didn’t you fly? Why did they break your wing?”, the bird gives a striking answer:

“What did I know? He was wearing a dervish’s robe. I assumed he was moral, just, humane, and incapable of causing harm.”

There is also an old saying in folk culture:

“Speak your words to those who are worthy; they will hear them and feel no shame.
Explain all four holy books to the ignorant, and your words will bear no fruit.”

The damage inflicted over a quarter of a century upon the country, humanity, justice, the economy and virtually every sphere of life lies beneath a system of governance built on consent, using every value at its disposal and wrapping itself in the rhetoric of being “national and indigenous.”

It transformed knowledge into preaching, deliberation into unquestioning obedience, the media, universities, the arts and the law into instruments of loyalty, and capital into something directed toward itself and its associates. It turned governance into limitless authority and arbitrariness.

It promised to end leader-centered oligarchy, establish collective wisdom, make democracy sovereign, create a questioning electorate, limit political power and introduce transparency. Yet the very things it criticized while in opposition became the very practices it normalized once in power.

It became afraid of those who thought independently, departed from justice, turned what was forbidden into an acceptable domain, and moved beyond legality.

Exploitative states exploited them, and they in turn exploited the country, our people, retirees, social classes, young people and every segment of society. Yet they were never satisfied.

They embraced a culture of spoils.

Religious oligarchs, mafias, trolls—and many other forces—came up with one invention after another.

Their words and their hearts became filled with contradictions.

Those they once regarded as enemies became friends when interests converged. Those they once considered friends became enemies when they stood against them.

They took legitimacy from the people and handed it over to exploitation. They concealed the secrets.

Their failures in the economy destroyed their political independence.

They turned traps of defeat into stories of heroism. By introducing a disease of institutional and governmental “axis shift,” they abandoned a culture of rules and chose instead a culture of lawlessness.

Those occupying the highest levels of the hierarchy became owners of unchecked wealth.

We need to look at how this will end.

Revenge is never good. Yet the injustices they have committed are creating a society driven by the desire for retribution.

The culture and civilization of living together have been destroyed.

Division, hatred and a culture of hostility have been cultivated.

Cemil Meriç might have asked:

“Is it possible to develop with this mutilated understanding and this permitted freedom?”

They created an artificial official ideology.

Anyone who criticized wrongdoing, regardless of who they were, was branded a traitor, terrorist or agent, while those who stood with them were hailed as heroes.

A modern state does not deal with people; it deals with rules.

It is easy to take pride in the past. Building the future is much harder.

What a waste of a quarter century.

August 14, 2026
Kemal Albayrak 🇹🇷