Bülent Mumay’s letter from Istanbul: YouTube assault on Erdogan? | EUROtoday

One-year-old building employee died after falling from the sixth flooring of the development website.” Unfortunately they have not read out. The pensioner Selami Şimşek was forced to work out of poverty, but nowhere else could he find work except on a construction site. Because, like over 70 percent of pensioners in this country, Şimşek had to make a pension of the equivalent of 320 euros. In order not to die of hunger, he started on the construction site, but already fell into his death on the first day of work. Hardly anyone learned about it in Turkey. Because when Şimşek died, Israel and Iran shot at each other with rockets, and Erdoğan described live in all television channels what big jumps had made the Turkish economy.

In view of the abundance of current events, another message went under. The State Statistics Office published the establishment of annual deaths in Turkey. The seriousness of the situation is evident in the suicides. The suicide rate has reached the highest level of the history of the Republic in the 102 years. In 2024, 5.22 out of 100,000 people put an end to their lives. At Erdoğan’s government, this number was 3.49 to 100,000 people. The suicide council rose by 54 percent under Erdoğan’s government. The statistics have another remarkable detail: 72 percent of people who put hand themselves are either between 15 and 34 years old or over 55 years. You know the concerns of Selami Şimşek and his peers. But why do suicides rise among young people?

Because the young generation finds worse conditions for the first time in Turkish history than the previous and unfortunate and desperate. She has no hope for the future. Six out of ten young people are not in employment. One of four university graduates is unemployed. In the meantime, Turkey is at the top of the OECD statistics of the “NEETS”, that is, the young people who are neither in employment nor in training. And the young people, who are already very highly qualified, are looking for a future abroad. Can it be a coincidence that the age group of 25- to 29-year-olds in particular emigrate from Turkey?

There is a parallel between the suicide statistics and the voters in Turkey. According to the recent survey by the opinion research company Ank-AR, the imprisoned presidential candidate of the opposition, Ekrem Imamoğlu, especially young voters and those of the 55 plus age group, is supported. Imamoğlu would vote for 62.5 percent of 18 to 34 year olds and 54.3 percent of over 55-year-olds. Erdoğan is only 3.7 points ahead in the electoral group of 34- to 55-year-olds. If I also tell you that the age groups that prefer Imamoğlu make up 70 percent of the electorate in Turkey, you probably understand why the palace regime tries to suppress the opposition by the politicized judiciary.

As you know, Erdoğan had the Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoğlu arrested due to allegations of corruption, as soon as he had officially announced his candidacy for the presidency. And on the day after Erdoğan Imamoğlus University Diploma, which is a prerequisite for the candidacy. It has been more than 100 days ago that a large contingent of the Imamoğlus police stormed residence. Since then, no proof of corruption has been presented. The operation backfired. In contrast to what Erdoğan had intended, more and more citizens believe that the arrest warrant was politically motivated, as well as the number of those who support Imamoğlu.

In the absence of proof of corruption, the palace justice took plenty of strange measures. Since my last letter to them, there have been the following developments: Imamoğlus lawyer was arrested, the accusation is that he had organized the other lawyers of the trial. There are now more than ten procedures against Imamoğlu. In search of supposedly hidden funds, the public prosecutor had the property of Imamoğlu’s father searched with a heavy device, but of course found nothing. The judge committee, which the university asked for the reasons for the cancellation of Imamoğlus diploma, was suspended from the service. A judge was transferred to a city 1400 km away from Istanbul after reminding the prosecutor of the presumption of innocence in a further trial against Imamoğlu.

Erdoğan is aware of that he can’t win honest elections, but in addition his technique – “if I can not win, then I’ll lose my adversary” – did not. On the contrary. Every operation directed against Imamoğlu and its CHP only further reduces the votes for the government camp. While the government -loyal media make propaganda against the opposition around the clock, a handful of independent journalists undermine the accusation of corruption against Imamoğlu. Which of course does not take the palace with impunity.

Some journalists had been arrested, their residences had been searched, in others the entry to their appearances on social media was blocked “for reasons of national security”. And towards the few opposition tv channels, which report on the upheavals within the operation towards Imamoğlu, there’s a hail. Sözcü TV and HALK TV, the 2 most frequented opposition tv channels, had been banned with ten days every. In the occasion of just one additional punishment, they threaten to withdraw from the transmission of the transmission. It is after all no coincidence that the homeowners of each channels dwell overseas as a result of they face jail phrases in Turkey as a result of ongoing proceedings.

At the top of my final letter I wrote that 70 % now suppose that Erdoğan’s re -election is unfavorable for Turkey. My colleague Fatih Altayyl was arrested after making this data public and giving historic examples. After an uncovered place in giant media, Altaylı based a YouTube channel for political analyzes. There he identified the illegality within the operations towards Imamoğlu particularly. In the final video on his channel, he talked about the share I additionally talked about and defined how essential the voters are their will: “The Turkish people loves elections and wants to determine the power themselves. If, for example, he also chooses his father to the power, he also likes to have the option to choose the father again. This is of course nothing new. has strangled.

These sentences brought Altaylı behind grids. Not because he would have threatened Erdoğan with these words, but because of the paragraph that punishes an attack on the President. According to our judiciary, Altaylı had committed an attack on the President with his words on YouTube.

Just like the operation against Imamoğlu, Altaylı’s arrest was an own goal. Altaylı’s daily videos used to reach a maximum of 500,000 spectators. The letters that he has written from prison since his arrest and which are read on his YouTube channel with the empty armchair in the background reach an audience of 1.5 million every day. The irony is not limited to YouTube. The Turkish Minister of Justice defended Altaylı’s arrest with the words: “Our President was revealed as a dictator.” Of course, Erdoğan just isn’t a dictator who is aware of what would have occurred to our colleague if he had been one.

From the Turkish of Sabine Adatepe.