<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udccc The age at which children in Turkey first encounter drugs has fallen to 12.
\n\ud83d\udccc The starting age for betting and gambling has dropped below 15.
\n\ud83d\udccc The age of entry into street gangs is the same as drugs: 12.
\n\ud83d\udccc The number of recorded child abuse cases has reached 63,000 per year.
\n\ud83d\udccc There are 2,076 children currently in prison.
\n\ud83d\udccc Approximately 300 women were murdered in just one year.
\n\ud83d\udccc At least 1,956 workers were murdered in work places this year.
\n\ud83d\udccc At least 85 child workers were killed this year alone.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are only a few days left until the new year, 2026.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As happens every year, so-called \u201cmorality\u201d campaigns will once again dominate the agenda\u2014loud, aggressive, and deeply hypocritical.
\nSome will declare New Year\u2019s celebrations immoral.
\nOthers will attack even the hope and wishes people express for the new year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So what are they really trying to do?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Let us begin with a truth of our own: our country is facing a profound moral crisis.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Even more than that, we are confronting a terrifying level of corruption rooted directly in this moral collapse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Let us examine the reality behind the dark picture we presented at the beginning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
THEY ARE STEALING THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Daltons, Red Kits, and Caspers are no longer cartoon characters.
\nThey are now the names of gangs that divide entire neighborhoods among themselves\u2014armed with guns and drugs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The government and security forces know exactly which district, which neighborhood, which street these gangs control. They know it well. And yet, no one touches them\u2014or cannot touch them. Because these gangs do not draw their power merely from weapons or money, but directly from the system itself.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
While drug dealers spread terror across the country, the police conduct drills on how to suppress striking workers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Children as young as 12\u2014still at an age of play\u2014are ruthlessly exploited. The government, the opposition, the police, and the gendarmerie all watch in silence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Through this deliberate inaction, children are pulled into gangs, turned into addicts, and used as criminals and hired hitmen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to Ministry of Justice data, there are 670 convicted children and 1,406 detained children in Turkish prisons. Is this not enough to tell the story?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In just one year, 612,651 children were involved in recorded criminal cases. Of these, 202,000 were officially described as \u201cpushed into crime.\u201d Among these children, 40.4% were processed for assault, 16.6% for theft, and 8.2% for using, selling, or purchasing drugs or stimulants.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In a single year, 63,306 child abuse case files<\/b> were opened.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If these are not the most concrete and painful indicators of systemic decay, what are?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This system does not only steal children\u2019s New Year hopes through gangs, drugs, and prisons\u2014it kills them. In 2025 alone, at least 85 child workers died<\/b> so that employers could increase their profits.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Child labor has even been legalized under the name of \u201cVocational Education Centers\u201d (MESEM), which in reality provide capitalists with free child labor. Today, hundreds of thousands of children are forced to work under the guise of education and lose their lives in workplace deaths driven by greed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In a country where children are surrounded by such darkness, how can we speak of anything other than the immorality and corruption of this system?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
VIOLENCE IS EVERYWHERE<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So what do workers, women, and society receive from a system that steals children\u2019s futures?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We are all trapped in a spiral of unrestrained violence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Turn on the television. Browse social media. Or, if you can endure it, watch a prime-time news broadcast from beginning to end.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Those who claim to fight violence against women relentlessly broadcast TV series filled with physical and psychological abuse against women\u2014episode after episode. Social media numbs us with endless images of violence in traffic, schools, workplaces, and streets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s murders\u2014violence that amounts to denying women the right to live\u2014deserve special emphasis. Women continue to be killed daily, fueled by a reactionary mindset from the Ministry of Family that effectively tells women to endure their fate, and by the Ministry of Interior\u2019s persistent failure to take preventive measures.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When cases of violence against women, children, and workers finally reach the courts, perpetrators often walk free with shocking speed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is a massive campaign of intimidation, normalization, and decay through violence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
THOSE WHO CORRUPT THROUGH SHORTCUTS<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This siege is so extensive that the system uses every opportunity to further corrupt society.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On one hand, they preach that \u201cgambling is immoral.\u201d On the other, they promote massive gambling platforms under the names of \u201clegal betting\u201d and \u201cnational lottery,\u201d while quietly enabling illegal gambling.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Through both channels, money flows into the pockets of gangs, capitalists, and politicians.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Those who claim they will \u201ccleanse football of betting\u201d appoint betting-site capitalists as federation presidents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is a system that holds sports, public life, and human dignity hostage.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Even the state of the police, tasked with protecting society from betting and gambling\u2026 One of the causes cited for police suicides is debt from cryptocurrency speculation and betting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is not surprising. These are the inevitable consequences of corruption.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
BOURGEOIS POLITICIANS PERFECTLY MATCH THIS SYSTEM<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Where does politics stand in all of this?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We need not look far. Just look at parliament.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After the last election, more than 100 MPs now serve under parties different from those they were elected for. <\/b>Dozens of mayors elected by the people now represent entirely different political parties.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Where are the promises? The principles? Political ethics and morality?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is a system run by those who trade every value for a seat.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Plunder, fraud, theft\u2014everything is permissible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Where morality disappears, corruption thrives\u2014and no one benefits more than they do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
CORRUPTION DRAWS ITS POWER FROM OUR SILENCE<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We are all targets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Even the air we breathe grows heavier by the day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The moral collapse and corruption we face today stem directly from the ruling power and the system of corporations and religious orders it represents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This system places money above all values and drags society into a bottomless swamp.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cMy civil servants know how to get things done.\u201d \u201cThey steal, but they work.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll sell it (the country) like a capitalist.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We know these phrases well.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They have sold everything\u2014including the values they pretend to defend.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
T\u00dcPRA\u015e, Petkim, TEKEL, S\u00fcmerbank, SEKA, SEK\u2014these were once collective assets belonging to the people.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What we are experiencing now is the final stage of an assault that began with \u201cprivatization\u201d and continued with \u201cselling it like a capitalist.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So what keeps this corruption growing?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The answer is clear:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The silence and disorganization of the people.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As children are killed, and society is dragged deeper into drugs, gambling, and gangs, this darkness feeds on silence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We must end this silence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ANOTHER WAY OUT, ANOTHER COUNTRY IS POSSIBLE<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We are entering 2026.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
To welcome the new year with hope, we must confront corruption and immorality head-on.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We will oppose the immorality of this system with our own values\u2014solidarity, mutual aid, dignity, and hope.<\/p>\n
For everything that is good and just, we will stand against decay.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We will organize. We will stand shoulder to shoulder.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Another path, another country, and hopeful tomorrows are possible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If we do not act\u2014if we do not resist\u2014what remains but surrender?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But we know our history. Our people does not bow to darkness or corruption\u2014and never will.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our call is to those who refuse to surrender. To those who rebel.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Let us struggle together\u2014
\nand enter the new year with hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\ud83d\udccc The age at which children in Turkey first encounter drugs has fallen to 12. \ud83d\udccc The starting age for betting and gambling has dropped below 15. \ud83d\udccc The age of entry into street gangs is the same as drugs: 12. \ud83d\udccc The number of recorded child abuse cases has reached 63,000 per year. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":27013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[255,257],"tags":[1720],"yoast_head":"\n