Unemployment insurance fund – indispensable for social states. Turkey’s blue collar and white collar workers struggling with unemployment and precarious conditions for years have gladly welcomed this fund (which actually was already established by mid-2000) that was successfully promoted by AKP government. Through the fund around 50 billion Euros were raised, which is enough for marketing purposes to increase credibility of the party in power. It worked out quite well in this regard.  While on the other hand, questions about how the funds have been managed were never allowed. The reality was, among 2.5 million unemployed only 271 thousand were able to use the fund. The punch line of this story is that the remaining amount, through different tools of the state apparatus, were transferred to the construction sector on whose shoulder AKP was raised. I will detail the role of the construction sector later. To sum up the management of unemployment insurance fund successfully polished the image of AKP government and raised great funding opportunities.

The idea of such a fund whether one has the chance to benefit or not creates the (illusory) feeling of security, which is the second indispensable need in the hierarchy of needs. It would be unfair to expect an average citizen, who tries to survive with a minimum wage – lower than the hunger limit – to question how the fund is managed by the government. Somebody, in this case the opposition, has had to deal with the allegations and reveal misuse if there is any.  And apparently they failed to raise enough awareness and discussions on the issue.

The second story: urban transformation policies as the second most visible public policy. Especially after the devastating effect of 1999 Marmara earthquake, the urban transformation policy entered Turkey’s literature. The idea of urban transformation is commercialized as an inevitable necessity by the government, and the urban space became wide open for immense modification. Reproduction of the urban space as a way out from the crisis of the financial sector has been justified with discourses of decriminalization of the cities, ensuring security and recreation of deformed centers, used by the statesmen and promoted through the hand of the media. The economic policy of 2000s has been managed not through planning in accordance with supply and demand, but through urban projects developed for increasing the unearned income of a certain class. In this regard, TOKI – Mass Housing Administration – has become the most prominent administrative body. The urban transformation policies promoted as ‘getting rid of the old for building new’ were of course applauded by the consumption society. The interesting point here is that, when cheering up, they were completely unaware of the fact that soon they would be exiled from their neighborhoods and forced to move to the ‘new’ city consciously disconnected from the social life. When what was going on was realized, and the victims (unfortunately only a small group) got organized against urban transformation, they were either threaten by government officials or too afraid to raise up. In the end, the majority agreed to move out and by paying some ‘extra’, they managed to buy new houses from TOKI. The houses built by TOKI were too costly which resulted in millions of citizens incurring costly debts that last from 10 to 40 years to pay together with the debit interests. It wouldn’t be wrong to sum this policy up as financial slavery.  In short, as we see in the management of the unemployment fund, another basic need, shelter, was successfully abused for the sake of the political agenda.

Consequently, the more poverty and unemployment increases, the more citizens get addicted to social aids and illusory policies. And the more the citizens get addicted, the more grow the chances of the party in power for winning the elections through illusory policies. With this in mind, my intention with a policy oriented evaluation is to provide you with some insight that enable us to find out  the underlying reasons why there are over 20 million people that voted for Erdoğan.

In addition to illusory policies, the reason why 20 million have voted for Erdoğan is the lack of a promising alternative in the political arena. Although the marginalised groups: LGBTI community, Alevis, Armenians, Kurdish, young people (the protagonists of the Gezi Protests), single women and other minorities, (at this point I define a group as minority not numerically but in accordance with the power they hold), the local victims (who were not politicized beforehand) of ecocide through hydroelectric power plants (HES), all have once more indicated the need for a fair alternative is rapidly growing. The fact that the parties that position themselves as left orientated have rough edges and they failed to convince around 15 million people to vote, played an important role in the victory of AKP. At this point, taking the increase of votes of HDP, Peoples’ Democratic Party, and the coalition led by CHP, the rights and wrongs of the political parties should be evaluated independently from each other.

Discussing the voters’ incentives is of high value for reaching a verdict about any elections. This is why I try to present you an alternative perspective through illusory public polices and lack of promising alternatives to help you with your verdict.  According to the hierarchy of needs, one has to cover its survival needs such as security and shelter to be able to question politics.

Nevertheless, whichever perspective we choose, it requires high intelligence to refuse that Turkey is turning into a hegemonic despotic regime.  If we insist on in this route, to expect a similar scenario we have seen in Egypt would be a fair guess.

Let’s hope Turkey will have a different ending, which will give birth to systematic, social and progressive thinking.

Written by Gizem Karsli, AEGEE-Ankara

A tragedy invested the city of Soma, in Turkey, where, on the 13th of May, the local coal mine suffered by an explosion, and a consequent fire, during a shift change in the afternoon. At the moment of the explosion, two kilometers underground, more than 700 miners where at work. The blast and the fire, that lasted for at least two days, killed 301 miners.

Safety in mines in Turkey raised a lot of controversies lately. Already in 2013 miners protested against the dangerous conditions they were forced to work in, but the allegations were always dismissed. The Soma disaster is the deadliest incident in a mine in Turkey, but already in 1992 an explosion in a mine claimed more than 200 lives. The tragedy came along with a lot of revendications and criticism towards the government and their way to deal with the situation. Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was heavily criticised during his visit in Soma when he stated that “such incidents can happen”. The discontent grew further after the premier made some antisemitic jokes and, exacerbating his position, a picture of one of his personal advisers, Yusuf Yerkel, who kicked a protester started circulating on the social networks. The protester was already surrounded by two soldiers who immobilized him on the ground, but Yerkel still kicked him. The government defended his actions, citing self defence as the reason.

Turkish government proclaimed three days of national mourning, but protests for the tragedy have crossed the country, where mining disasters are very frequent.

According to statistics, more than 3.000 mine workers lost their lives since 1941. Thousands of people took to the streets in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, but also in Soma, to denounce the government’s responsibility. But Erdogan responded with an iron hand and the police intervened with brutality against demonstrators, even against lawyers who came to Soma to assist families who lost someone, using tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets. Right after the incident, the investigation started even if the company who owns the mine denied any “negligence”. 25 people were arrested, with several allegations, including involuntary slaughter. Among those arrested on Sunday, there were several high profile managers of the private company, the Soma Komur, including the general manager Dogru Ramazan, the finance director Ulu Ali and the operations manager Akin Celik.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia