Muhammed Aybars Akdoğan
Lawyer-Türkiye
A FIRM DEMAND IN THE FACE OF AN UNSEALED ORDER AND ITS
GUARDIANS IN DISGUISE OF OPPOSITION: RETURNING TO THE PEOPLE
We are experiencing years in which politics in Türkiye has lost credibility and the ‘lack of alternatives’ is being presented as if it were an alternative.
The March 2026 statistics present this reality in all its clarity: When asked, „hich party can solve Türkiye’s problems?“ 38% of the public answers “NONE.” This percentage is exactly 15 points ahead of the nearest political party. [1]
This remarkable fact is also supported by the results of a sur“ey published in December: 76.5% of the public has no confidence in politicians. [2] It is clear that this mistrust is directed not only at the ruling party but also at the current block of opposition parties.
Based on data from February, the percentage of undecided voters and those who say they will not vote stands at 29.6%, which is 6 percentage points ahead of the leading political party. [3] This massive group is facing systematic psychological oppression in the present day to keep them down. Accusing and denigrating undecided citizens of ‚callousness‘ or ‚ignorance‘, which is typical of the opposition’s tone, is the most obvious tool of this pressure.
The arrogance hidden in the question „Are you still undecided?“: The Finger Wagging Politics of the Opposition
The question, „How can you still be undecided when the country has reached this situation?” is actually a judgmental statement rather than a question. This arrogant approach makes citizens feel guilty in an attempt to force them to accept a politics without principles. These people might be ‘undecided’ not because they are unaware of the country’s situation, but quite the opposite: because they see that both sides are responsible for this destruction.
This mentality, accusing the undecided of ‘unwittingly’ serving the ruling party, conceals the fact that it is actually rendering the greatest service to the ruling party by playing a supporting role in an unstructured system.
Polling companies are responsible for the statistical aspect of this cover-up operation. If the undecided were to form a political party in Türkiye today, they would have the power to take power in the first election. Nevertheless, polling companies obscure this reality with the phrase ‘After the undecided are distributed’. In fact, this mass is not an unconscious pile of statistics to be ‘distributed’ through a mathematical operation, but rather a conscious will that rejects this illegitimate system, its actors, and this power struggle.
In order to understand this, one must remember the reasons why the foundation upon which current politics is built is illegitimate.
The Breaking Point of Legitimacy: 2017 and Unsealed Politics
Although there were earlier events, the roots of this insecurity and the collapse of the system can be traced back to the unsealed constitutional amendment referendum of 2017. Ever since that day, when unsealed ballots were accepted and the constitutional order was abolished through a coup, Türkiye has been forced to play the ‘election game’ within an illegitimate system.
This illegitimate game has been sustained not only by the ruling party’s pressure but also by the opposition’s efforts to ‘normalize’ this lawlessness, which it had itself declared illegitimate. The opposition party, which ‘tamed’ the masses by saying, “Let’s not fall into provocation; we’ll resolve this at the ballot box” instead of transforming the people’s justified anger of that day into resistance, has taken on the role of the most loyal guardian of the unsealed system.
The End of the ‘Obediently’
Trip to the Polls
In fact, that great silence of 2017 had already been rehearsed. In previous years, the words used by former CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu when addressing voters „You will go to the polls like obedient sheep” were the first major declaration of an arrogant mindset that disregarded the will of the voters and viewed them as will-less “voting machines.” This mindset, which disregards the will of the citizen, was the very same mindset that extinguished the justified reactions against the violation of the law during the unsealed referendum by saying, “Let’s not take to the streets; let’s not fall for provocation”. The imposition of a figure like Sadullah Ergin as a parliamentary candidate on CHP voters in Ankara marked another peak of this humiliation. Despite this, the fact that voter participation exceeded 85% shows that the psychological pressure of the notion that “it benefits the ruling party” has borne fruit.
However, it must be understood that going to the polls under any circumstances is not a sign of democratic consciousness; on the contrary, it serves to revitalize illegitimate political actors and a system that has lost its legitimacy. In such a situation, the primary role of the main opposition which consistently urges people to vote under any circumstances is to defuse the public’s anger through election rallies, herding the masses ‘meekly’ to the polls, and thereby conferring ‘legitimacy’ on an illegitimate system built on a foundation of unsealed ballots. It should also be noted that in Türkiye, where there are nearly 200 political parties, there is not a single political party that advocates for an election boycott. This political approach, which not only fails to question the ruling party’s legitimacy but actually provides it with legitimacy, is the ruling party’s biggest guarantee.
Boycott and Returning to the People: A Call for Democratic Liquidation
Nowadays, whenever there are calls for an election boycott or for returning to the people, it is not the ruling party but the main opposition party that stands in the way. Although the main opposition party tries to silence all criticism, calls for an election boycott, and demands for a returning to the people by wielding the threat that *“It benefits the ruling party”* the truth is clear: The main factor contributing to the ruling party’s success is the CHP, which has been the main opposition party for 23 years.
Those who act as guardians of the current system are trying to discourage citizens‘ legitimate demands through legal procedures, scare tactics, and defamation. The following statement by Özgür Özel serves as a confession of this understanding, which views politics as merely a game played within the boundaries set by those in power: „Returning to the people does not mean ‚early elections‘. It’s a midterm election in 90 days. It is a trap set by the AK Party and the MHP. No one should fall for this trap…“
This rhetoric reflects a sense of helplessness that reduces politics to nothing more than the election calendar, the number of parliamentary seats, the technical workings of the existing system, and the passivity of ‘waiting for the next election’, as well as a malicious intent that accuses those who oppose it of serving the AKP-MHP. While the constitutional order was abolished by the referendum without unsealed ballots held on April 16, 2017, talking about ‘early elections’ is a joke on the people. Returning to the people is not a technical procedure or a mathematical calculation, it is a struggle for sovereignty!
Returning to the people is not, as those deceiving the public claim, a ‘trap’, ‘leaving the stage empty’ or ‘escaping politics’. On the contrary, it is a complete rejection of the ruling power, which has lost its legitimacy through unlawful attitudes and behaviors, and a return to the people’s bosom, to the streets. And returning to the streets does not mean traveling from province to province organizing rallies to prepare the people for elections! [4] Returning to the people is the strongest, boldest political uprising, which requires giving up comfortable parliamentary seats to lead a historic popular movement that will sweep the ruling power that has usurped the sovereignty of the people into the dustbin of history.
The people’s demand must be loud and clear against those who work to earn salaries, protect their status, generate empty polemics, and grant ‘legitimacy’ to an illegitimate regime: Abandon the parliament! Returning to the people.
Abandoning the parliament, in combination with an election boycott, acts of civil disobedience, and a popular movement is not, contrary to what is believed, handing the seat of power to the government, but rather removing the very ground beneath that seat. An election boycott, resulting in a significant drop in voter turnout, would allow the legitimacy of the ruling regime to be loudly questioned both by the international community and the people.
Returning to the people and boycotting the election is not passivity; it is an honorable and conscious political stance that declares, „I will not grant legitimacy to an illegitimate regime. I refuse to be a part of your unsealed and illegitimate game‘ and it is an active act of defiance that will choke the lifeblood of the regime.
Fake Challenges
The ‘Lion’ on the Stand,
the Walker-on at the Polls Scene
The stance adopted by the main opposition, the high-pitched speeches delivered by Özgür Özel and his team on screens and stands, serve to cool the people’s accumulated anger in sterile environments rather than channeling it into genuine resistance.
These false victories, which the opposition media is hyping with headlines like “Özgür Özel’s historic challenge to Erdoğan!” and “A historic defeat in parliament!”, are in fact nothing more than a sedative prolonging the life of an illegitimate regime. These ‘tough’ speeches delivered from the stage do not translate into a call for a general strike, an excise tax boycott, or a resolve to return to the people.
These ‘challenges’ are nothing more than a diversionary tactic, never crossing the boundaries set by the ruling power, and aimed solely at garnering attention and applause. It is the ‘skillful’ art of postponing the people’s usurped will until the next unsealed ballot box, rather than defending it.
The Exploitation of
Historical Heritage
The “We Are Atatürk’s
Party” Shield
The biggest shield behind which the main opposition hides at every opportunity is the slogan: “We are Atatürk’s party”. This slogan is no longer a badge of honor, it is a cover for exploitation that masks consent given to an unsealed system.
Using the legacy of the founding will that carried out the national independence struggle to legitimize going to the polls ‘docilely’ in an unaccountable system; the greatest betrayal of that legacy. While Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, defying the surrenderist orders of the Istanbul Government, took off his uniform and declared, „From now on, I will work as a warrior within the heart of the nation“ thereby launching a genuine resistance rooted in the people’s legitimacy; his heirs today are abandoning the nation’s bosom by claiming, “Taking to the streets benefits the AKP” and are seeking refuge in the rally grounds designated by the palace regime.
This mindset, which holds voters hostage to an emotional grip through „Atatürkism“condemns citizens to its own lack of principle by instilling the fear that „If we are not here, the state will completely collapse, darkness will engulf the country, and the nation will be dragged into chaos“. This discourse, which makes people settle for the lesser of two evils, is actually the reflection of the ruling party’s ‘survival’ rhetoric. However, true Atatürkism is not about sitting comfortably in parliamentary seats and terrifying the people with chaos scenarios, but rather demonstrating a practical and honorable rejection of every illegitimate power center until sovereignty belongs to the people, without any conditions.
What Is the True Challenge?
The real challenge is not making empty statements in studios, throwing around false promises from campaign buses, or debating election polls in an unaccountable system; it is cutting off the funding (Special Consumption Tax/Value Added Tax) of a system you have declared illegitimate, vacating the parliamentary seats of that system, and organizing civil disobedience alongside the people. Any ‚bold move‘ that fails to do these things is merely the greatest mask of legitimacy, used to dress up the system as democracy.
Economic Cancellation:
Shutting Off the Money Flow
Civil disobedience is not merely about crowds chanting slogans; it is about cutting off the lifeblood of a system that has lost its legitimacy, i.e., cutting off the flow of money. When millions of people who say, „I will not accept this unjust system“ turn off their engines, they pull the rug out from under the economic system on which the ruling regime rests. It is the most fundamental right to refuse to ‘prop up’ a system that disregards the will of the people with taxes taken from the people’s pockets.
Shutting down the engine means halting the massive flow of special consumption and value added taxes on fuel, which is the government’s easiest and largest source of revenue. Millions of vehicles being immobilized means cutting off like a knife the unjust profits transferred to the state with every liter. This is the most concrete way of saying, „You cannot oppress me with my own money“: In accordance with the principle „No representation, no taxation“ consciously avoiding consumption items subject to indirect taxes slows down the system’s wheels of financial exploitation.
The System’s Invisible Guardians: The So-Called ‘Opposition’, Mass Organizations, the Media, Intellectuals, and Legal Submission
While the people possess such a concrete and powerful potential for resistance, the greatest barrier facing the ruling regime is not the regime itself, but the so-called ‘opposition’, the media, mass organizations, and the ‘sterile’ intellectual class.
Guardianship of the current regime is not carried out solely by ‘opposition’ parties. Associations, foundations, unions, and bar associations that present themselves as ‘opposition’ but serve to channel the public’s anger; nightly news broadcasts, ‘opposition’ talk shows with boundaries drawn by the ruling power, and ‘opposition’ newspaper columns that peddle the idea of early elections every day also serve to prop up this illegitimate regime.
In a country where the constitutional order has been suspended by an unsealed coup, these institutions, which should serve as bastions of resistance, are still blocking mass protests with the mantra of ‚early elections‘.
- The Fraud of Law and the Bar Associations’ Complicity: The bar associations, rather than launching a comprehensive legal boycott in a system where the most fundamental principles of law are being violated, engage in procedural debates over unsealed rulings in unsealed courts; by treating this illegitimate mechanism as ‘judiciary’, they are giving it a chance to survive. In a place where the funeral prayer for the rule of law has long since been performed, to still call for “compliance with court rulings!” is to expect justice from the executioner and to keep the people occupied with this futile expectation.
- The Inertia of Unions: Unions that cannot even bring the power derived from production (the general strike) to the table as a threat have taken on the role of venting the people’s anger through nothing more than hall meetings, rallies, and press statements.
The fact that so-called ‘opposition’ commentators in the media provide emotional relief to the public by making the harshest criticisms, yet always point to the same passive waiting as a solution, is also part of this web of siege. Promoting empty, fake victories on screens and front pages, with headlines such as “Defied Erdoğan”, “Historic Victory”, “Destroyed Them” amounts to turning the public’s justified anger into mere material for views and engagement, severing it from the reality on the streets. The media and the so-called ‚intellectual‘ circles that define themselves as ‚opposition‘ have taken on the task of taming the people’s justified anger rather than organizing it. This group, which imposes the logic of ‘the lesser of two evils’ on society as the sole path to salvation, has actually transformed into a structure that feeds off the continuation of the existing order and refuses to lose the comfort zones offered by the system. The ‚opposition‘ media and ‚intellectuals‘ have taken on the role of officials tasked with legitimizing the illegitimate by debating elections in an unsealed system.
They do not directly say, ‘Obey the system’; on the contrary, while venting the public’s frustration with the harshest criticism, they always refer to the same solution, that is, the unsealed ballot box that lacks legitimacy.
By declaring, “This is not the time to oppose the opposition!” they label and suppress any legitimate criticism as ‘serving the ruling party’.
By saying, “The people want early elections” they conceal the fact that waiting for elections under an unregulated and unjust system amounts to perpetuating lawlessness day after day.
They describe the people’s severing of ties with the economic and political system as an ‚adventure‘ thereby condemning society to a state of waiting. They forget that history has always been written by adventurers.
The moment the possibility of a general strike, election boycott, economic boycott, civil disobedience, or a popular movement is discussed, they attempt to stifle resistance before it even begins with slogans like: “It’s a provocation”, “Don’t fall into the government’s trap”, “Taking to the streets benefits the AKP,” and “It gives the government a pretext to declare a State of Emergency”. This is because they have already carved out a niche for themselves within the gears of this system under the ‚opposition‘ mask Because a fundamental transformation of the system would spell the end of the comfortable and secure kingdoms they have built under the guise of ‚opposition’‚. For them, political action is nothing more than an intellectual exercise confined to sterile TV studios, rally buses, stages, and posts on X and YouTube.
And what truly serves the ruling power is not pointing out the wrongs, but extending the lifespan of this unchecked system by endorsing those very wrongs. This group is actually the invisible safeguard of a system without rules.
Not a Thornless Rose Garden, but a Struggle for Honor
There is no doubt that raising the flag of civil disobedience against an illegitimate regime will not be a walk in a thornless rose garden. A government that has lost its legitimacy will use every tool of repression at its disposal, such as bans on demonstrations, declarations of a state of emergency, the judicial stick, police barricades, and tear gas, as means to silence dissent in order to protect its shaky position. However, in a determined struggle against oppression, none of these measures will have any effect, because no measure adopted by a tyrannical regime to silence those who oppose oppression is lawful.
It must be understood that every ban imposed by the government is, in fact, a testament to its own impotence and the loss of public consent. Every attempt to silence through law and force only further validates the legitimacy of civil disobedience.
Throughout history, no right has ever been won by ‘obediently’ going to the ballot box or by remaining within the sterile boundaries drawn by a sanctioned opposition. True democracy rises on the shoulders of those who do not step back when faced with oppression, and who demonstrate a conscientious refusal against unjust bans classified as ‚crimes‘. A state of emergency or bans on protests are only effective as long as society complies with them. When millions of people simultaneously, with determination and a willingness at all costs, declare, „I do not comply“ neither the baton, nor the barricade, nor the handcuffs hold any power.
Our struggle is not for some distant and uncertain ‘future’ illusion. Our struggle is for the truth being violated before our very eyes today. Saying “No!” to this unjust system that tramples on human dignity is not an investment in the future, but a moral imperative of the present. This struggle is not merely a strategy to win an election; it is the will to stand with dignity in the face of every hardship and to refuse to be a part of this illegitimate system. No matter how much the oppression of the ruling power intensifies, the determination of the undecided and the awareness of the determined are the only forces that will overcome the bans and render the barricades meaningless.
Facing the challenges brought by an honorable resistance rather than the false security of inaction is the only way to prevent today and the truth from being surrendered to an unjust darkness. Rather than the false sense of security that comes from inaction, facing the hardships that honorable resistance brings is the only way to prevent the present and the truth from being surrendered to an unjust darkness.
When the undecided become decided, and the decided become conscious, an era will begin not for those who are dragged to the polls ‚obediently‘, but for those who stand up for their will and dignity.
[1] https://x.com/asalarastirma/status/2029663181292155376?s=46&t=m-_aqXoDbO_gwAVeCSZJYQ (Date of access: March 29, 2026)
[2] https://x.com/asalarastirma/status/1996302855548928079?s=46&t=m-_aqXoDbO_gwAVeCSZJYQ (Date of access: March 29, 2026)
[3] https://x.com/asalarastirma/status/2026897383015985501?s=46&t=m-_aqXoDbO_gwAVeCSZJYQ (Date of access: March 29, 2026)
[4] The following statement, delivered on March 2, 2026, was made by Özgür Özel, who suppressed the March 19 Popular Movement and turned it into his party’s election rallies: “(…) We are running the longest election campaign ever.” https://www.dha.com.tr/amp/politika/ozgur-ozel-milletin-onune-sandik-gelecek-2828975 (Date of access: March 29, 2026)
* This article is written with the collaboration of natural intelligence and artificial intelligence.
Bu Metin Nasıl Yazıldı?
Bu metin; yazarın (doğal zeka) mühürsüz düzene dair siyasi itirazlarını, yapay zekanın (Gemini) rasyonel analiz kapasitesiyle birleştirdiği etkileşimli bir diyalog sürecinde şekillenmiştir. Metin, yazarın şu spesifik müdahaleleri ve stratejik yönlendirmeleriyle katman katman inşa edilmiştir:
* Eksen Belirleme ve Sorgulama: Yazar; 2017 mühürsüz referandumundan Özgür Özel’in „sine-i millet“ çıkışına, anket verilerindeki kararsızlık gerçeğinden sahte muhalefet eleştirisine ve Atatürk mirasının istismarına kadar tüm ana ekseni belirlemiş ve yapay zekayı bu eksen üzerinden sorgulamıştır. Sine-i millet, seçim boykotu ve sivil itaatsizlik çağrısının tüm fikri temelleri ve etik duruşu bizzat yazarın (doğal zekanın) eseridir.
* Doğrudan Müdahale ve Keskinleştirme: Yazarın; „’Erdoğan’a meydan okudu.’ gibi sahte zaferlerden bahsedelim.“, „Atatürk’ün ’sine-i millette bir ferd-i mücahit‘ alıntısını ekleyelim.“ ve „’Muhalefete muhalefet etmenin zamanı değil.’ kalkanını deşifre edelim.“ gibi somut komutları, metnin siyasi sertliğini ve doğrultusunu tayin etmiştir.
* Analitik İşleme: Yapay zeka bu süreçte; yazarın sunduğu bu ham siyasi iradeyi ve etik duruşu, tutarlı bir metin yapısına, analitik bir derinliğe ve retorik bir güce kavuşturmak için bir „mantık laboratuvarı“ işlevi görmüştür.
