Real culprits of the Pendik incidents

The problem of people building on state lands or on other people’s land has once again dominated the agenda after what happened in Pendik.

Who should the public blame for what happened?

Should it blame those who built homes on properties they didn’t own or those who allowed construction to go ahead in exchange for votes or financial "assistance" to the municipality?

We need to separate the two issues.

The mafia is responsible for organizing and cheating the poor people who move to large cities and for giving them other people’s property for building homes. Those who know the most about who are responsible are the local security forces and municipality governments.

And there are also those who build multi-storey houses on state lands. Their identities are also well-known.

There is nothing hidden in this process.

The buildings can be seen as soon as the construction starts. The municipality and police become aware of what’s going on, but everybody ignores it. The mafia and contractors silence the municipality and police. They give money to the municipalities under the guise of financial assistance, and the police sit there and do nothing, because no complaint is filed.

Years pass and this time municipalities and the various state institutions link the illegal buildings to the road, water, drainage, phone and electricity networks to get votes. Life evolves and these neighborhoods start to grow.

When the real owners of the property, mostly the state, wake up, the trouble starts. Bloody conflicts ensue between those who come to demolish the homes and the current occupants. Illegal builders point to their neighbors and ask why no one touches their illegally built houses. They do everything to protect their homes.

Who should we hold accountable?

Are the state or other property owners, who failed to protect their lands, to blame?

Are the municipalities and various state institutions that turned a blind eye to the construction and later brought every public service to these people to blame?

We are yet to resolve this problem. The recent laws passed by the government set out fines for those who illegally build houses and those who bring services to them, but still the building continues.

Despite Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling for the demolition of such bildings, the municipalities either can’t or don’t want to interfere. Those who illegally build on properties they don’t own are guilty. Municipalities who take state services to these buildings are guilty of encouraging such behavior.

The only innocent victim here is the police force that have to fight civilians that don’t want to vacate their homes.

Changing laws don’t matter when the attitude is the same
Reports in the newspapers surprised no one. The Supreme Court of Appeals Eighth Criminal Bureau approved the sentences of Yeni Asya commentator Mehmet Kutlular, who compared the Aug. 17 Marmara Earthquake and the Feb. 28 "soft-coup," and Nurettin Sirin, who compared Kemalism and Satanism. The reason behind their decision was "incitement of hate between groups."

The only objection to this decision came from the Chief Judge of the bureau, Zeki Arslan. He argued that these were just opinions and opinions could not be punished.

The law that punished them was passed to prevent the publication of fundamentalist literature, but was later changed to adhere to the European Union Copenhagen Criteria. It appears that attitudes needed to be changed before the law.

We should not be too proud of what we have achieved and claim that we have fulfilled the Copenhagen Criteria. We still have a lot to do.

Happy Republican Day
As years pass, we become more aware how important the republic is for all of us. We see how much a Turkey has improved after being taken out of a medieval slump and pushed towards accepting Western values.

We have become better informed about what the founder of our republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, wanted to achieve. If we are able to talk about EU membership today, we should never forget that it is due to Ataturk’s efforts.

We were sometimes very harsh in implementing the needed reforms, but that is the basic reason why we are so close to Europe now. If it hadn’t been for Ataturk’s reforms and our commitment to protect and preserve the republic, no one would have been talking about Turkey’s EU membership today.