We internalize the lack of justice

It was a bitter Eid el-Fitr. We had mixed emotions. But I was also happy on the one hand because my beautiful mother celebrated her 75th birthday with her grandchildren and sister, who, according to doctors, had six months of life left, yet has been alive for the past six years. We were all together.

We went to the Aegean resort of Çeşme, stayed in a hotel that felt like home, and then traveled back to Bodrum, another Aegean resort. The routine was repeated; we had family members and friends visiting and sat at long breakfast tables. 

Yet, while all of this was happening, while we were living our share of small happiness, horrible things have been and are continuing to happen in our country. There is a big pain within us. Two young people, Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, are dying before our eyes.

They are two bright people on a hunger strike, demanding to be reinstated to their jobs. They have been jailed so that they do not die in public before our eyes. They are now suffering heart problems and are at risk of heart failure. Yet no one is doing anything. 

How can this happen? This is a shame, this is a sin.

These two young people are melting to their bones. They are dying and are being watched in silence.

A lot of people are being put behind bars with state of emergency decrees in the absence of the rule of law, without being investigated whether they are guilty or not. 

This is how Eid was; at least 150 journalists spending it in jails. No one knows what will happen to them. This country has now become unpredictable and a place where it has become impossible to look forward to anything. We live in anxiety and we are hiding our heads in the sand because there is no justice in this country. We all know that. But the bizarre part is that we seem to have normalized it. We say “there is nothing we can do about it,” and we become desensitized to it. 

Some are incarcerated, without any indictments against them, which means they have not committed any crimes. Had there been a crime, then there would be an indictment. People have been kept in jails for months, just so they could suffer. And the indictment comes a year later. Is this justice? The country is living amid peak polarization. We all know the injustices happening, and we accept it. And we continue to live like that in a schizoid way.

And with that came Eid. On the one hand, we fulfilled the requirements of Eid, while on the other, we spent quality time with family and friends. We expressed our best wishes to each other, but at the same time we felt the injustice, from the bottom of our hearts. We lived a bitter happiness.

People are marching for justice in this country. They are doing something great. They have only one demand - without being involved in any politics - they want justice. But during this Eid, the overwhelming feeling that is marking this summer is desperation. I become unhappy when I think about all of this. But life continues despite everything, in a bitter way.