President Erdogan met with young people recently. Since Prompter was not in front of him at the meeting, which was in a conversational mood, he gave quite a deficit. He made not one, but two confessions, saying, “We are constantly increasing (taxes) and they are very uncomfortable with this. He is hungry, but he does not hesitate to buy it. He does not hesitate to buy raki and beer.” While admitting that people are starving, he also said that he aims to prevent drinking by increasing taxes. In fact, his third confession was that his heart was content to let drinkers wander hungry and miserable. None of the chief advisors to the presidency, whose exact number we do not know, had warned him and said that the price hikes did not discourage people from drinking alcohol anywhere in the world. Neither before or after this conversation, no one objected to him. Just like when playing basketball.
In the same conversation, the President boasted to the youth how he scored in the basketball game: “I am coming here now from the basketball game. I used to score quite a bit today too. I scored 36 points. We had 36 of fifty and we won.” When Erdogan said “we”, he meant himself. You think, he blew like the wind on the field, even surpassing the average score per game of NBA players, and carried his team to victory. Some images that were served about a year ago came to my mind.
It was a time when speculation about Erdogan’s health problems intensified. On July 21, 2021, the President fell asleep while talking to his party’s provincial organizations at the Online Eid meeting. As speculation about his health increased, a basketball game was planned in Beştepe, perhaps to show how fit the President is. Fahrettin Altun, who carries out communication activities on the field, Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın, Sports Minister Mehmet Kasapoğlu, Turkish Basketball Federation President Hidayet Türkoğlu, Minister of Culture Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Minister of Industry Mustafa Varank, Wrestler Deputy with fake diploma Hamza Yerlikaya, President’s advisor and physiotherapist Ahmet There was also a hut. Erdogan scored 27 points in that match, and with this score he even surpassed Hidayet Türkoğlu, who played for the same team!
The videos that his close circle proudly shared were telling how Erdogan became such a high-scoring player. Namely, the ball is always coming to him, while he is approaching the basket with slow steps, the defense of the opposing team spontaneously stepped aside and waited for the Gentleman to score.
This is how Erdogan wins basketball games, which he boasts about, and this is how he achieves scores above the NBA average. He rules the country like he does in these basketball games. The army of advisers around him, bureaucrats, ministers, and even anyone from his family do not come before him and warn him. No one is trying to discourage him from the dangerous steps he wants to take.
Erdogan said, “If the betrayals that started with the Gezi events and continued, had not been for the heavy prices our country has paid through the triangle of exchange rate, interest and inflation, we would be in different places with a national income of 1.5 trillion dollars today”, nobody bent over his lap and said, “Sir, this picture is yours. the result of your economic policies”. Just as he was not able to say, “Instead of fighting, instead of using violence, go and talk to them. Listen to people”, right from the very beginning, when people rioted in Gezi. Erdogan could not bear to listen to the representatives of the Taksim Solidarity Platform, who went to meet with him during the Gezi Resistance. In the middle of the meeting, she tried to boil Arzu Çerkezoğlu, who is the Chairman of DİSK today, almost lost her control with anger, and according to the rumors, her daughter Sümeyye tried to calm her down. But in vain. That day is today, and whenever he hears the word Gezi, he gets infuriated. There is no one who is afraid of saying “rotten, slutty” to the people who showed a will in Gezi, who used to refer to the people as “looters, terrorists, bandits”. Just like in the basketball game, when Erdoğan gets the ball, they are opened to both sides. Whatever he does, whatever he says, they applaud. There are images and situations similar to the flattery of the leaders of Turkmenistan or North Korea.
That’s how Erdogan can run things at Beştepe, and he may think he’s an economics or basketball genius or a moral monument. However, it is no longer possible for him to convince the public of the scores he claims, while people are traveling “hungry and miserable” as they say, and the dollar is running high.
