Dear Mr. Kurtuluş,
Thank you for your impassioned reply. If nothing else, it confirms what I have long feared: that too many now confuse performative patriotism with loyalty to one undeserving man, and sloganism with substance.
I regret to say that I do not agree with a single word in your letter.
On the contrary, your response reads less as a sincere defense of the Republic and more as the language of a regime apologist—whether by conviction or convenience. Your portrayal of governance in today’s Türkiye aligns more with the narrative of a hired mouthpiece or ideological servant of what I now refer to as the Tayyiban regime than with any objective or patriotic critique.
Consider the economic reality: Türkiye currently pays among the highest interest rates in the world and still struggles to attract lenders. Why? Because trust, accountability, and institutional integrity have been eroded to the point of exclusion from serious international financial circles. Instead, we see desperate alliances with countries like Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain; nations known more for financial mediation than for long-term, principled partnership.
Our education system has been reduced to an echo chamber. Not a single Turkish university ranks in the world’s top 500—and many fail to appear in the top 1,000 altogether. What was once a project of enlightenment has become a caricature, closer to a madrassa than a modern institution of higher learning.
Meanwhile, our prisons are filled with citizens whose only crime is having dared to criticize those in power. Academics, journalists, elected officials, swept aside not by law, but by fear and vengeance. The list of moral disgraces grows longer by the day.
Let me make one thing unequivocally clear, Mr. Kurtuluş:
I am among those who proudly and without hesitation declare, “Ne mutlu Türküm diyene!”
But I will never align myself with those who turn that phrase into a weapon of exclusion, who celebrate, excuse, or even dance beside the mercenaries responsible for the deaths of more than 60,000 innocent Turkish citizens at the hands of terror.
Your letter reveals a deeply distorted and dangerous worldview, one that equates dissent with betrayal and reduces patriotic concern to treachery. This logic does not protect the Republic; it endangers it, every single day.
Let me begin then, with the plain facts you seem unwilling to confront: criticism of a government is not treason. It is the duty of every citizen who still believes in the values of the Republic, not to bow, but to question; not to blindly cheer, but to hold power accountable. If pointing out incompetence, repression, and international isolation is enough to be branded a traitor, then the bar for national loyalty has been tragically lowered.
You claim Türkiye has “risen” because it participates in NATO, has a drone industry, or sits at the G20 table. These are technical indicators which had been there since long, not proof of institutional health, human dignity, or moral progress. North Korea has nuclear capacity. Russia is in the G20. Shall we take our civic cues from them?
The reality is more sobering:
- Our universities no longer rank among the world’s top 500.
- Our judiciary is weakened, our media largely silenced, and our economy increasingly reliant on authoritarian regimes.
- We imprison journalists, academics, and elected officials, not for acts of violence or fraud, but for dissent.
- And perhaps most devastatingly, we confuse loyalty to a leader with love for our country.
Just to remind you further of the world classifications allowed by Erdoğan’s regime:
- 103rd in the democracy index,
- 159th in press freedom,
- 117th in rule of law,
- 107th in corruption perception,
- And alarmingly, 14th in the world and 1st in Europe for organized crime.And yet, Erdogan expects us to believe that this country is prepared for full European Union membership, as if statistics are slander and truth can be negotiated. He just makes Türkiye a joke for the World!
You accuse me of failing to evolve. On the contrary, Mr. Kurtuluş, I am refusing to devolve into sycophancy, selective memory, or blind nationalism in the failed description of a man who has zero attachment to patriotism or Nationalism.
Atatürk’s vision was not one of flags and empty slogans. It was a call to enlightenment, reason, law, and civic virtue. His reforms were not meant to be embalmed in ceremony; they were meant to live, to grow, to be defended.
You suggest I write with venom. I write with grief for what we’ve lost, and for what we’ve allowed ourselves to become.
I write not, dare not and ever insult Türkiye, but criticize and blame the traitors better for it.
If that offends you, so be it. But know this:
The love I hold for Türkiye is not loud, but it is loyal.
Not boastful, but rooted in truth.
Not nostalgic, but unwilling to glorify a present that punishes honesty and rewards obedience.
Final thought, Mr. Kurtuluş:
There is no pride in mistaking dissent for disloyalty.
And there is no future in clinging to selective triumphalism while silencing the very voices that once built this Republic.
The Türkiye I believe in and still fight for, is one where citizens never again have to choose between conscience and country, Democracy and a backward tyron.
Respectfully,
Dr. Mustafa Ataç
