As the repercussion intensifies, they might not go further, but instead scapegoat a small bureaucrat. Just like it happened with the Corlu high-speed train murder, which is still haunting our sister Mısra Oz, who lost her beloved child.

We are talking about the "Enjoy - I’m vaccinated" "invitation" on the mask used by the Ministry of Culture in a promotional clip.

It has a terrible connotation. It takes you to the days of the Denizes [Deniz Gezmiş, a prominent Turkish revolutionary]. To the invitations to the 6th Fleet and the "visits" of American soldiers.

Before the fleet arrived, a lot of hassle for the preparations was made. Especially the appointment houses and the back streets of Beyoglu were whitewashed, painted, and decorated as if they were preparing for a national holiday. Immorality had skyrocketed.

With only Deniz leading them, the revolutionaries called the people to fight against imperialism. Not content with mere words, they would narrow the streets to the American sailors. It is well remembered how they poured the soldiers into the sea from Dolmabahce.

Political Islamists, who are the root of today's political rulers, used to play their cards openly back then, idolising the 6th Fleet, praying prayers for them. Ask Akit writer Abdurrahman Dilipak, who is now making friendly criticisms of the AKP. He is aware, he criticised himself during the Gulf War. It was the "Green Belt" era. American imperialism tried to surround the USSR with the Islamic countries from the south, and the Islamists would appreciate this and offer their services. For example, the "Bloody Sunday" massacre was organised by them in this context.

But the people of Turkey justified and glorified the Denizes, not them. They never adopted the attitude of those protesting "infidels", instead named hundreds of thousands of their children “Deniz”. They also were demanded the peasants to increase land prices, defended worker’s rights and fought for freedom and justice. It was not only because of their anti-imperialist struggle that the people embraced the Denizes, but it played a large role.

Times changed; things changed. The political Islamists, which first paved the way for the fascists of September 12 [1980], then the February 28 [1997], became politically dominant. But is there any change?

Years and years have passed, and we have witnessed the "Eyyy ..." shouts against certain imperialists. Against the Germans, the French, the Italians… Although no harsh words were spoken to the Americans, on the African expeditions the words “we did not come for diamonds and oil like the imperialists” were used. The people of Turkey, regardless of their tendencies and beliefs, dislike imperialists, that is a given. For this reason, this facet has not been neglected. By pursuing some deliberately noneffective "opposition against foreign powers", the ruling class tried to gain favour. Eventually, even writers loyal to the government wrote of anti-imperialism.

Well, let us have a look at the tourism initiative of the Ministry of Culture. What is "Come, have fun, we are at your command" supposed to mean? Which ministry could have the right to drag the Turkish people into such a shame? Aside from labour, soil, and freedom, the Denizes also put their lives on the line against the collaborators that tried to put such a shame on the people and against the imperialists turning the country into their farms. Half a century has passed, there have been acts and stuff, but they did not become wiser, and thus, again, the same song is playing...

No doubt, this "invitation to the farm" is not just the job of a few small bureaucrats. But it also cannot be limited to the approach of a ministry alone.

They’ll name tourism... They’ll name crisis... The country’s needs will be brought up to let a "Should our incomes not increase; our economy not revive?" follow. This is how capitalist logic works. That is also how all of Turkey’s public wealth of has been sold and dismissed, making others rub their hands. Lastly, pledges were given from the “Wealth Fund”. However, it is foreign capital, that does not come for doing good or to receive thoughtful prayers, it comes to exploit. And so it happened in the last 20 years, that hundreds of billions of dollars were grabbed and fled with. And still, not only the government but even the bourgeois opposition sees liberation in foreign capital and demands democracy on the grounds that "foreign capital does not come to an untransparent place ruled by arbitrariness"!