What a pity, THY’s stars have fallen

The institution became a shining star. THY broke records in succession, it expanded its fleet constantly and was closing each year with a profit while everybody else encountered losses. And especially its promissory commercial with Kevin Costner in which everybody flying THY would "feel like a star" was very striking.

Then all of a sudden everything was spoiled.

If you read the preliminary announcement for the cause of the THY plane crash you will immediately understand that there is not only one reason.

There are many reasons. However the foundation for all this lies in the mentality and education. As Uğur Cebeci also underlines, the pilots did not fastidiously watch the defect in the altitude device and did not react to reports about former defects. In two of eight flights, the same problems were encountered but were not detected during ground services. Don’t these facts show a lack of discipline in pilot and maintenance training?

Ok. Let’s not look at one particular event and humiliate THY. But air transportation is a means that does not accept any mistake. One little mistake is paid for with lives. Therefore, isn’t it our right to expect the institution to detect its deficiencies and fix them?

Rather than ignoring and trying to cover up the secretary of transportation and the general manager of THY Temel Kotil should deal with it. This event has also shown us another reality. It once more set forth why we need to carry Turkey to Europe. We saw European Holland on one side. Right after the crash the European mentality made sure that the crash site was taken under security, all those who had no business there were kept away, no names were announced before the families of the deceased were informed, extremely fastidious investigations were conducted and no explanations made before concrete data was obtained.

On the other side, on the contrary, if a similar accident happens in Turkey the event is depicted based on gossip, everyone enters the site and every possible scenario is illustrated as if it was reality. This is Turkey outside of Europe. What we want is a Turkey that thinks and works as fastidious or serious like a European, and if need be speaks loudly based on correct data. Which Turkey would you prefer?

Only TÜSİAD speaks

I don’t know but did you notice?

The world experiences after shocks of the crises, the US and Europe are still shaking, it’s only us who don’t care.

What matters for us are only local elections.

The country’s prime minister goes to rallies and holds forth, and gives everybody, foremost the opposition, a piece of his mind. Nobody speaks about reasons for a delay in an agreement with the IMF. Nobody argues about what we might encounter if there is no agreement.

We openly feel the earthquake approaching. We have a government that seems to be dreaming and because immense insolvencies have not been encountered yet it behaves as if the crisis will be "tangential" to Turkey; still nobody speaks out loud. In fact, nobody dares to speak out loud. Businessmen are in fear.

The penalty imposed on Aydın Doğan scars everybody. I talked to many businessmen who said: "You all see what they did to a famous person like Aydın Doğan. They’ll do it to us all the more. On top of that they set the treasury in motion so no one has a word to say. These auditors will find something the moment they enter the door. Check it out, the auditor can impose a penalty by saying I don’t interpret the law like this."

They say: "I don’t want to get in trouble" and keep quiet.

If I look around, there is only Arzuhan Yalçındağ who goes from door to door and tries to warn people. She says that the crisis has arrived. She draws attention to the importance of the agreement with the IMF. She criticizes the government for not moving a muscle.

It is unbelievable.

The government ignores unemployment of hundreds of thousands of people at the cost of increasing votes in local elections. This situation will last three more weeks. They will continue ignoring the unemployed and punish those who criticize.

What will happen next?

What will this government tell those hundreds of thousands of unemployed people?

How will it excuse itself?

Don’t worry. "The reason for the crisis is not us, it’s the Americans," they will say and try to get away with it. But in the end they will be caught and punished. Maybe until general elections in 2011 it will be too late and no one will be able to relieve the pain of the unemployed but the AKP will pay for their attitude beyond measure.