1-For some reason, defense spending suddenly came to the agenda. While the country was going through a major economic crisis and inflation was constantly increasing, some people started to insist that money should be spent on defense spending. It is necessary to ask why defense is the priority and not the economy, but when you ask this, they may accuse you like this: ‘Homeland or bread?’
2- Minister Bridget Phillipson answered questions about defense spending and said that it is unlikely that Starmer will announce a plan to increase defense spending this week. At this stage, defense spending is the last thing to think about. There is no answer to the question of why defense spending will increase when there is no clear threat anyway.
3-In the meantime, let’s explain why defense spending is constantly brought up with this example. There is a major crisis in Turkey, both an economic crisis and a social and administrative crisis. The country has entered a period of one party and one leader. There is no constitutional institution, no independent media, no independent labor organizations, no people to stop Türkiye’s Leader Erdogan. When asked about the economic crisis, poverty, bribery and corruption allegations, government officials always look for an external reason, an external enemy and declare that the country is under a great external threat. They try to stay in power by scaring the people by claiming that Turkey can be invaded and that foreign powers can attack the country at any time, and they always succeed. Erdoğan’s media does a great deal of propaganda to the people, TV and newspapers have news of external enemies every day and always focus the agenda on an external threat. Eventually, the people start to believe that there really is an enemy and the people who cannot find bread start to say things like: ‘We will be left without bread but we cannot be left without a country.’ Then they vote for Erdoğan again. Erdoğan has been winning elections this way for exactly 23 years.
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