The second action plan should yield positive results

As the daily number of people infected with the epidemic increased significantly, the government once again resorted to restrictive measures. As the methods of combating the epidemic in the world are almost the same, the novelty of Turkey's measures this time is the ordering of "50 million doses" of the vaccine. This good news was announced by the head of state, who personally announced the events this time.

It was clear from the statements that the main reason for the increase in the number of infections was entertainment in nightclubs and restaurants, and that the Ministry of Health should be justified. Citizens over the age of 65 and under the age of 20 were again deprived of access to the streets, kindergartens were also added to the list of the closed places after schools, and so on.

The Turkish Medical Association (TMA), an independent non-governmental organization, municipalities run by opposition parties, and the independent media also played an important role in taking restraining measures against the epidemic. To give a simple example: since funerals are organized by municipalities in Turkey, of course, nothing can be more natural than the fact that hospitals and municipalities know the causes of death in the most straightforward way.

In mid-March, after the government announced its first action plan and imposed significant restrictions, in particular, the Istanbul municipality said the death toll was inaccurate, and the Turkish Medical Association also made similar statements with its own statistics.

When the World Health Organization acknowledged the Turkish Medical Association to be right as a professional body, just as Devlet Bahçeli, chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party, a minor ally of the government, called for the closure of the Association, of which political views differed from those of the government, the government continued to ignore the TMA’s fight against the epidemic, statistics, and statements.

It is necessary to believe that the new measures will be more effective in combating the epidemic because the government was the first to see that the measures taken in April were softened in June and the gradual process of "normalization" did not solve the problem after the autumn; therefore, it had to announce a second intensive action plan.

Since the daily figures announced by the Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca, with whom both the society and the President are pleased, are very different, especially, from the figures of the Istanbul Municipality and the Turkish Medical Association by the end of the summer, Ekrem İmamoğlu and the minister repeatedly argued, and the main opposition leader supported the TMA leadership and met with the leaders of the Association, which is again not taken notice of by the government and is seen as an enemy by MHP leader Bahçeli.

The question is: after the announcement of the new action plan on November 30, will the government start cooperating with the municipalities run by the opposition party? What about the cooperation with the Turkish Medical Association? Will the media, which is completely in the hands of the government, finally write with a sense of responsibility for "journalism" before the people in these cases, or will it do its job by putting ready-made materials from the government on its pages?

I would advise you not to wait for any of this. The reason is very simple: it has already reached a stage so that the government will consider cooperation with opposition municipalities a defeat, Bahçeli will be ashamed to see the Turkish Medical Association as a professional NGO, and there is no need to talk about the media. So we are talking about a terrible epidemic. The fight against it is not through a political or religious worldview, but through professional medicine, a socially feared municipality, and an honest media that writes the truth.

Of course, nowhere in the world can it be claimed that any government wants to be negligent in this matter, and this is not the case in Turkey too.

The fight against the epidemic is also directly related to political freedoms, and all political institutions, large and small, have a responsibility to demonstrate their responsibilities to society. For example, the People's Liberation Party (PLP) in Turkey. It blamed the ruling party and the government for the "escalation of the epidemic" and sued the leaders of the government and its party, starting from the top.

Go ahead, light your cigarette from this box...

Mayis Alizade