Thousands of people who would not have died had durable buildings been constructed in accordance with science and reason.

People pulled the corpses of their loved ones out of the rubble, nearly everyone in the region lost a relative…

Millions of people were left without a roof over their heads.

These people are the victims of a system of government that cares more for money than for human lives.

The death-producing system is in pursuit of its own prospects…

Even though it was unnecessary, a State of Emergency was declared…

They speak of how to maintain their power by ensuring that their cruelty is forgotten…

Speculations abound that the political power is determined to delay the elections by a year…

It seems that they want to steal away the right to vote from people who are already bursting with pain and fury.

At the root of all this lies the lack of regulatory power and arbitrariness that comes from upending the rule of law…

All a State of Emergency means is a little more pressure and a little more lawlessness…

While listening to the Minister of Justice explain the practices to be implemented during the State of Emergency in the relevant region, his words took me back to my days at the Silivri Prison.

I had also been incarcerated during a State of Emergency.

As such, I understood very well what this regime meant by “a State of Emergency.”

The sentence that took me back to Silivri in the State of Emergency declaration was as follows:
“According to the 180th Article of the Criminal Procedure Law No. 5230/71, the examination of the detention, which is made ex officio every 30 days, will be made ex officio every 60 days, for one time only. In other words, the detention review period will be applied once in 60 days instead of 30 days in this region.”

If you were arrested during the State of Emergency, the court would pretend to at least look your case over once every 30 days. They never actually did, but they did perpetuate the lawlessness.

What does it mean for a court to “pretend to review your detention without actually doing so?”

The July 15 regime tried to slander and imprison its dissidents.

The politicized judiciary organ then became the prison guard of this regime of pressure and choked the life out of the law.

When suffocating the law, it used the possibilities presented by the State of Emergency to the fullest extent.

Here, the role of the State of Emergency is to act as a noose to snuff out the law.

Let us say that you have been arrested for being a dissident even though you have committed no crime, and that soon thereafter, your innocence was declared by the Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Court of Cassation…

If the law existed, would not this scandalous situation come out in the reviews that happen every 30 days?

The magistrates at the Criminal Courts of Peace have never had such professional qualms.

Without even turning the cover page of the cases, they lengthened detention periods using the same old prefilled forms.

I experienced this myself.

From time to time, I remember those judges whose names, surnames, and signatures are in the case files in amazement, but I neglected to mention them in the Press History...

I have been presented the opportunity to do so now, hearing that the review of detention periods will be extended to 60 days during the State of Emergency declared after the disaster, probably as a political trick.

This is merely a footnote in comparison to the things that have happened today...

But it is also a warning about what they can do by using this earthquake as an excuse… It is proof that they see the State of Emergency as a "period of lawlessness.”

There are terrible things happening right now, and it is not unjustified to worry that they will escalate during the State of Emergency.

We have witnessed distressing scenes of violence and torture shared on social media the verity of which need confirmation…

We have watched videos featuring people who are allegedly part of the security forces torture suspects...

We have even heard the claims that a young man detained on charges of theft and looting lost his life as a result of torture at the Altinozu Gendarmerie Command where he was detained.

If this is the case now, what could happen during the State of Emergency?

The establishment of a terrible and bloody system started with the complete destruction of the law…

The July 15 regime was built on this ground…

Now, the State of Emergency will likely be used as a means of both preventing these from being said and postponing the election.

When “State of Emergency” is mentioned, I get goosebumps due to both my experiences and the things I have witnessed.

The people of the region are also familiar with states of emergency… They have suffered quite a lot under them.

This declaration of a State of Emergency, this statement of "let's postpone the election" raises a lot of doubts... It is time for everyone to stand up for their rights.

We must not allow them to take away our right to vote by using our dead as an excuse.

In this earthquake, we have seen very well what the consequences are of allowing them to maintain their power….

We must establish a system based on the rule of law to ensure that our experiences do not repeat themselves… For this, we need an election as soon as possible.