The People

At the end of the evening, I watched the girls embrace and smiled at the screen for a long time. Sometimes a person needs something good connected to their country, something to celebrate without excessive words or grand statements. The Sultan Girls did it again.

Against Italy, the match swung back and forth. One point brought hope, then the game became difficult again. But when you looked at the players on court, you saw nobody giving up. They covered for one another, reached out when someone fell, and helped each other stand again. When the final ball hit the floor, Turkey had become European champion once more.

I looked at Eda, Zehra, Vargas, Gizem, Hande and İlkin. There was something else in their joy that drew people in. They were a team fighting together and celebrating one another’s success. Perhaps that is why they make us so happy, even before the trophies. They remind us that it is possible to achieve something together. Children stood in the stands, including girls shouting with flags in their hands. Perhaps tomorrow one of them will enter a sports hall and touch a volleyball for the first time. Perhaps years from now, one of them will wear that jersey. Even thinking about it is beautiful.

After the match, the cup was lifted and the anthem was sung. Then one word stayed with me: “the people.” We hear it everywhere these days, from people’s gardens and libraries to people’s cafés and mosques. Writing “the people” on a place seems to make it more valuable. So let the garden, library and mosque belong to the people. But if you love the people so much, should you not also accept their decision when they go to the ballot box? Should you not show the same respect to the person they elect?

This brings Üsküdar to mind. Its residents went to the polls, cast their votes and elected their mayor. Sinem Dedetaş emerged from that ballot. The courts will decide how the legal process concerning her ends, and it is not my role to issue a judgment on it. But there is a mayor chosen by the people, and there is an election result. Is accepting that result not one of democracy’s first conditions? Do we trust the ballot only when it produces the result we want? The person who visits a people’s garden and the person who votes on election day are the same person. Giving the word “people” its due requires more than putting it on signs. It also requires respecting the people’s decision.