Mustafa Kömüş
The AKP has declared 2025 the Year of the Family and is organizing all its programs accordingly. In every statement, members of the ruling party make remarks encouraging population growth. But what are children experiencing in the Year of the Family? What is happening to them? Let’s start by recalling some recent news stories. Children under the age of 18 who killed a child received prison sentences. A child worker died in a fire. Two girls gave birth in the same hospital two weeks apart. İsmailağa led 318 people, mostly children, in a march in Fatih. So what are those who say “have children” doing in the face of this? Of course, nothing but talking.
THE DARKNESS THAT TURNS CHILDREN INTO KILLERS AND VICTIMS: CHILD POVERTY
The murder of Mattia Ahmet Minguzzi became one of the issues that everyone in the country was concerned about. The trial concluded the previous day, and the verdict was handed down: two children under the age of 18 received the maximum prison sentence. The two children who were defendants in the case were acquitted. The acquittal decisions drew a lot of criticism. Now I want to take you to an article written by Timur Soykan last week. In his article titled “Barons and Child Hitmen,” Soykan wrote about how children with no future and no jobs are turned into hitmen by gangs.
I would like to mention three reports that have been published recently and, in my opinion, have not been discussed much. The first is the Report on Child Poverty and Deprivation prepared by the İstanbul Medical Association. The introduction to the report states: “Children suffer multidimensional harm and are at risk due to the distortions created by the current system. The economic crisis is affecting all areas of society, with family poverty being reflected in children many times over, limiting children’s access to economic, social, and cultural resources. The global system is also taking inequalities to a global scale.” However, let’s look at the details, even if only in summary. According to the report, 32.6% of the population experiences heating problems due to insulation in their homes. Approximately one in six people report having dark rooms in their homes that do not receive light. 39.1% of 100 people report living in crowded housing conditions.
Let’s move on to the report prepared by the Deep Poverty Network. The picture that emerges there may offer a clearer perspective. The highlights from the Network’s report, which interviewed 108 households, are as follows:
• 97 households experience food insecurity.
• 93 households struggle to cover their children’s school expenses.
• 71 households have experienced at least one electricity, water, or natural gas cut in the last two years.
• 93 households cannot cover their healthcare expenses.
The data shows us that anxiety about the future is a blessing for these gangs. Boys struggling with poverty and anxiety about the future become criminals in the hands of these gangs. So, are these children guilty? Let’s think about it a little more.
WORKERS LOSING THEIR LIVES IN WORKSHOPS
Of course, there are those who are not like their peers. Hundreds of thousands of children forced to work in the face of poverty. What happens to them? How should we question this?
Here is one example. Mustafa Eti, a 16-year-old child labourer working in a brick factory in Tekirdağ. He lit a fire in an empty tin can keep warm at night. However, as he poured thinner into the tin to revive the fire, there was a sudden explosion. After fighting for his life for 10 days, Mustafa died.
Let’s look at the MESEMs, which turn children into workers through the Ministry of National Education. According to official documents, there have been 1,348 accidents in MESEMs under the MESEM Programme to date, 10 of which were fatal. In other words, children who escape the clutches of gangs are left at the mercy of their employers.
COMMUNITIES HAUNTING THE FUTURE
Are gangs and bosses the only ones haunting children? Of course not. Perhaps the least discussed or most taboo topic is communities. Madrasas have recently resurfaced with a march organised by the İsmailağa Community. A march organised by a foundation affiliated with the community in Fatih, Istanbul, saw a show of force with 318 students, most of whom were under the age of 18. İsmailağa has dozens of madrasas, mainly in Istanbul, Sakarya and Kocaeli. In these institutions, called Quran courses, the Law of Unification of Education is openly violated.
The following information about madrasas is provided on their websites: “The curriculum of the madrasas is almost identical to that of the Ottoman period. In other words, the same books that were taught a hundred or two hundred years ago are still being taught today. At the İsmailağa Tekâmül Madrasa, teachers who have completed their scientific and religious education and spread out across Anatolia are continuing the spirit of the madrasa in their respective locations, training new students, and engaging in conversations and religious guidance activities with the public.”
On the other hand, Hizbullah also performs the same function through the madrasas it has established in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia via the İttihad Association. While the Menzil Community draws attention with its public organisations, these two groups create organisations through children. Again, children are the target.
THE DARKNESS OF ABUSE
So far, we have mainly discussed boys. But what about girls? Recently, a girl in Çaycuma, Zonguldak, went to hospital complaining of stomach pains and gave birth to a stillborn baby.
It was also revealed that another girl had given birth to a healthy baby at the same hospital two weeks earlier. These two incidents have brought the issue of child abuse back into focus.
According to TÜİK data, between 2001 and 2024, exactly 21,487 girls under the age of 15 gave birth in the country. Between the ages of 15 and 17, this figure is exactly 568,830. Although the number has been steadily declining in recent years, last year exactly 6,074 girls gave birth according to official data.
Of these children, 535 gave birth for the second time and 31 for the third time. While 130 children under the age of 15 gave birth, four of these children gave birth for the second time.
Again, according to TÜİK data, exactly 83,606 children were victims of sexual abuse. Of these, 11,524 were boys and 72,082 were girls.
Yes, this is the reality for girls who are confined to their homes and expected to care for their parents or to ‘get married and start a family.’
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
What we have written so far is actually a result. Sometimes seen in a mother’s tears, sometimes in a father’s rebellion at a funeral, it is a picture that evokes momentary hatred. So who is really responsible? Who is responsible for not preventing children from worrying about their future, for watching them fall into the quagmire of drugs, for directing children who should be in school to workshops, for taking no action against them falling into the clutches of religious communities? Could it be those who, for about a year, have been encouraging more children to be born through “Family Year” events? Or those who, while this is the case, want to shorten the duration of compulsory education at the request of reactionaries and capitalists… That is, those in power today…
Yes, the AKP has done great harm to the country since it came to power. But under the banner of a “religious generation”, they have created millions of children who are killed on the streets, who normalise drugs, who are exploited in workshops, who are sacrificed at the hands of religious communities, and who are subjected to abuse both inside and outside the home. Condemned to poverty, with no hope for the future. So let’s ask again: Is it the hand that holds the gun that is responsible?
DRUG SWAMP
Finally, let’s move on to an official report. The drug report prepared by the police in recent days. The importance of this report stems from the fact that these gangs recruit people mainly through drug money.
Let’s look at the data that concerns us here. In 2024, the Drug Abuse Advisory and Support Hotline received 982 calls regarding suspected drug use by minors, requests for information on the subject, and requests for treatment. The number of children reached while working or begging on the streets was exactly 40,933. The number of children who lost their lives due to drug addiction in 2024 was 6. Another noteworthy detail is education. In 2024, 50.4 per cent of patients receiving treatment for substance addiction were secondary school graduates, while 36.3 per cent were primary school graduates. It was revealed that 43.2 per cent did not have a regular job and 12.2 per cent were unemployed.
In addition to these three reports, let’s look at Yeşilay’s report. According to the report published by Yeşilay, the age of gambling has dropped to below 15. Gambling addiction surpassed alcohol and substance addiction for the first time in 2024. The age of starting gambling was 3.3% below 15 and 71.2% between 15 and 24.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Memleketin geleceği altın tepside nasıl sunuluyor: Çeteler, tarikatlar, atölyeler ve istismar karanlığı, published in BirGün newspaper on October 23, 2025.
