Our country is entering the second century of the Republic while being dragged through an entanglement of problems and crises that render social reproduction impossible and make the sustaining of life increasingly unviable.
These problems, growing heavier as they intertwine, may trace their historical roots back to the pre-Republican era; yet today they deepen by internalizing the universal effects of the dominant forms of social life in the 21st century.
Turkish society, as part of a humanity rapidly exhausting the conditions of existence on Earth, is searching for a solution to multiple crises, a new hope for a humane life, and a new path…
Even on ordinary days when disasters do not occur, tens of millions of citizens are unable to access basic human rights such as food, housing, healthcare, education and social life. Under conditions worsened by the government, and amid successive disasters, they struggle to hold on to life while escaping terrifying possibilities such as death and hunger.
Yet the strong light of social solidarity illuminates the ancient paths of politics that are once again becoming visible.
Under these conditions, social ideas enter the frame of emerging social problems, demands and searches. Beyond rejections, accusations and populist discourses voiced in the face of social problems, the stage of history — in Türkiye as in the world — is once again opening itself to social and solidaristic ideas.
It is at the dawn of such darkness that FİKİR was born. As the Fikir Gazetesi of the Republic’s second century, we pledge to pursue the idea of a new life: on the side of citizens, nature and all living beings; against that which consumes and dominates.
We invite journalists, academics, politicians and representatives of democratic society who put common life first — but most of all, our citizens of every color, the true subjects of the social sphere — to contribute to this struggle of ideas and to strengthen what is common.
And one question rises above all problems, all social demands and all hopes:
With which ideas will we build the second century of the Republic?
With the hope of producing the answers together…
Murat Büyükyılmaz
Editor-in-Chief, Fikir Gazetesi
