In her weekly article, Gülseren Onanç, the Founding Chair of the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, states that young people are seeking new leaders who will find solutions to the world’s problems, defend democracy, respect freedoms, fight inequalities, and ensure peace in their country and in the world.
One morning when Merve woke up sad and discouraged. She thought her distress would go away if she prayed for hours after crying. While praying, she caught herself questioning the existence of God. She stated: “I was either going crazy or I was going to commit suicide. The next morning I realized I had lost my faith”. Merve is just one of the dozens of atheist young women wearing headscarves. She is a primary school religion teacher. “It’s the only thing that connects me to Islam,” she says, pointing to her headscarf in an interview with a BBC reporter. Merve, who did not shake men’s hands until recently, now questions the existence of God, but in fact, the answer to the question does not interest her much anymore.
President and the AKP’s Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for more than 20 years, uses education and social policies to raise a “religious” generation, as he puts it. In the last 16 years of AKP rule, the number of religious high schools has increased tenfold. But the generation did not grow up as Erdogan imagined. According to the BBC news, some religious young people lost their faith and turned their backs on Islam.
University student Leyla said, “I took off my hijab one day when I was going to the market, and I never put it back on. My father doesn’t know that I am a deist. I’m afraid he’ll prevent my sister from going to college if he finds out. He can say your sister went to university, look what happened. I did not ask God to create me; he cannot expect anything in return from me. I have the right to live as freely as a bird,” she says.
“Until recently, I was sympathetic to ISIS or al-Qaeda; today, I am an atheist. Initially, I wanted to find reasoning in Islam, but I couldn’t find it. Then I started to question God. I supported the Islamist government, but it gave birth to a repressive regime. They wanted to put us under pressure, so we started to react,” says Bekir, a theology student.
Young people are unhappy
According to the young voter survey conducted by a research agency, 70 percent answered “No” to the question “Do you feel happy normally?” The influence of Turkey’s authoritarian rule plays a role in this unhappiness.
Six of the nine people who have committed mass murder in schools in the United States since 2018 are under the age of 21. This indicates that the mental health of American youth is getting worse and worse.
According to the news of France24, the Covid-19 epidemic in France and the accompanying crisis led young people to commit suicide by making them asocial and depressed. It is stated that many young people are trying to end their lives by suicide. Suicide is the leading cause of death for young people aged 25-34 in France. The suicide rate increased by 40 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, as the Covid-19 epidemic left young people behind from social activities and dragged them into depression. The age level of suicide cases in the country has dropped to 15. Especially young people of school age have lost their hope for the future by becoming depressed due to also exam stress.
Independent organizations that provide psychological support to public schools in the country, especially in high schools, are setting up “problem listening” sessions and rooms in schools, due to the increase in suicides. Experts point out that there is a deep uncertainty about the future of young people and call on parents to be more involved with their children in this process.
Young people looking for ‘someone new’
A research conducted by Bupar asked the voters who will vote for the first time in Turkey, “Who should be the President?” To the question, 20.5 percent responded, “Recep Tayyip Erdogan”, while 72 percent chose “a new president”. Another 7.5% stated that they are ‘undecided.’
The Apolitical Foundation has published a report titled “Better Leaders, Better Democracies”. The report examines 420 political leader development centers and reveals that the capacity of these institutions is insufficient to produce leaders who can solve the problems of the 21st century. A new understanding is needed to raise leaders who can solve the biggest problems of the 21st century, such as climate change, polarization, inequality and war.
Young people are looking for “someone new”, new leaders who will find solutions to the world’s problems, defend democracy, respect freedoms, fight inequalities, and ensure peace in their country and in the world.