Atilla Yesilada: The Chief Has Driven Us Into a Collective Psychosis

We’ve just survived a week that looked like a dress rehearsal for Judgment Day. The war with Iran ended, then started, then ended again. Inflation went rogue. And as if that wasn’t enough, our nation was shattered by those savage school shootings. I’m here to give you the bad news. First off, the Iran War won’t end for another sixty years; on Saturday, Tehran basically said they might skip the second round of ceasefire talks in Islamabad. The Strait of Hormuz is closed again, and they’re taking potshots at anything that floats. Brent crude will hit $110/barrel by Monday—expect a 20% hike on everything from minced meat to your neighborhood barber.

But my real focus is the school violence. Everyone who can hold a pen, run a YouTube channel, or sit in a TV studio has already chimed in. Does Atilla Yesilada have anything new to add? Oh, you bet—and it’s going to make you drop your jaw. I have two messages for you, oh sinful mortals. First, this violence will escalate and spread. The Chief has lost his grip on the thread. Second, the economy—already reeling from the war—is about to get knocked out cold by a massive confidence shock.

You might ask, “Where did these school attacks come from all of a sudden?” Well, if you’re asking that, you haven’t been paying attention. This was a tragedy advertised on billboards. According to a Gundemar poll back in January, citizens already sensed a rising tide of violence, especially among the youth, noting they didn’t even feel safe in their own homes. Another poll (Metropoll, I believe) showed 50% of participants feel they need psychological support. We are breaking antidepressant sales records every year.

According to one source, one in five adults in Turkey is currently involved in a lawsuit. Not all are against the state, but every legal battle is a massive stressor. Another source claims that various state apparatuses filed 6 million lawsuits against citizens last year. A third says 349,000 people were sued by the state in a single year. In a society like this, if people don’t go mad, what else are they supposed to do?

Who’s to Blame?

“But Atilla,” you ask, “how can we hold my Dear Chief RTE responsible for this?” How can we not? Isn’t he the absolute ruler of Turkey? Let’s talk specifics. One reason for this violence is the erosion of societal values that guide people toward rational behavior—maybe that’s not entirely his fault. But the social pressure—the second driver of violence—is his masterpiece.

Alcohol and cigarettes are priced out of reach, yet drugs sold by state-favored cartels are cheaper than water on every street corner. You can’t go to a concert because the artist was banned for “lyrics contrary to national values.” The Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has infiltrated every school, busy forcing young minds to memorize nonsense like the “virtues of martyrdom.” If you have a tattoo, a nose ring, wear a miniskirt, or happen to be LGBTQI, you live under a constant threat of a beating. Women are terrified of domestic violence because they know the Erdogan regime, having exited the Istanbul Convention, won’t protect them. That, my friends, is Erdogan’s fault.

His second great sin is the total expulsion of meritocracy from public life. It no longer matters which university you graduated from, your experience, or your hard work. You won’t find a decent job unless you are favored by the AKP or Erdogan’s “Gang of Five” cartels. There is a top 20% of society getting richer by the day, flaunting their wealth in SUVs the size of hearses. Half are brilliant secularists; the other half is the “AKP-Elite” who owe every worldly blessing to their loyalty to the Chief. The average citizen sees this and loses hope for tomorrow. And for those who lose hope, life loses its value—they either commit suicide or turn to violence, as we saw last week.

The Lockdown After the Horse Has Bolted

Of course, now they are “locking the stable doors.” Give me a break. The primary mission of the police and intelligence agencies in Turkey is to track and detain dissidents. What good does it do to put a cop at every school gate? The cop has a standard handgun; the psychotic attacker shows up with an automatic rifle. In a country where everyone is armed and posing with submachine guns on Facebook, once the idea of “killing random people” goes viral, the copycats will follow.

Before the Iran War, the economy was slowly—very slowly—improving. People were starting to warm up to the idea of a better tomorrow. The war ruined everything. This year, we’ll be dealing with the combined stress of skyrocketing inflation and rising unemployment. We’re going to go completely manic.

The Confidence Shock

Turkey is on the threshold of a vicious cycle of violence unprecedented in its history. If my thesis is correct, this won’t stop at schools. Tomorrow, a psychopath will hit a mall, open fire in a cinema, or worst of all, attack a holiday resort full of tourists.

This will create a confidence shock. If citizens conclude that stepping outside or mingling with the public carries a risk of death, consumption will cut off like a knife.

“What is the cure, Atilla?” you ask. I’ll tell you: There isn’t one. The regime won’t change because there’s no ballot box in sight. The socio-economic structure that birthed last week’s attacks will rot a little more every day. The number of people saying, “I never saw a bright day, so neither will you,” will multiply.

I wish you all Odin’s mercy in advance.

Footnotes for the Curious:

• Antidepressant Explosion: Sales jumped from 45 million boxes in 2016 to 71.5 million in 2025.

• The “Suspect” Nation: As of 2025, there are nearly 16.8 million suspects registered in prosecutor files. That is 1 in 5 people.

• Legal Gridlock: Including debt enforcement, there are nearly 45 million files clogging the courthouses.