The other 364 days of the year

The story of the Republican Children's Day, the Turkish holiday in which children symbolically replace state officials in their duties.

Official statistics show that one in three children in Turkey lives in poverty: she has difficulty accessing a daily meal, health care and other basic necessities.

April 23 in Turkey is a public holiday, dedicated to a singular national holiday: that of children, associated with the anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Parliament, inaugurated in Ankara during the national war of liberation (April 23, 1920), as a first step towards the creation of the Turkish republic.

It was of course Mustafa Kemal, better known as Atatürk (the father of the Turks), who wanted this homage to those who represented and represent the future of every nation. However, the fact remains that in no other country in the world has such a holiday been established, which returned to public Turkey this year, after two years of celebrations canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a truly familiar celebration, in which the balconies and windows of the houses are decorated with Turkish flags, images of Atatürk and drawings of children. Historically, this anniversary takes on international dimensions because hundreds of children from different countries, especially from the former Soviet Turkish-speaking republics, come to Turkey to participate, interacting with their guests. The most important events are obviously held at Anıtkabir, Atatürk's mausoleum in Ankara, the capital and place of its most important institutional headquarters, where "budding citizens" are symbolically invited to replace state officials in their offices. They symbolically rule for a day, unfolding their commitment to peace and international brotherhood.

On the occasion of the last anniversary, President Erdoğan, who loves very much to turn to children to make himself understood by adults, urged them to be morally irreproachable, resisting corruption the day they had to assume public responsibilities in the most diverse sectors of life . “Protect your families, your friends and your schools - the president added - use the opportunities of technology, but never be a prisoner of them. Learn what you are taught in school, but don't limit yourself to that. Life is the best teacher ": these are the strong points of Erdoğan's speech.

It is difficult not to agree with these "wise advice", but equally to note how distant, from these high hopes, is the world of those who already manage power.

The condition of the children themselves remains problematic for the remaining 364 days a year. Official statistics show that, in a country whose population is made up of 27.2% children, one in three of them live in poverty (difficulty in accessing a daily meal, health care and other basic necessities ), with important repercussions on real social wounds, such as child labor and agreed marriages of minors.

Speaking of the first aspect, in 2019 the number of employed children, aged between 15 and 17, had reached 720 thousand; a figure that has certainly increased in the last two years, also due to an increase in school drop-out due to the socially unsustainable conditions of distance learning, made necessary by the closure of schools due to the pandemic crisis.

Excluding this emergency and the huge flow of refugee children, especially Syrians (difficult to enter school), certainly the 16 reforms of the school system in the last 18 years have not contributed to the improvement of Turkish educational standards.

The most dramatic consequence of all this is the disheartening numbers of child crime: an annual average of 90,000 trials for crimes, with over 9,000 convictions with heavy penalties, despite the minor age of the defendants. In short, if it is necessary to place hopes for the future of a nation on children, it is above all in the present that we must not forget them, on pain of accentuating the dramatic uncertainties for the times to come!

Claudio Monge

NP Maggio 2022