Walls and billboards are being covered once again with advertising for the "flagship media".

We can discern that the messages conceal the commercial context of the newspaper with a liberal manifesto, using key words such as "Me", "Right", "Freedom", "Tree", "Election" and "Road". It is apparent that the advertising advisors of the newspaper have been influenced by the expressionism of the "Gezi revolt", and have convinced the proprietors that they will be able to reach a "new segment" in the upcoming period...

There are also references to the multi-ethnic character of Turkey in the "post-Gezi" period, in which the Gezi protest has had an irrefutable effect on the collective consciousness. "I can be born with a different language", "Freedom is mine". There is no need to dwell on the fact that even the best advertising is not enough to sell something that is worthless, or that writing fictitious qualities on the wrapping will not turn a pumpkin into a violin...

If a newspaper with Ataturk, a flag and the slogan "Turkey belongs to the Turks" next to the logo thinks that this campaign can reach the target audience, then it means they are completely ignoring the "Gezi understanding". We will see...
What I want to dwell upon is the understanding of language of the mentality behind this campaign. Let us think about the slogan 'I can be born with a different language', which at first glance appears to be a reference to the freedom of all languages. Can a human being be born with a different language? First and foremost there is a semantic problem.

People are not born with a language, they are born to a language. But let's accept for now that it is possible. According to what criteria is a language different? What would this mean to a person reading the advert in Turkish, but who had been born to (or with) a different language? For instance, a person born to Kurdish or Lazca who has had it knocked into them since the day they were born that they are "different" will probably think that the advert on the billboard is announcing the granting to them of a freedom to be 'born with a different language' - as long as they express it in Turkish!

Such a liberal manifesto that considers the right to speak, think and exist in a mother tongue may only be thought of in the dominant language and as "different" could only be carried by a "flagship" that has the slogan "Turkey belongs to the Turks" engraved on a flag. This campaign, the racist nature of which becomes apparent the more you scratch off the varnish, tells us something more: freedom, ecology and social rights may become items for sale on the political market in the coming period.

It could not be clearer that carrying on the struggle for social and political rights and freedoms with liberal terminology will signify nothing more than a restoration of the existing dominant regime.

* This article originally appeared in Özgür Gündem