The author of this article asked to remain anonymous for the sake of their safety in their home country.

For the first time in their diplomatic history, the United States and Turkey have mutually suspended all non-immigrant visa applications such as diplomatic, travel, commerce, employment and even student visas. This all started last week after a locally employed U.S. embassy worker, Metin Topuz, was arrested in Istanbul by the Turkish government. He was accused of having ties with an insurgent group called Fethullahist Terror Organization; abbreviated as FETÖ. This is an organization Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claims to be responsible for the July 2016 coup.

I heard this news from someone very close to me back in Turkey. I did not want believe it; I hoped that all of this was just a joke. A crude joke. Like her, many of my friends, who worked tirelessly for years at extracurriculars, community services and the International English Language Testing System, heard this news just days after taking the SAT. Ultimately, their worlds were turned upside down. No wealthy people suffered from this. Erdoğan definitely did not suffer. He’s never shied away from metaphorically giving the middle finger to the U.S. It’s certainly helping him out with his supporters and voters.

And the U.S.? As if the most powerful country in the world will be so affected by a country whose foreign investment has been reduced more than 40 percent, lost significant European Union relations and is more likely to become a rogue state with a de facto Erdoğan dictatorship. I can’t help but see no difference of two grown men having a pissing contest with their egos; the problem is, the p-ss is going straight to the hopes and dreams of my peers. I can’t help but think, ‘They really don’t care what happens.’

It can be said that it’s likely that the U.S. and Turkey will settle this issue. But it’s also more likely that this settlement will be continuously delayed when you have a guy who is stubborn and egocentric as a child with a tantrum. You don’t know which president I’m talking about, do you?

I can only hope now. This is why I’m unable to be logical enough right now to formulate a guess on the future relations of the two countries. Because how should I rationalize through these absurd decisions, in absurd times, by absurd people? A part of me wants to not follow Murphy’s Law — what can go wrong, will go wrong — as most of my reasoning has concluded that Turkey has somewhat followed that law pretty well. I wish to have a glimmer of hope in these situations. Not for my god-awful country, definitely no, but for the people that wish to better themselves in places where they can fulfill their potential and escape the ideological prison we currently call Turkey.  

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