What does the love of homeland mean to you?

Is being born and raised in a city, town or village of a country enough to be a citizen of that country or a fellow citizen of that city? It seems to be enough, but it is not. In order to be able to say "I am a Turkish citizen!", you must be wholeheartedly loyal to the land you were born and grew up on, you must embrace it with all your heart, you must protect it by giving your life when necessary, in short, you must love the land that you watered with your blood and made it your homeland when it was once just dry soil, without expecting anything in return.

"I was born and raised in Van, in a village in the lakeside town of Ahlat, or in Malatya, Balıkesir, Erzurum, Bitlis, Bilecik, Istanbul, Çanakkale, Edirne or any other province, district or village of the Republic of Turkey, and in order to be able to say, 'I am a fellow countryman or villager of that city or town,' you must not lose touch with the blessed land you were born on.

There must be a bond of heart between you and the place where you were born and grew up; a bond of heart so strong that no power can break it. You may ask why this is important and why it is necessary. This is called national feelings, which cannot be explained by any ideological thought.

People's love for their homeland, their idea of protecting their country, their determination and determination to protect and nurture the land they were born and raised in, to protect and care for all the people born and raised on it, to develop the established state, to strengthen and ennoble the nation and the country as a whole, all depend on this. You may have been born in big cities, studied in higher education institutions, and even had the opportunity to pursue a second higher education and a doctorate degree at universities in foreign countries; you may have made a name for yourself in the arts and politics in the following years and come to the forefront as a 'leader'; you may have added knowledge to your knowledge as a scientist.

Moreover, your name may have been heard among the most prominent trade and industry people of the country and you may have been a very rich person. As a writer and illustrator, your name can be heard all over the world, and you can even be on the list of Nobel Prize winners! You can be a well-known celebrity, an artist, a professor, a general, a member of parliament, a minister, a prime minister, a high official of the state, or even, let's say, a president. But 'closeness to the homeland and the nation, love for the country and the flag' cannot be measured by these. It is a virtue not to forget.

Among the people we know, there are some who come across us in youth or maturity for various reasons and occasions, and we cannot forget them. The reason why they are not forgotten is neither interest, nor this nor that. It is because of their love for their homeland, their interest, their heartfelt respect and affection, and their integration of themselves with the land they were born in and the people living in that land. These are distinguished people who are loved, praised, admired and imitated.

And then there are those who forget the country of their birth, the people they live with in the lands they have made their home, who despise, belittle and ostracize their fellow countrymen because of their own advancement, who think of nothing but their own comfort and peace of mind, who may even consider living in other countries in this way, who accept it when they find favorable conditions, who do not recognize the right to live humanely not only for their kinsmen but even for those who are not of their own lineage. These people lack 'personality'.

By the way, we have nothing to say about those who are forced to work and hold jobs in foreign countries due to certain conditions. But on one condition, as long as they do not break away from their homeland, nation, religion and language. Like people, there are cities, different corners of the country, villages and towns. They stun you when you see them! There are parched, arid steppes that make most of you shudder, steppes whose soil is cracked wide open from lack of water, mountains with their majestic appearance that sometimes catches the eye, rivers, streams, seas, lakes and ponds with a variety of fish, endless plains, gardens, vineyards, tall plane trees that are centuries old on the side of the road you pass by.

Do you know the smell of earth? The soil smells different, especially after the rain, the grass smells different, the flowers grow differently, each with a different smell and color. Even the air and smell of one's hometown is different. I have seen people who were born and raised in those lands, who drank the water and breathed the air as if they were suckling from their mothers, and I have seen that even if you come from different origins or belong to different races, the values that have been dominant for centuries are the same.

Anatolia is our homeland! For more than a thousand years, we have made this vast geography our homeland by shedding blood and giving our lives. Science, wisdom, art and various kinds of endeavors have shaped, kneaded and revitalized the land of the homeland. It took centuries for us to conquer it, to take it by shedding blood and sweat. If you have a history of thousands of years like Anatolia, and if you add ancient artifacts, hundreds and thousands of wonders of art that bear witness to history, the value of the land you grew up on increases even more, and the ownership of it becomes even more meaningful. You care about those old artifacts so that they do not disappear, you make efforts to protect them, you allocate a share from your budget at the expense of starvation. Every ancient artifact, every building with artistic value, even a piece of stone, is a document, even a title deed, signaling your presence in that geography. It may be debatable how justified the British are in mobilizing navies and troops for the Falkland Islands thousands of kilometers away from their borders, but the island of Kardak, which is right under our noses in the Aegean, is different from those islands for us. One was added to our borders through artificial sovereignty by force and occupation, the other was detached from our borders through a thousand and one games! Is Meis, which was taken away from us, different from Kardak? Is it possible to forget the Dodecanese Islands that were taken away from the Italian occupation? There are many more things to count, many more things to say, many more questions to ask. Attempting to list them all would both exceed the limits of this article and is not the place to do so.

In the last one hundred and fifty years, the efforts of the Ottoman Empire to regain power, to shake off some wrongdoings and to get rid of them have not yielded any results, and we are left with some unlikely situations today. Our history is witness to what happened. The question of what, where and how things happened continues to be questioned, but the questions have not yet been answered and the situation has not yet been clarified. The questions are chasing each other. However, each answer will shed light on our recent history and illuminate the path of a course that is going wrong today. Let us continue by stating that there is a need for time and order to ask.

Geography's becoming a homeland is destiny. Know that the land does not become a homeland by swinging a sword, cannon, rifle, tank and shedding blood. The land becomes "homeland" if you knead it in your heart, if you become a lover of it, if you labor and sweat for it! If you cannot realize this, then you are lacking something. The blunders who have been attempting to commit "separatism" for some time do not know this, they are betraying the country they live and lead a life with, they seem to be unaware of this, they turn a blind eye to the truth. A person is a true citizen of a country, a fellow citizen of a city, town or village if he or she can embrace the people and community he or she lives with without discrimination, regardless of whether they are poor or rich, criminal or brave, rightist or leftist, knowledgeable or ignorant.

As people living in that country, they may not have the same ancestry, they may not be members of the same religion, they may not have learned the same language from their mothers in the house where they were born and raised. Establishing a bond of heart with the country of birth is not only for those who made that geography their homeland with sword and blood, but also for the minority or minorities who were born, grew up and lived there throughout history. Because living together requires this. If you carry the identity document of a country, if you live and work in that country, if you feed yourself either alone or with your children, you should not forget that it is your duty to protect, protect and die for that land in the same way as those who first owned it, and that it is also your duty to adopt and use the common language which is the medium of communication between them. Education, training and communication require a single and common language. The shadow of a flag is enough for the land called homeland. The second does not leave a shadow, it darkens the world of those who live with that blessed land. The Back Side of the Coin!

Who are those who betray the country they live in? Who else but those who, as "citizens", do not act in the interest of the country, who rise up and support those who rise up? It is treason to praise and commemorate the ringleaders who rose up yesterday for the division of the homeland and were tried and convicted! The attempts made by some in this regard should be well evaluated.

There have been traitors among us too, and their fate was the same. The majority of those who initiate such movements may not come from a certain region, but from among those who are non-Turks and who are still bitter about Turkishness.

We belong to, and are descended from, a people whose pre-Islamic beliefs did not contradict, or to put it more precisely, did not differ from, Islam. Before we accepted Islam, we had a similar understanding of humanity as we do today. The term "barbarian" is an appellation of the West. Having made this reminder, I would like to present the thoughts I have written in previous years.

Today, the Republic of Turkey is going through a difficult period, a ring of fire, which threatens its existence in a way that has become more evident in the last fifty years. This situation can be seen by every intellectual who loves his/her homeland and nation, who is well aware of the realities of the country, and who feels the responsibility in his/her heart beyond loving his/her homeland and nation. Despite everything, despite the difficulties of our circumstances and all the obstacles placed in front of us, we will overcome them one by one, because this homeland is ours!

This love and affection for the motherland will eventually lead us to bright days, and the so-called intellectuals, politicians and scientists will eventually remain as a black page in the history of this nation and country. When certain rights that are necessary for our people are disguised as "human rights" and presented as indispensable elements of democracy by creating the impression that they have not been recognized, and when these rights are put forward as if they are indispensable elements of democracy, and when they are tied to criteria that have been put forward over time, one cannot help but recall the events we have witnessed in our recent history and the misfortunes we have fallen into or have been made to fall into. To be a lover of this land, one must pay a price, fulfill certain conditions and realize that this is a duty.

In all my articles, I try to explain what to do, how to live, what to see, what to pay attention to. For those who understand! What has changed in the last fifty years? Does history repeat itself? If we do not come to our senses, it will continue exactly the same. But since the lessons of history are learned, or rather, should be learned, it is necessary not to let the painful events of the past pass. We hope so. Today, it is a fact that we are dealing with internal or external separatist movements. Even more frighteningly, a similar situation to the past is being experienced or wanted to be experienced.

The truth is that one would have to be blind not to see the similarities between the course of half a century and the situation we are in today. History is the mirror of both the past and the future of a nation. Can what happened forty years, eighty years, a hundred years, five hundred years and more years ago be forgotten? Just as they are not forgotten, who is the founding element, the Turks. Aren't those who live under our sovereignty, these people who were separated from us, our citizens who lived in our nationality yesterday?

Language is the true homeland of a nation and the honor and dignity of those who live on that land. Can you tell me what has changed between yesterday and today? The same foreign provocation is still valid and being practiced today. Look at the countries of the world, is there a different situation? Whatever the language of the state is written in the Constitution of any country, is it not followed? If the same language is not used as the common official language, how will people living in a country get along? How will they follow their work, how will they live together?

German linguist Humbolt said: "The true homeland of a nation is its language." The language they learned from their mothers may be different; let's say those who speak the same language in their mother's house speak it among themselves, we have nothing to say. Just like in the Ottoman Empire yesterday, there are seventy-two nationalities in America, and they speak the language of their ancestry, but is the practice of a single language in official schools unjustified? They compete in the Olympics, run and sweat for their country, and when they come in first place, they wrap the "American flag" around their backs and wave it in their hands. They sing in English as well as their own language, to the amazement of all who listen! Aren't you listening?

If we don't know what we are fighting for, if we don't calculate this course of action, if we don't think about what the end point will be, let's know that this is not the way to go, and let's act accordingly. If you remember, the previous ones also acted in good faith, they took decisions and implemented them in order to achieve results. What happened, where did we end up? Take a look at the work done, the words spoken, the steps taken these days in good faith and in order to reach a solution. It is foolish not to see and hear what is being said by those who see these and hear what is being said, but act against those who insist on saying "what I say is what I say and what I whistle is what I whistle"! Tripping over a stone twice in a row is not an act befitting those who aspire to governance. Enough is enough, let us come to our senses!

Stay with respect and love.