Stay with Atatürk, You Can't Go Wrong

In yesterday's article, I mentioned that the young Mustafa Kemal had long ago decided on the concept of the Republic as a result of his own synthesis of the thought currents of the late Ottoman Empire.

Well, let's try to understand Atatürk a little more today. 

There is no doubt that he was a genius, not only I think so, not only Turkish people, but there are many people in the world who appreciate what he was able to do even today.

But in addition to being a genius, another characteristic of his was his superior foresight. 

His address to the youth almost describes these days we are in.

"The enemies who will attempt our independence and republic may be the representatives of a victory unprecedented in the whole world. By force and fraud, all the castles of the beloved homeland may have been captured, all the shipyards may have been entered, all the armies may have been disbanded and every corner of the country may have been occupied. Even more grievous and grave than all these circumstances, those who hold power within the country may be in a state of ignorance, misguidance and even treachery. These power holders may even align their personal interests with the political aspirations of the invaders. The nation may be devastated and exhausted in poverty.

O son of the Turkish future! Even in these circumstances and conditions, your duty is to save Turkish independence and republic. The power you need is in the noble blood in your veins."

Yes, there are still those who are not satisfied with the republic today. There are even those who are in treason. How many years ago we saw those who wanted to take over the state and bombed the parliament. So there were those who committed treason!

It is actually quite normal for people to have different ideas. But when those who have contrary ideas do not stay at the idea stage but turn into actions, then we say that they are in treason. 

Just a few days ago, we witnessed someone with these contradictory ideas, someone who once held important positions at the state level, saying in an unconscious manner that it is not possible to think in today's Turkish. In his speech, he lamented that the most drastic cultural revolution in history took place in Turkey. He even made an anti-republican statement that the republic has destroyed all our thinking sets.

I, for one, was not at all astonished, and I can even say that I took these remarks calmly within the framework of freedom of opinion. 

But when I heard it, again Atatürk's address to the youth came to my mind. It happens to me sometimes, I read something, I watch something, I think of Atatürk's address to the youth. 

When I heard these words, I once again admired how prescient Atatürk was.

Unfortunately, even in today's Turkey, there are still people who do not understand Atatürk, do not want to understand Atatürk and object to what he did. Some of them have completely different dreams.

The four currents of thought I mentioned in yesterday's article, namely Ottomanism, Islamism, Turkism and Westernism, were the currents of thought that Atatürk was influenced by in his youth. 

If you remember, I told you that he synthesized each of these currents and produced a synthesis of thought that would raise the Young Turkish Republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. 

Yes, we call this movement Atatürkism for short. 

But unfortunately, those who were left behind after his early death proved that they did not understand him well enough when they came to power. I think that is why they could not continue his dreams for Turkey. Or they could not be as brave as he was. 

Even in today's digital world where access to information is so easy, Turkey has not yet reached the level of modern civilizations as he wanted. 

Unfortunately, the world views of none of those who came after him were sufficient to realize his dream. 

It is also not possible to make an excuse by saying that the conditions had changed, because I think the conditions he was in were the worst.

Even those closest to him, even though they were living in the newly established modern Turkey, none of them could assimilate the synthesis of thought that Atatürk had in mind. Almost all of them were still under the influence of one of the four currents. 

Those who claimed to have understood him probably misunderstood him and therefore made all kinds of mistakes.

The situation is not very different today. Those who are still under the influence of those four currents are gathered in different poles. 

Let me not say four, because today I can say that there are no Ottomanists left.

I think there are very few, if any, Ottomanists left today. There are certainly those who dream of empire, but those who dream of empire are mostly those who are under the influence of the Islamism movement today. The name of the Islamism movement has changed and today it is called Political Islam. In principle, this view has been ruling the country for quite a long time. 

However, I would like to draw attention to one more issue. 

While the Islamism movement aimed to save the state during the Ottoman period, today's political Islam dreams of destroying the Republic of Turkey and establishing a new state based on Islam. 

Of course, we would be wrong if we said that every representative of this view of political Islam dreams of destroying the state. 

A large segment of the population actually has a moderate Islamic view. Those with religious views only complain about the mistakes made by the current state. What they talk about as gains is the freedom to live a religious life that the religious sector has gained with the current government.

Political Islamists, on the other hand, are of the opinion that the state should at least be transformed, if not destroyed. Religious extremists, on the other hand, want to destroy the state and establish Sharia law. 

It is the influence of this view of Political Islam that makes people say "The Republic has destroyed all our thinking barriers". 

According to this view, the Republic is an obstacle to the realization of their dreams. That is why the Turkish Republic was once removed from every state institution. Still not all of them have been replaced. That's why they don't want to say the name Atatürk, because Atatürk and Kemalist thought is the biggest obstacle in the way of establishing the Islamic Turkey of their dreams.

But I have to admit that by using the advantages of being in power for so many years, they are now well advanced in the stages of the state transformation they want. And they are no longer doing this transformation in secret, but openly.

Let me talk a little bit about today's extensions of the Turkism movement. 

Today's influences of the Turkism movement have a point of view that emphasizes ethnic nationalism when they talk about nationalism, as in the Ottoman period.

Therefore, their approach to those who have different ethnic roots among our citizens today is ethnic in dimension. 

In return, like a reaction, citizens from different ethnic backgrounds feel excluded and therefore they react in the form of increased feelings of ethnic nationalism. In fact, this rise has reached such a high level that there are some who can be described as separatists and who have dragged the country into a spiral of terrorism for years. But if so many people persistently vote for a certain party, it is useful to examine the sociological dimension of this. This means that they accept that party as representing them.

I myself define myself as a nationalist. However, my nationalist feelings are definitely not ethnic. I can say that it is partly the effect of living here for many years. Everywhere you turn here you see people from different ethnic backgrounds. 

But if I say that my nationalism is based on the principles of nationalism shown by Atatürk, I would be describing myself more accurately. That is, a nationalism free of religious and ethnic concerns. 

For me, it is enough for someone to be a lover of this homeland and the flag, regardless of their ethnic origin. 

This includes both our cognates living in the sister Turkic states and our brothers and sisters of other ethnic origins who want to unite with us. 

Since I am aware that the Republic of Turkey can be stronger in unity with the sister Turkic states, I constantly remind in my articles that there is still much to be done for the sake of this unity. But this is not in the sense of a dream of Turanism, but more in the sense of unity of power and cultural fusion. For this reason, I do not refrain from expressing my sensitivity in various articles that our language should be a pure Turkish language free of foreign words. Because I am a Turk and I know that the Turkish language is a very deep-rooted language of the world. For example, I never understand why the old Göktürk alphabet is not taught in our schools. However, it is a very simple alphabet. 

Anyway, let's talk about the Westernization movement. 

In today's Turkey, there are actually not a few people who are influenced by the Westernism movement. 

However, as with other movements, this movement is misinterpreted by some of those who are under its influence as being completely integrated into the West. 

For some of these people, the idea of Westernism has evolved into a secular lifestyle and western admiration. 

This is the reason for the reaction against those who have adopted this lifestyle in the country. At the same time as Westernization, this group has also suffered a cultural erosion.

However, Westernism aims to adapt to the modern world without compromising its own culture and to achieve a standard of living at the level of prosperity of modern states by accepting the good aspects of the West that suit us.

Of course, within all three currents, there is a group of people who can be called moderates, and in fact, if we take these moderates as a proportion, I can say that the vast majority of the society are these moderates.

Those who are under the influence of the Westernization movement and at the same time are moderates define themselves today as following the path shown by Atatürk, and it is the reaction of this group that is the main reaction against those who hold political Islamist views.

The love of Atatürk is actually a love that cannot be destroyed no matter what is done for the citizens who can be called moderates in all three main currents. 

Even though they all have different worldviews, when it comes to Atatürk and the love of the motherland, they have always shown those who intend to make them forget Atatürk and erase him from their memories that these values of this nation cannot be destroyed by clinging tightly together despite all the black propaganda.

And yet, for some reason, society is in a state of polarization. 

I think the reason for this is that unfortunately the society has not adopted the current of thought that Atatürk put forward.

Okay, society has not adopted it, but has it at least understood it?

I think the answer to this question is no! 

After all, since the polarization is still going on, at least a certain segment of society has not yet understood Atatürk's dream of unity. 

Perhaps this idea has not been explained well enough.

The mistakes made by every government that came to power after the great leader's passing, and even by the military cadres who seized power through coup d'état from time to time, have a great share in this.

But this is not the only reason.

Although Atatürk is appreciated and respected for being a savior in his time, unfortunately, I think there is no one who has internalized his views and understood what he wanted to do.

Even though there is an outpouring of enthusiastic feelings on the days of every national holiday, afterwards everyone goes on living their lives with the worldview of whichever current they are under the influence of. In other words, they prefer to act with the logic of a fan, in hatred towards those on the opposite pole.

The result? For some people, it doesn't matter if the country has come to this, they say that they are reis and reis. For some, the bozkurt sign and Turkism come to the fore, while for others, despite all the criticism for not cutting ties with terrorism, the views of the party in question are still acceptable. Others are still concerned about right-wing or left-wing politics. In short, the division in society is at its peak. 

Unfortunately, no one follows Atatürk's real thoughts! Everyone is clinging to Atatürk a little bit on the side that suits them.

Let me ask those who claim to be rightist or leftist. 

Do you think Atatürk was a rightist or a leftist? Does anyone know? 

Or I can also ask the supporters of other movements, was he an Islamist or a Turkist?

Let me not make you wait too long, I will tell you the answer, Atatürk was neither. Atatürk was a scientist. 

He said, "My spiritual heritage is science and reason."

"Those who want to follow me after me will be my spiritual heirs if they accept the guidance of reason and science on this basic axis."

"We will take science and science from wherever they are and put them in the minds of every nation. There are no conditions for science and science." 

Therefore, the only path that those who claim to be his heirs should follow is the path of science and science. 

He said that we will take science and science from wherever they are, but I think it is incomplete. He probably forgot to say that we will produce science and science. 

If we want a future at the level of modern civilizations, let's stop bickering among ourselves and start working on the path of science and science to the best of our ability to leave a country where our future generations can live in peace and prosperity.

Let's produce science and science, the rest is a story.

No matter how much I criticize, I think we will have an electric vehicle by state force. First of all, let me wish you well. But while we're on the subject, they say the battery will fill up fast, but fast is like half an hour. So it's not a five-minute job like putting gasoline in. 

Still, it will probably be improved in the future. 

I know it's not my place, but I wanted to remind you that the world is moving on hydrogen, the vehicle's tank is filled in five minutes like normal gasoline, like gas vehicles. These vehicles also have electric motors installed, the only difference is that since a system that generates electricity using hydrogen and constantly recharges the battery is built, first of all, there is no need for such a heavy battery, that is, the vehicle saves the power it spends for all those heavy batteries, and on the other hand, the gas coming out of the exhaust is water vapor. So it's a green vehicle.

Producing hydrogen is not that difficult, we are surrounded by seas and Turkey is a hot enough country. Using the sun, the energy can be stored as hydrogen. So the energy is free. It is much easier to ensure that existing gas stations can also provide hydrogen fuel, rather than building a thick infrastructure of power lines everywhere. So there are many advantages to hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Look, I couldn't help myself again, but what can I do, Atatürk said to take science and science wherever it is. It's up to me to listen to him.

Stay with Ataturk, you can't go wrong!

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow.