The Time for Turkish Society to Return to Its Essence Has Come

Considering the conditions of my country, I can say that I had a good life. According to the poet's account, I have already passed half of my life, which I am not yet in the middle of. But we are going through the moments when the flow of time evolves from serum drops to raging streams, when we are subjected to the domination of intense emotions and thoughts as much as possible, and unfortunately we are going through the days and pains that are worth a lifetime. You know what they say about brewing, here we are in a state that boils without being able to brew and burns its own bottom as a country. We can neither be this brew nor escape from burning. In the final analysis, ours is a unique state. 

I was born and raised in a family structure and neighbourhood that is quite nationalist, conservative, loyal to its country and values, and social democratic. Karagümrük, the symbol of rebellion, was the name of the neighbourhood where the mystical atmosphere was intense. I was educated in the public schools of the Republic. From the moustaches of our teachers, we could understand what kind of people they were and their views on life. If the moustache was sharp, it meant one thing; if it was shaggy, it meant another. But on Monday mornings we used to recite the National Anthem and our pledge every day so loudly and with such pleasure that the type of moustache didn't matter to any of us then. Maybe we were not all the same, but our hearts beat for the same oath. 

Karagümrük was not a neighbourhood where rich people lived. But it was also the centre of Istanbul in our opinion. Even the municipality building was within walking distance. While the well-to-do lived in decent houses, our neighbours, whom we called poor, lived in houses that were a little more ramshackle than the others, out of necessity. In those years, we were not very familiar with the apartment culture. In a neighbourhood where men were tradesmen, workers and all women were housewives, with a single school, a single bakery and a single supermarket, it was difficult to think otherwise in the conditions of those days. In those years, everything had to be uniform, everyone had to look alike. In fact, we didn't want more for some reason. It was difficult to live in those days in a way. Terror had come to our doorstep. Although it may sound like a fairy tale to today's young people, the streets were almost besieged in those days. Sometimes we could not even go to visit our relatives for Eid. Terror was spreading death. 

Under all circumstances, one can have a philosophical outlook on life. In those years, in a way, we, the young people with a new moustache, were inculcated that it was necessary to let go, to be able to let go. For us, like our elders, ‘Let it go’ became the meaning of life after a certain point. Suddenly, as I found myself in the despair of this neglect, the military school came to my rescue, and I threw myself in there for dear life. Later, I realised that this neglect, this state of not seeing, not hearing, not knowing, not being interested, not being touched, was something that we can call the routine of our Turkish society. 

So is it a good thing to let it go? In my opinion, those who let go think that letting go is sinless. This is not the truth of the matter. The perpetrators derive their power from the negligence of the negligent. The moment you stop letting go, you see the injustices around you and hear the hoarse cries of the oppressed in your country. You realise that the cries of mothers whose sons are martyred are your cries too. You cannot ignore the cries of pensioners who cannot live on the minimum wage. You embrace the cries of the masses seeking justice where there is no justice. 

Do you have to be one of the victims who make the cries of the corrupt order heard by those who want to hear them from every cell, and do you have to complain about the corruption of the order after being victimised? Don't you realise that by letting it go, you are one of those who resist to prevent the destruction of this corrupt mentality, this structure that oppresses us all, which is sworn to leave nothing but itself, nothing of value? Isn't it always because of our indifference that we have fallen into the position of protecting this so-called perfect order and resisting its collapse? 

Just as Atatürk did not bow down to the Allied Powers for the salvation of the Turkish nation, and just as the Prophet did not say ‘bye bye’ to the proposals of the polytheists to find a middle way for the salvation of humanity, shouldn't we now say a total stop to this mob and write the story from the beginning in the most correct way? I think we should.

Today, the only way to stop the rentier mentality, which injects the poison they produce by adding the arrogance of being the imperial legacy of the past to the paranoia inherited from the disintegration, not only into our veins but also into the veins of future generations, is not to give up, but to stand up and say stop. With this mentality that dominates politics and bureaucracy today, a hysterical reputation complex is being celebrated. However, underneath this lies a deep lack of self-worth. We need to see that this deprivation will finish them and us if we do not stop it. In order to better build their own interests and rent-seeking world, they are looking at their own ways by making us enemies of the seven worlds, to cut us off from the world, and where it is not enough, by turning us against each other. They turn us into their hands by means of hamaset and cruelty. Thanks to the polarisation created by this separation, they create huge glaciers between us and trap us in it, making us unable to move. 

I believe that we need to find a way to melt these glaciers between us, in Turkish society, and develop methods that will make us free. For this, first of all, we need to listen to each other. For a century we have been waking up to the same day, to despair. By exploiting our national/religious feelings and abusing the pains of the past, they are invading our feelings and thus they open a playground for their own pleasure and evil. 

Why should we suffer their lives of luxury and splendour, which they have made better through oppression, and become partners in their sins? 

Don't you think it is time to say hello to a new life as Turkish society?