BATI CEPHESİ- THE WESTERN FRONT

TÜRKÇE (For the English translation, please scroll down)

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BATI CEPHESİNDE YENİ BİR ŞEY YOK.

Bu ülkenin yarısı 6 gündür bir garip yaşam biçimi sürdürmeye başladı. Sabah makyaj traş parfüm işe- okula, akşam ise maske cepte eyleme gidiyoruz. Gidemezsek pencerede sokakta tencere tava çalıyoruz, Gezi parkına malzeme götürüyoruz.

Sanırsın Utopia!

Gece uykumuz gelip de yataklara giderken “o çocuklar orada hala gaz altında, polis copuyla” diye vicdan azabı çekmekten ülkenin yarısı “walking dead” şeklinde mor gözlerle dolaşır oldu. Uykusuzluğumuzla gurur duyuyoruz. Etrafımızda  yüzü gözü sağlıklı pembe yanaklı tipler out, aksayarak yürüyen, öksüren tıksıran kırmızı gözlü solgun tipler in.

Bizim gibi üç çocuk daha ister mis in?

Çevremizde genç olup da Gezi’ye, Meydan’a gitmeyene tuhaf bakar olduk. Aileler çocukları okulda arkadaşları tarafından “ezik” denmesin diye eyleme kendi elleriyle gönderir oldu. Gidemeyen ergenlerin dırdırları aileleri bunaltıyor. Sonunda ana baba kızın elini tutup Meydan’a götürüyor.

Eh götürsünler tabi, bu bizim kuşağın değil, onların eylemi.

Şanlı Gezi Muharebesi!

Babalar anneler arkadaşları arasında içi burkularak da olsa  “oğlum şurada gaz yemiş, bizim kızı o sokaktan kaçarken burada kıstırılmışlar, ama allah razı olsun bir teyze bizimkilere limon kesip vermiş, esnaf parasız su vermiş” diye gururla anlatıyor, sen ne diyorsun!  

Tuhaf günlerdeyiz!

Face twitter yıkılıyor. O ne yaratıcılık, o ne mizah duygusu... Meğer bizim gençler neymiş yahu! İnsan kızamıyor bunlara. Aksine “iyilik dalgası” büyüyerek herkesi sarıyor. Parkta çöp toplayanlar mı istersin, eylemden eve gidemeyen fırlamalara  evini açanlar mı, telefonunu kaybedip de çaldırana “abi telefonunu yerde buldum, annen aradı telaşlanmasın diye açmadım, telefonunla seni şurada bekliyorum” diyen mi…

Ağlarsın.

O derece!

15-25 yaş arası tuhaf ama 65 yaş üstü iyice tuhaf! Bildiğin gibi değil!

Camdan pencereden alamıyoruz ana babaları! Ellerinde tencere tava bütün gece tan tan tan! Yetmiyor bir de sokaktan topluyoruz “anne olmaz yürüyüşe gidemezsin, bak dizin ağrıyor zaten, baba beline doktor ameliyat dedi, nereye yürüyeceksin”

Tövbe tövbeee! Gir içeri!

Laf da hazır!

“Sen tencere tava çalmazsan, ben çalmazsam nasıl çıkacak karanlıklar aydınlıklara!”

Ba ba ba ba!

Sokağa çıkan komşunun elinde tencere ve kepçe yoksa sokaktan dönen suç aletini ona teslim ediyor. Nöbetleşe eylemdeyiz apartmanlarda. Gürültüden “uyuyamıyoruz” diye şikayet eden komşuya, kapıyı açtığında elinde tencere tavayla yakalanan (!) protest komşu “uyuma zaten, uyanın diye yapıyoruz, yeter uyuduğunuz” diyor. Biz uyumuyoruz ya, kimseyi de uyutmuyoruz.

E Uyan ama Türkiye!

82 yaşında abim, elinde migros torbasıyla geliyor. İçi meyve dolu. “O çocuklar kaç gündür kuru şeyler yiyor, boğazlarından birazcık meyve geçsin istedim, bunu götürür müsün o parka” diyor. Gözler doluyor, “gel seni de götüreyim” diyorsun. “Ben 2 gece yattım orada, gaz bana dokundu birazcık” diyor.

Nasıl öpmezsin elini!

Ön saftaki 17likleri arıyorsun, “abla şimdi İnönü’de konuşlandık, (konuşlandık ne leyn) tvdeyiz, aç tvyi” diyor. “Kardeşim eylemden sonra eviniz uzaksa gelin kalın” diyorsun, “tamam abla internetten arkadaşlara yazarım” diyor. “Yaw internet derken… ulen kaç kişi gelir acaba… salonda yere yatak açsam kaç kişi sığar” diye hesap yapıyorsun.

Tomanın bunlarla işi zor!

Bir tweette bin kişiler!

Polis diyor ki, “gazı sıkıyoruz, kaçışıyorlar, sonra dönüp yine toplanıyorlar, bütün gece buna devam ediyorlar.” Böyle bir şey görmemişler ki. Bu fırlamalara laf geçmiyor. Tomaya polise copa bana mısın demiyorlar.

-Napıyonuz lan burada! Dağılsanıza!

-Abi ama sohbet ediyoruz arkadaşlarla!

-Oolum bak git!

-Gidemem abi, gaz yapıyo !

Sonunda Çarşı, Artık herşeye karşı!

Eylemi Halk Tv’nin olduğu sokağa çekmişler, polis olayı canlı veren tek tv nin önünde, gaza geldiğini fark etmeden  canlı yayında  gaz’ino show yapıyor. Kamera polise ışık tutuyor, polis kameraya fener yakıyor.

Tomaya karşı kendi araçları bile var: POMA!

Polise Müdahale Aracı.

Yaratıcı keratalar!  

Taban eylemde derken hakikaten platform tabanlar eylem yapıyor. Öğle yemeğinde Kanyona git. Hepsi yemeği bırakmış hepsi protestoda.

Platformlar bi metre! Ojeli eller havada. Kanyon inliyor. İstifa istifaaa…

Boykot edilen gruba bağlı sosyete etçisi önünde aynı şüpheli şahıslar görülüyor. Ellerinde dövizler…

“Kuzuların sessizliği”

Kendin pişir, kendin ye”

Görsen inanmazsın!

Tvler var ya! Hani kaç gündür belgesel vermekten, yatak odası sesiyle büyük göçleri sunan Tarkan’dan sonra insanı belgeselden tümüyle soğutan kanallar! Plaza halkı yine öğle yemeğinde TV binasının önünde toplanmış. Ellerinde beş Türk Lirası… Havada sallıyorlar.

Kaç para? Kaç para?

Canlı yayın kaç para?

15 deseler alacaklar, o kadar yani!

Ha bu arada para da kaçmış hakikaten, bi milyoor TL yurt dışına gitmiş. TV’de veryansın eden edene. Nefes almak ekonomik krizden daha önemli fark etmiyorlar. Oysa o saatte Gezi parkta bir grup hanım topluca yoga yapıyor.

Derin bir nefes alıyoruz ve  topluca…

Ooohhmmm!!

Aramızdan ispiyoncular da çıktı. Bihaber bir haber kanalına telefon açılıyor. “Taksimde bir halk ayaklanmasını ihbar etmek istiyorum, beş gündür sürüyor” diyor. Telefondaki kız “biliyoruz” diye geveleyince lafı yapıştırıyor. “Hiç söz etmiyorsunuz da haberiniz yok sandık, haber verelim bari dedik” diyor.

Pis ihbarcı!

İşte böyle böyle geldik bugünlere.

İyiyiz şükür! Yok bi yaramazlık şükür!

Yine yaptık Çılgın Türklüğümüzü, dünyayı bi zıplattık yerinden. O kadar ki kimisi ülkede duramadı. Kimisi de meydan bana kaldı  diye meydana çıktı.

Ama çok geeeç. Çok geç.

Meydanlar bizimdir, bizim kalacaktır artık!

Dünden bu yana ne değişti dersen…

Hiç.

Bizim vatan böyledir. Durur durur da hiç ummadığın yerden vurur.

90 sene önce neyse… Aynen o!

Kısacası…

Batı Cephesinde Yeni Bir Şey Yok!

Bi görsen gururdan ağlarsın!

Mine Baş Bayar

!

''Everywhere Taksim,everywhere resistance''.

(Image from the media.)

ENGLISH
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This text came to me by e-mail. I liked it very much so I'm sharing it here with you.

For the last 6 days half of the country has started to lead an odd lifestyle. In the morning it’s makeup, shave, perfume and off to school or work, come evening it’s protest time with masks in pockets.[1] If we can’t do that, we play pots and pans from the windows.[2] We are carrying provisions to the Promenade Park. You would think it’s Utopia.

When we climb weary into our beds at night, the thought of those kids still under gas and facing billy clubs nags our consciences so much that half the nation is walking around with purple rings around their eyes like the “walking dead”. And we are proud of our insomnia. A healthy look with rosy cheeks are out, coughing and wheezing, pale skin and red-eyes are in!

If they turn out like us, would you still want three childr in?[3]           

Anybody around who is young yet does not go to Gezi or the Square elicits disapproving glances.[4] Families have started to send their offspring to protest actions themselves, so that their schoolmates don’t think they’re “repressed”. 

Adolescents who aren’t allowed pester their families with their nagging until their parents finally give in, take their daughter by the hand, and go off to the Square.

And so they should; this action belongs to their generation, not ours.

The glorious battle of Gezi![5]

With some anxiety but also with pride fathers and mothers tell their friends stories like “my son was gassed at such and such a place, by daughter was cornered over here when trying to run away through that street, but an auntie, Allah praise her, cut her a lemon, and some shopkeepers gave free water”[6]. How about that? Strange days!

Face and Twitter are bursting, what creativity, what humor... Who would have thought it of our youth?[7] You can’t even get angry at them! Quite the contrary, a growing “wave of goodwill” has engulfed everybody. People cleaning up the trash strewn in the park, people opening their homes to those who can’t reach their own, people who answer a lost cellular phone with words like “I found your phone on the ground, your mother called, I didn’t answer so that she wouldn’t panic, I’m waiting for you at such and such place”...

You could cry.

It’s gone that far.

15-25 is odd enough, but the over 65’s are really strange! Beyond what you would expect.

We can’t tear our mothers and fathers away from the windows! Pot and pan in hand bang-bang-bang all night! As if that’s not enough, we have to pull them in from the streets. “You can’t go, mother, what about your aching knees? Dad, the doctor said you need an operation on your back, how do you expect to walk? Give me patience! Get back in!”

But they have their answer at the ready!

“If you don’t clang pots and pans, and I don’t clang pots and pans, how will we move from darkness to light?

Bla bla bla bla!

If a neighbor on the way out is not armed with his criminal weapon, the neighbor coming back home hands over his own pot and pan. Demonstrations in our apartment blocks are in shifts now. If a neighbor comes to complain that he can’t sleep, the protest-neighbor opening  the door and caught red handed with pot and pan answers “so don’t sleep, we’re doing this to wake you up. We’ve slept enough!”

Well then, wake up Turkey!

My 82 year old brother drops by with Migros bag in hand.[8] It’s stuffed with fruit. “Those kids have been living on dry food for days”, he says, “I felt it was time thay had some fruit. Can you take this to that park?” Eyes start welling up. You find yourself saying “Come, I’ll take you there”. “I spent two nights there” he answers, “the gas didn’t agree with me much”.

How can you not kiss his hand?[9]

You look for the 17 year olds in the front lines, “lady, we have positioned ourselves (what kind of jargon is “positioned”) at İnönü[10] now, we’re on TV, turn it on” he says. You say “look, brother, if you need a place to stay afterwards, come over “, and the answer comes “okay lady, I’ll pass it on to my friends over the internet”. Then you think “oh heck, over the Internet... How many will show up?” You start planning “how many can I take on if I lay beds on the living room floor?”

The toma [11] will have a hard time with these guys.

One tweet and there’s a thousand of them.

The police say “we throw gas at them, they scatter, then they come back and reassemble.”

They have never seen anything like this. These upstarts will obey nothing. Toma, police, billy club, they take it all in their stride.

-What are you doing here you bums! Disperse!

-We’re just chatting here among buddies.

-Listen son, beat it.

-Can’t move, got gas!

And finally Çarşı, now, whatever it is, they’re against it![12]

They have drawn the action to the street where Halk TV has its offices. The police, not realizing the ploy, performs a live gas-ino show right before the cameras of the only TV station broadcasting the action live.[13] The camera points a spotlight at the police, the police point a flashlight back.

The young have their own vehicle to counter the toma: POMA![14]

Vehicle for Intervening in the Police.

Creative rascals.

Speaking about the “base” taking action, now it’s platform soles taking action.[15] Just go to Kanyon at noon break.[16] Everybody has given up eating, everybody is protesting. Platforms a meter high. Fists with polished nails in the air. Kanyon is reverberating : “Resign, resiiign...”

The same suspicious persons appear before the meat restaurant catering to the high-society of the opposing group, placards waving...

“The Silence of the Lambs”.[17]

“Self-service”.[18]

You would hardly believe your eyes!

And those TV networks? You know, the ones who have for days been broadcasting things like the great migrations narrated by Tarkan in his best bedroom voice-[19] enough to make you go off documentaries! The Plaza population band together at noon break before the TV building nearby, waving bills of 5 Lira.[20]

“How much? How much?”

”How much for live coverage?”

If they say 15, they’ll buy it, and no joke![21]

Oh, and speaking of money; it seems a mbillllion TL has really fled the country.[22] On TV, complaints in succession. They can’t grasp that being able to breathe is more important than avoiding an economic crisis. Ironically, at that very hour in the Promenade Park, a group of women are in their yoga session.

A deep breath and all together now...

Ommmmm!                   

And we have informers among us. Someone telephones an apathetic news station[23]: “I want to report a public insurrection at Taksim Square,  it has been going on for five days now.” The girl at the other end mumbles something like “we know ” to which comes the reply “you never say anything about it so we thought you hadn’t noticed, and decided to let you know.” The dirty stool pigeon.

So that’s how we came to these days.

We’re okay, bless heaven! Nothing amiss, bless heaven!

We did our Crazy Turk thing again, shook the world for a spell.[24] So much that some couldn’t stay in the country.[25] And some filled the space by stepping into the space.[26]

But too laaate. Too late!

Those open spaces are ours, and will stay that way from now on.

If you were to ask what has changed through time...

Nothing at all.

This is the way of our country. It waits, it waits, and hits you where you least expect it.

As it was 90  years ago, so it is today... exactly the same.[27]

To sum it all up...

Nothing New on the Western Front![28]

By Mine Baş Bayar

---

[1] Makeshift masks against gas.

[2] The “pots and pans” action started in the first evenings of the uprising, when people expressed support for  demoonstrators clashing with the police  on the streets by banging together kitchen utensils from the windows. Ulusal TV encourages continuation of the action by giving the signal to start clanging at 21:00 every evening. In his unrepentant parting  speech at the airport before leaving for his North African tour, Prime Minister Erdoğan made the condescending remark “pots and pans, the rest is just air” (“tencere tava, gerisi hava”), a remark that is Erdoğan all over.

[3]Admittedly  I forced the original word play here; the reference is to Erdoğan’s strange insistence that every family have three children.

[4] “Gezi“is Gezi Parkı, “Promenade Park”, “the Square” is “Taksim Square”.

[5] Gezi Parkı, the “Promenade Park” at the heart of the uprising.

[6] Lemon as a remedy against the effects of gas on the eyes and skin, and water to wash it all away.

[7] “Who would have thought it of our youth?” We thought they were apolitical and selfish.

[8] Migros is a supermarket chain.

[9] Kissing someone’s hand is a sign of deep respect in our country.

[10] A locality, there are many by that name., I don’t know which.

[11] Toma is acronym for “Vehicle for Intervening in Public Disorder”(Toplumsal Olaylara Müdahele Aracı), an armored truck equipped to scquirt pressurized water.

[12] The original slogan rhymes, Çarşı, herşeye karşı. Çarşı is the name of the supporter group of the Beşiktaş soccer team. For once in their history, the supporter groups of the major soccer clubs have buried their hatchets and united in a common cause.

[13] The only regular TV channel giving continuous coverage of the conflicts. The other channel giving a play-by-play is the sattelite-only Ulusal.

[14] Polise Müdahele Aracı. This probably alludes to the road machine thay hijacked one night at Beşiktaş.

[15] There is a play on words here, taban meaning  both the “base” of the population, the grass oots,  an the sole of a shoe. Platform soles are high soles popular among chic society ladies of shorter stature.

[16] Large and very posh shopping center in Istanbul.

[17] Meaning the docile AKP supporters are now speechless.

[18] Turkish Kendin Pişir Kendin Ye, literally “cook it yourself and eat it yourself”, meaning the “high society of the opposing group”, i.e., the pro-AKP nouveau riche, produce arguments that no one will believe but themselves.

[19] Tarkan is a popular pop singer and young girls’ heartthrob.

[20] Plaza is another shopping mall. The “Plaza population” who “band together at noon break” would be  people working in nearby offices who take their meals in the shopping mall eateries.

[21] The main TV stations tried to downplay the struggle on the street, giving only limited coverage at newstime, mainly because their bosses depend on the AKP’s favour for their business interests. Interpreting this as greed overriding ethics, objecting viewers are symbolically offering to pay for air time.

[22] The misspelling is in the original, a portmanteau word of “Million” and “billion” with a stretch in the middle of the word (bi milyoor) to make it read like excited colloquial talk. Or maybe a commentator really made the slip? TL is Turkish Lira.

[23] Original bihaber bir haber kanalı, an alliterative pun.

[24] Allusion to the popular historical novel about the Turkish War of Independence,“Those Crazy Turks” (Şu Çılgın Türkler) by Turgut Özakman.

[25] Allusion to Prime Minister Erdoğan going off on a North Africa tour in the middle of the crisis.

[26] Allusion to faces in the AKP hierarchy jostling about, reminding themselves as possible alternatives.

[27] Allusion to the Turkish War of Independence 1919-1922.

[28] Allusion to the famous anti-war novel Im Westen Nichts Neues, by Erich Maria Remarque, known in English as “All Quiet on the Western Front”. The Turkish title is a more faithful translation of the German original. The “Western Front” refers in this context  to the front agaiinst the Western Powers who were the victorious allies of 1918, against whom the War of Independence was fought. Today, western imperialist ambitions and capitalist interests are seen as the support behind the AKP government.