BAYRAK VE KURDELE- THE FLAG AND THE RIBBON

TÜRKÇE (English text further below)

(Aşağıdaki yazıyı 21 Ekim 2011'de elektronik postayla arkadaş ve tanışlarıma göndermiştim. Bugün, 30 Mayıs 2012, yine bir "Ergenekon" duruşması var, 191'inci duruşma! 64'ü tutuklu 256 "sanığın" davaları görülüyor. Hakkında elle tutulur suç delili olmayan Prof. Mehmet Haberal'in avukatları müvekkillerinin tahliyesini taleb ediyorlar. Bu yazımı bugün burada tekrar yayınlamam bu bakımdan özel anlam kazanıyor.)

Merhabalar arkadaşlar ve tanışlar,

13 Nisan 2009’da bir “Ergenekon dalgası” ile Prof. Dr. Mehmet Haberal dahil bir grup akademisyen içeri alındı ve o zamanlar kendimi halâ mert ve hakbilir bir milletin vatandaşı zanneden ben bir coşkuyla penceremize bir bayrak astım ve “bu insanlar serbest bırakılıncaya kadar bu bayrak inmeyecek” dedim. Zannettim ki birkaç hafta içinde sözümü yerine getirmiş olarak bayrağı indirebileceğim.

Prof. Dr. Mehmet Haberal

13 Ekim 2010’da bayrak solmuş, uçları sökülmeye başlamış, halâ yerinde asılıydı. Bu bilgiyi o zaman sizlerle paylaştım, hatırlayanınız vardır belki.

Sonra bayrağımızın arkasını çevirdim! Solgun yüzü arkada kalsın diye!

Zaman geçti, çürümüş çerçevelerimiz sökülüp Winsa’lar takıldı. O vesileyle bayrak indi. Binanın ön yüzü boyanırken içeride bekledi. Sonra yine astım.

Şimdi (21 Ekim 2011) bayrağımın bu yüzü de soldu, uçları iyice söküldü. Ama ağzımdan çıkmış bulundu, paçavraya dönüşmekte olan bayrağımı indiremiyorum çünkü “Ergenekon“ mahkumları halâ içeride, bu tezgâhı kuranlar bir referandum ve bir de seçim götürdüler, “kul hakkı yemeyen” Müslüman vatandaşlarım bu durumla gayet barışık, oruçlarıyla, iftar ziyafetleriyle ve “60 aya varan krediler” kullanarak ödedikleri uzatmalı Ramazan bayramlarıyla ahretlerini garantilemişler bir kere!

(Böyle insanların gittiği cennet nasıl bir cennet?)

19’uncu yüzyılın sonlarına doğru haksız yere tutuklanıp sürgün edilen Alfred Dreyfus isimli bir Fransız subay Fransız halkını ikiye bölmüştü.

Bir tarafta (resmi makamların sözüne güvenerek) suçlu olduğuna inananlar , diğer tarafta suçsuzluğunu savunanlar.

 Yüzbaşı Alfred Dreyfus'un rütbelerinin sökülüşü.

BİR TEK subay.

Bugün bütün Genelkurmay’ı Hasdal’a taşısalar halkımızın ipinde değil. (Durun bi dakka, cep telefonuma yine mesaj geldi,  daha da süper bir tarife öneriyorlar, dakikalar arttıkça daha avantajlı konuşabilecekmişiz. Yaşasın, daha az ödeyerek daha da çok laklak yapabileceğiz! Telefonumuz dinleniyor olabilir ama ne gam!)

Emile Zola bir makaleyle kendini bu adaletsizliğe karşı savaşa atmış. Ve makalenin başlığı sadece Fransız değil, dünya tarihine ve edebiyatına malolmuş!

“J’ACCUSE!”- “İtham ediyorum!” (“L’Aurore”, 12/01/1898)

 

Makalede hükümeti ve devlet başkanını bile bile masum bir insanı mahkum edip sürmekle suçlamış.

Ve kendisi mahkemelik olmuş!

Ve uzun bir mücadeleden sonra- kazanmış!

Dreyfus azad edilmiş , bütün rütbe ve nişanları iade edilmiş. Gerçi 12 senelik sürgün ve hapisten sonra artık sıhhatini yitirmiş ama hiç değilse kendisi ve ailesi “hain” damgasından kurtulmuş, onurları geri verilmiş.

Yüzbaşı Dreyfus'a rütbesi, nişanları ve onuru iade ediliyor.

Bu manevi zaferde olaylara duyarsız kalmayan Fransız kamuoyunun büyük rolü var!

Ne kadar çok dünyalığı ne kadar çok vadeyle elde edebileceğiyle kafayı bozmuş milletimin böyle teferruatlarla harcamaya vakti yok tabii! Mesele bi futbol takımı değil ki uğruna savaşsın. (“Darağacında olsak bile son sözümüz Fenerbahçe"). Ya da en  azından oyunu konuştursun!

 Fenerbahçe spor kulübü genel başkanı Aziz Yıldırım 3 Temmuz 2011’de şike iddiasıyla tuttuklanınca taraftarlar darağacını bile göze aldılar. Bugün, 30 Mayıs 2012,  Sn. Yıldırım halâ tutuklu ve sıhhi problemleri var.

4 Kasım 1979’da Tahran’da A.B.D. büyükelçiliği basıldı, içerideki herkes rehin alındı ve aylarca rehin tutuldu.

Amerikan halkı da orada kapalı tutulan vatandaşlarını unutmadıklarını göstermek için, popüler bir şarkının sözlerine gönderme yaparak, sarı kurdeleler taktılar. (“Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree”, Irwin Levine ve L. Russell Brown, 1973)

Tahran'da rehin tutulan Amerikalı diplomat Bruce Laingen'in eşinin bir ağaca astığı kurdele.

Ben biraz da bunu hatırlayarak  Silivri ve Hasdal’da mahpus tutulanları unutmadığımı göstermek için bir siyah kurdele takmaya karar verdim. Bir kurdele de penceremdeki solmuş, yırtılmış bayrağa taktım.

Diyeceksiniz ki “bunu kim biliyor?”; kurdeleyi merak edip soranlar biliyor.

Şimdi bir de sizler biliyorsunuz.
,

DİP NOT: İran’lılar 52 Amerikalıyı 444 gün rehin tuttular. Bizim “Ergenekon” ve “Balyoz” savcıları Humeyni'nin teröristlerine açık fark attılar yani!

ENGLISH

 (The following is the English translation of a letter I sent by e-mail to friends and acquaintances on October 21st, 2011. Today, May 30th 2012, there is yet another one of the endless "Ergenekon" trials in session, the 191st!  The cases of 256 "suspects", of which 64 are held in custody, come before the judge. The lawyers of Prof. Haberal are asking for the acquittal of their client on the grounds of the absence of any incriminating evidence for any crime. It is therefore especially meaningful that I publish this letter here today on this date.)

Hello friends and acquaintances.

On April 13th 2009, in the course of (yet another) “wave” of Ergenekon arrests, a group of academicians, including Prof. Dr. Mehmet Haberal (dean of Başkent University, Ankara), were taken into custody. At that time I still believed myself to be a member of a noble and just nation, and in a rush of indignation I hung a flag out of our window and said “this flag stays here until the day these people are set free!”. I believed at the time that, within a matter of weeks, I would be able to bring down the flag with my promise fulfilled.

Prof. Dr.Mehmet Haberal

By October 13th 2010 the flag was was still hanging, faded and with  edges frayed. I shared this with you then, maybe some still remember!

I turned the flag back to front, to keep the faded face inwards!

Then we changed the window frames and the flag was taken down. It waited indoors while the exterior of the building was being repainted. Then I hung it up again!

Now (October 21st, 2011), the flag is faded on both sides, the stitching around the edges has come completely loose. But once having given my word, I feel compelled to keep it. Torn and tattered as it may have become, I can’t take down my flag because the Ergenekon supects are still in detention. Those who concocted this frame-up job have since enjoyed another election victory and a referendum (for a new constitution)! Muslims claim never to “usurp another’s right”, yet they seem perfectly at ease with this gratuitous usurpation of the liberty of their brethren. Well, they do their fasting in Ramadan, capping every evening with a feast and the month with an extended holiday on “credit payable in up to 60 months”, so that should be enough to purchase them a place in heaven!

(With the kind of people who expect to go there, some heaven it will be!)

Towards the end of the 19th century, a French officer named Alfred Dreyfus was arrested on trumped up charges. The incident tore French public opinion in two!

The “Dreyfusards” who believed his innocence, in a face-off with the “Anti-Dreyfusards” who believed the government’s charges.

Capt Alfred Dreyfus being stripped of his rank and honours.

JUST ONE officer!

Today, no one gives a hoot if they cart the entire General Staff to Hasdal prison. (Excuse me a moment- I just got an SMS on my cell phone. Oh, it’s another super offer; YIPPEE! We can now babble even more and pay even less! The phoneline is probably tapped but who cares if the price is right?)

Emile Zola took up the cause of Captain Dreyfus and threw himself into a full-front struggle against the injustice with a damning newspaper article. The headline leading the text has become a milestone in the history not only of France, but of the world entire:

“J’ACCUSE!”- “I Accuse!”  (“L’Aurore”, Jan. 12, 1898)

He accused the government and the president of wilfully convicting and sending to exile an innocent man.

And Zola was himself hauled before the judge!

And after a long legal struggle, he triumphed.

Dreyfus was acquitted! His rank and honours were ceremoiously returned. 12 years of prison and exile had by then taken its toll on his health, but at least he and his family were absolved of the ignominy of “treason”. Their dignity was restored.

Capt, Dreyfus reinstated as an officer, all military honors returned.

This moral victory was due in great part to the French public, which was not insensitive to the issue!

But my compatriots can’t be bothered with such niceties, their minds being so busy figuring out how much worldy goods they can pile up on how many installments. It’s not a soccer team we’re talking about, so why get worked up? (“Even if they drag us to the scaffold, our last word is Fenerbahçe!”) Or even bother to vote?

 

When Aziz Yıldırım, general manager of the Fenerbahçe soccer club was arrested on charges of fraud the supporters of the club rallied in support. Mr. Yıldırım is still in prison and in failing health today, May 30th  2012. Team supporters supect a frame-up by the government, and the normally apolitical soccer fans were prompted to defiance when their team was in question, declaring themselves to be “ready to face the gallows”!

On November 4th, 1979, the U.S. Embassy in Teheran was raided and everyone in it taken hostage. The “hostage crisis” lasted for months.

As a symbol of solidarity and to show to the world they would not forget their compatriots in captivity, Americans back home took to wearing yellow ribbons. The inspiration came from a popular song,  “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree”. (Irwin Levine & L. Russell Brown, 1973)

Ribbon attached to tree by the wife of U.S. diplomat Bruce Laingen while he was held hostage in Teheran.

Partially influenced by that, I took to wearing a black ribbon, to show that I am not willing to forget those incarcerated in Silivri and Hasdal. I attached another black ribbon to the faded and soiled flag at the window.

You may ask “who knows about it?” Well, whoever asks me what it is for.

And now, whoever is reading this!

FOOTNOTE: The Iranians held the Americans hostage for 444 days. The prosecutors of the Ergenekon and Balyoz trials here have beaten them by a considerable margin.

BİR RÜYA- A DREAM

TÜRKÇE (English text further below)

Şimdi de bir rüyamı anlatacağım. Bu rüyayı gerçekten gördüm. Herhâlde bir ay kadar olmuştur.

Bir apartman dairesinin içi; bizim evden çok farklı değil! Bütün perdeler çekili, içerisi loş. İnsanlar var, gözleri kapalı, meditasyon yapar pozda yayılmışlar. Bedenlerine gri-kahverengi tonlarada yılanlar sarılmış. Yılanlar örülmüş saç görünümünde, hem birbirlerine, hem insanlara dolanmış. İnsanların meditasyonu adeta bir komaya dönüşmüş gibi, o yılanlar onlara sarılı kaldıkça o uyku hâli geçmeyecek.

Rüya nasıl mı bitti? Aslında bir tere varmadı. Bir hatırladığım arkada bir odadan ışık geliyordu ve ben o kasvetli atmosferden kaçmak için o tarafa gitmeye çalışıyordum. Gerçek evimizde kendi çalışma odamın olduğu taraf olduğunu uyanınca farkettim.

ENGLISH

And now I’ll share a dream. I really had this dream. It has been about a month or so!

The inside of an apartment, not unlike our own! All the curtains are drawn, it’s shadowy and dark inside. There are people inside, eyes closed, sprawled around in meditative poses. İntertwined with their bodies, and with each other, are snakes in grey-brown tones.The snakes form literal braids, extending from the bodies of the mystics, whose meditations have for all intents and purposes turned into a coma since they are unable to wake up so long as the snakes hold them in their coils.

How did the dream end? It really didn’t lead anywhere. One thing I remember is, there was a light coming from a back room and I was trying to get there to escape the opressive atmosphere. When I woke up I realized that, in our real home, it was the direction of my study.

19 MAYIS-İKİ GÜN SONRA- MAY 19th- TWO DAYS AFTER

TÜRKÇE (English text further below)

20 Mayıs gazeteleri çok cesaret vericiydi... ön sayfalar bayramı kutlayan insanların görüntüleriyle doluydu. Yalnız Taraf ve Zaman gazeteleri başka dünyadan gelmiş gibiydi! 

Tamam, Cumhuriyet'in değerlerine karşılar, bunu çoktan anladık, ama nihayet gazete bunlar, bir haber değeri de mi yoktu sokaklardaki yüzbinlerin?

Hükümete açık muhalefet yapan yayınlar katılımlara doğal olarak bol bol yer verdiler, satın alınmışlar ise hükümetin “çevir kazı yanmasın” yaklaşımına uyumlu olarak kazın çevrilmesine yardım ettiler- başbakanımızın “bayram böyle olur, topsuz tanksız kutlama” neviinden 5 yaşındaki çocuğun yemeyeceği kandırmacasını inanmışcasına aktardılar. Başbakanımızın Ankara Gençlik Şurası’ndaki sözleri şöyle: “Bu anlamlı tarihleri eskimiş şiirlerle, kamuflaj rengine bezenmiş 1940 modeli törenlerle kutlamaya son. Artık ruhuyla, özüyle, idealleriyle kutluyoruz. Artık tanklar, toplar yürümüyor. Artık sportif etkinlikler var. Gerçek bayrama çevirdik. Bayram böyle olur!”

Haaa! Meğer AKP’nin istediği 19 Mayıs’ı iptal etmek değil,”gerçek bayrama çevirmek” imiş! Ne işkilliymişiz, bu iyi niyeti yanlış anlamışız!

Ama benim bildiğim kadarıyla tank ve top geçişleri sadece (zaten artık iptal ettikleri) 29 Ekim ve 30 Ağustos bayramlarında olurdu, 19 Mayıs ise oldumolası sportif hareketler yapan gençlerin gösterisiydi. Hem o “çelenk yasağı”’nın bu yeni bayram konseptiyle ne alakası vardı? Üstelik bu bahsettiğiniz  yeni “gerçek bayram”’ı Kırklareli ve köylerinde de yaşatmadıklarını bugün öğrendik- hem de Danıştay kararına ve CHP’li belediye’ye rağmen. Ve daha kimbilir daha kaç vatan köşesinde! Anıt Kabir’e gitmeye bile zaman bırakmayan yoğun programı yüzünden sayın başbakanımızın gözünden kaçmış olmalı! Eski bayramları biraz demode bulmakla birlikte ortaçağa yakışan bir din anlayışını da pek ateşli savunur değil mi? Madem o kadar yenilik meraklısı, bir reform daha yapsın da Müslüman vatandaşlar ezanı kendi dillerinde dinlesinler!

Gelelim bayramcı medya’ya! “Yasağa rağmen bayram” iyi hoş da, hükümete muhalif medya da kendi içinde  gereksiz ve zararlı bir bölünme gösteriyor! Bizim dikkatimizi çekti ki Kanal B ve Sözcü özellikle CHP’nin desteklediği etkinlikleri aktarırken TGB’nin 200 000 katılımlı İstiklal Caddesi- Taksim-Dolmabahçe yürüyüşünü gözardı etmişlerdi. (Kanal B görüntü verdi ama isim zikretmedi!) Gerçekten de 21 Mayıs’daki Aydınlık bu konuda haklı olarak sitemkârdı! Sadece Aydınlık ve (yalnızca uydudan ulaşılabilen) Ulusal Kanal, daha bir çok yerde kutlama ve etkinlikler olduğu bir günde, bu kadar insanı toplayabilmişti, salt haber değeri için bile bu aktarılmalıydı! Gençlik bayramına gençlerin sahip çıkması ayrıca anlamlıyken, böyle bir zamanda birlik olmak yerine bölünmenin ne kadar tehlikeli olduğunu ayrıca vurgulamak gerekmez!

ENGLISH

It was refreshing to see the front pages of the press on May 20th- splashed with photos of crowds waving flags, celebrating the forbidden national holiday! The unique exceptions were Taraf and Zaman, the mouthpieces of the government- they seemed to be reporting from another world entirely.  We already know they are against the values of the Republic, they made that obvious long ago! But you would think a newspaper could not avoid reporting a public action of this magnitude, if only for the news value!

The opposition press naturally reported the celebrations profusely! The lackeys, the bought-up press, obligingly lent credence to the government’s last minute turnaround. The Prime Minister’s speech delivered to the Youth Council in Ankara included the following statement, bewildering both in its blatant insincerity and in its distortion of facts: “Let us be done with commemorating these meaningful days with worn-out poems and 1940-style parades in camouflage colours. Now we celebrate them according to their spirit, their essence, their ideals. No more tanks and cannons rolling by. Now there are sporting events instead. We have turned this into a real celebration. This is what I call celebrating!”

Ahhh, so that’s what this party had in mind all along! Not to cancel it, but to turn it into a real celebration! Sorry for being so paranoid, we completely misjudged your good intentions!

But as far as I can remember, tanks and cannons featured only during the August 30th (Victory  Day) and October 21st ( Republic Day) parades, both of which the Prime Minister and his cronies canceled anyway.  Sporting displays have always been part and parcel of May 19th, “Youth and Sports Day”. And how does the ruling against the placing of wreaths figure in this revamped celebration concept? We have just learned today that these new style celebrations haven’t reached the smaller urban centre Kırklareli and its villages- (and goodness knows how many more localities) in spite of the court ruling. These backwaters must have slipped the PM’s attention during his busy schedule (seeing as he can’t even fit in the traditional visit to the mausoleum of the Republic’s founder)! But for somone who finds old fashioned celebrations passé, isn’t he a bit overzealous in his endorsement of medieval style religious practice? Since our PM is so fond of revamping outdated rituals, I propose from now on Muslim citizens be allowed to hear the Muezzin’s call in their own language instead of Arabic. (This was a reform actually introduced in Atatürk’s time, but later reversed by reactionary administrations!)

Now for the pro-May 19th media! It’s all very well, “celebrating in spite of the ban”, but the opposition press is showing signs of needless and harmful disunity. We noticed that Sözcü (a newspaper) and Kanal B (a TV channel) covered almost uniquely those celebrations spearheaded by the main opposition party while ignoring the 200 000 strong march organized by the TGB (“Turkish Youth Union”). (Kanal B did show some footage of this march without mentioning the organizers.) The May 21st’s Aydınlık (another newspaper) was understandably indignant. After all, Aydınlık and Ulusal (a TV channel accessible only by sattelite dish) had managed on their own to attract such a crowd on a day when so many other activities were organized elsewhere. Even if there is a divergence of viewpoint somewhere, the news value alone merited some mention. It is also especially meaningful that a youth organization rises in defence of youth day! And it goes without saying that times like this call for unity, not rivalry.

19 MAYIS'I KUTLADIK- HEM DE NE BİÇİM!- WE CELEBRATED MAY 19th- AND HOW!!

TÜRKÇE (English text further below)

Devlet büyüklerimiz son anda "Çevir kazı yanmasın!" yapmaya çalıştılar- iktidar partisinin "19 Mayıs Atatürk'ü Anma, Gençlik ve Spor Bayramı"'nı kutlayan flamasını bile gördüm! Ama başbakan (hani "başkanlık sistemi"'ni getirmek isteyen) yine Anıt Kabir'i ziyaretten kaçındı! Valilikler anıtlara çelenk konmasını istemedi! Pek gönülsüz ve içtenlikten uzak kutladınız 19 Mayıs'ımızı, yiyen var mı bilmem ama ben yemedim!

Biz kutlamaların ancak bazısına katılabildik- zaten sırf İstanbul'da o kadar çok yerde kutlandı ki yetişemezdik! Ama kutladık, eğlendik, Atatürk'ün cumhuriyetine bağlı vatandaşlarımızla birbirimize "biz varız, yalnız değiliz" mesajı verdik!  

19 Mayıs Atatürk'ü Anma, Gençlik ve Spor Bayramımız hepimize kutlu olsun!

Videoklip

 Videoclip

ENGLISH

Our leaders have tried to minimize the dent in their credibility with some belated lip-service to the national holiday they tried to repress- I even saw a large printed banner celebrating "May 19th, the Atatürk Remembrance, Youth and Sport Celebration", signed by the ruling party.But our prime minister (so enthusiastic about introducing the Presidential System, an office he naturally covets for himself) once again disdain to visit Atatürk's mausoleum, as tradition and protocol dictates, and governors of provinces have reportedly attempted to disallow the laying of wreaths to national monuments on the occasion. Honourable sirs and ladies of the government, you must excuse my doubt of your sincerity! 

We joined only a small fraction of the celebrations- there were too many in Istanbul, spread all over the city! The essential thing is- we celebrated, and had great fun doing so! We, the citizens loyal to the Turkish Republic as founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, gave each other the essential message: "we are here and we are not alone!"

MAY 19th-CELEBRATING AT ALL COSTS

ENGLISH

Some dates and names are grafted onto the national consciousness. They are essential ingredients of the colective memory!

If you are an American, the 4th of July means something to you. It is Independence Day, when “in the course of human events”, as Thomas Jefferson put it, the people of the American colonies decided to severe political bonds with Britain. It is an important date for every U.S. citizen, even for those who have later joined the American family.

Likewise Valley Forge, Alamo (there is an expression “Remember the Alamo”), Gettysburg (Lincoln’s address is required reading at schools), Pearl Harbor (F.D.R.’s “Day of Infamy”) Iwo Jima (a powerful sculpture in Washington celebrates it), and even Vietnam and the World Trade Centre- tragic occurences that nevertheless bolster the sense of nationhood!

Every Frenchman and Frenchwoman knows Quatorze Juillet, Bastille is a symbol of oppression, as well of rising against such oppression, that resonates in every French heart. The “Lions of Belfort” are celebrated with a monumental stone lion- in Belfort. The French Resistance enjoys almost mythic status.

The British are proud of their victory in Waterloo (they named a railway terminal after it), of their heroism in defeat at Dunkirk, of their foolhardiness in the Crimea (Tennyson’s “Light Brigade”), their victory over the “Invincible Armada” in 1588, and the RAF’s courageous stand against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain (Chuchill’s speech: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”). All Russians are aware of what it cost to stop Napoleon in Moscow and, later on, Hitler in Stalingrad.

The Australians and New Zealanders trace the forging of their national identities to the Gallipoli Campaign (against the Turks).

Even the Germans, whose great defeat in World War II is compounded with shame, would be loathe to forget their own trials in the conflict. I am a witness to the pride with which they resurrected the devastated city of of Dresden.

And you would be hard pressed to find anybody in these countries foolish enough to suggest the removal of these resonant names and dates from the national consciousness.

Now, about May 19th. Every Turkish schoolboy and schoolgirl knows that date. Along with the three other national holidays: 23rd of April, 30th of August, and 29th of October.

We are at present ruled by a democratically elected goverrment- assuming the elections were not rigged- that is sytematically undermining its own national celebrations. First prime minister Erdoğan managed to be “otherwise engaged” during celebrations, then in the last year the 30th of August and the 29th of October  were cancelled, the pretext for the former being the earthquake in Van, the latter the killing of a number of Turkish soldiers by PKK insurgents. The public took the banner and, in areas unsympathetic to the government, celebrated anyway. As for the 23rd of April,  observed as a children’s holiday,  that was celebrated in a sort of “sanitized” fashion.

The Ministry of Education recently decreed the annulment of all but the barest commemorations of May 19th. Reaction was swift, some areas- notably Izmir- annonced full scale celebrations for a week. Some citizens took the initiative so far as to take the decree to court, and happily,  the court overruled it. Full scale celebrations are now allowed, and the government’s opponents seem determined to rub in their legal victory with a big turnup.

One outcome of our government’s latest faux pas was to get me to start this blog.

What happened on May 19, 1919?

Turkey, then still the Ottoman Empire, was allied to Germany-  the losing side-  during the First World War. You may be familiar with the Versailles treaty that imposed heavy conditions on defeated Germany; it is mentioned in Western media a lot because it is believed the resultant bitterness gave rise to Nazism. Less known in the Western popular media, but very much part of the national consciousness in Turkey, was the similarly damning treaty of Sèvres (August 10th, 1920) imposed on the Ottoman state, bringing partition and turning the Sultan into a powerless figurehead in the occupied capital of a truncated country with hardly a pretence of independence.

 See also:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Sèvres

The occupation and partition was in full swing well before the signing of the treaty. A general named Mustafa Kemal, with an impressive military record that even then brought him hero status, decided on resistance. He and a group of like-minded comrades set out for Anatolia on ship and set foot at the Black Sea port of Samsun on May 19th, 1919 (the first national holiday). 

That “one small step” is considered the start of the Turkish struggle for independence. Mustafa Kemal later said he considered that day “his birthday”, so it is (was) also celebrated as a day for remembering him .

By 1920 Mustafa Kemal managed to create a united front centered in Ankara and independent of the Sultan’s puppet government in occupied Istanbul. On 23rd of April, 1920 (the second national holiday), a Grand National Assembly was created as a kind of government in exile in the Turkish hinterland.

The new assembly in Ankara created an organized army, bolstered by volunteers fleeing from Istanbul. The war was fought on many fronts, but the decisive victory was won over the Greeks at  Dumlupınar in central Anatolia on  August 30th, 1922 (the third national holiday), after which the Turks moved swiftly to the Aegean coast.

It was Mustafa Kemal’s new government in Ankara, and not the Sultan’s government in Istanbul, that negotiated the ensuing peace treaty and wrested full indepence from the Western powers (Lausanne, Juıy 24th1923).

Mustafa Kemal and supporters passed a motion to abolish the ineffectual Sultanate and declared the founding of the new Turkish Republic on October 29th, 1923 (the fourth national holiday). The Sultan retained only his spiritual powers as Caliph- something like a Muslim Pope, a hereditary office Ottoman sultans have claimed  since Selim I acquired it by force in 1517. The Caliphate was in turn abolished (March 3rd, 1924), and the Turkish constitution declared the young republic to be a “secular”, i.e. no longer a theocracy, no longer subject to the “Sharia”, or Islamic law. Faith was henceforth left to the individualal conscience.

Mustafa Kemal was given the surname “Atatürk”- “father of the Turks”- by the Grand National Assembly on November 24th, 1934. It is by that name that the world knows him.

Mustafa Kemal, later Atatürk

For all-round information on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his importance, you can check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Atatürk

Now, given the meanings of the national holidays, which have been regularly celebrated for close to a century,

Given the essentially fundamentalist Islamist viewpoint of the ruling party, and their voters,

Why do you think the present Turkish Government would be taking such pains to remove these milestones of the history of the Turkish Republic from the nation’s consciousness?

Conspiracy Theories?

Many people are sceptical of conspiracy theories, and rightly so! But in my country, you can’t avoid them; either you believe the government, which claims to have unveiled several wide-ranging conspiracies against itself, and has been conducting a string of razzias for the last four years, or you believe the suspects who claim they are victims of an intricate frame-up!  First vast stockpiles of hidden arms were unearthed, allegedly in preperation of a great armed insurrection against the government, attributed to a terrorist organization called Ergenekon. After four years of inconclusive trials no one has admitted to being member of such an organization, which has no terrorist act to its name and is apparently a fictitious organization dreamed up to bring a sizeable chunk of intelligent resistance behind bars, and intimidate the rest. The detainees, whose numbers reach the hundreds, are composed of the secular elite; journalists, academicians, and officers- both retired and active, compose the bulk. They are of different backgrounds and convinctions, united only in their opposition to the fundamentalist Islamic slant of the government. The trials are inconclusive and drag on an on!  The Silivri prison outside Istanbul has become notorious as the oubliette where these people are incarcerated. Hasdal is the first of a steadily increasing number of prisons for military men.

Then in 2010, a pro-government newspaper claimed to have unearthed a military plot to undermine the government (allegedly dating from 2003), a covert operation called Balyoz (“Sledgehammer”). This served as the excuse for a fresh string of arrests- this time concentrating more intensely on the military. The latest news holds the figure at 364 officers, including generals and admirals. 250 of which have been detained for close on 15 months without verdict. (This does not include officers held for various other alleged conspiracies!)

These are the biggest “conspiracy trials”, but the governments’ arrests are by no means restricted to these. Being an animator, I have my own frame of reference! Do you remember the trial scene in Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland?” (“Sentence first, verdict afterwards!”)

"Sentence first, verdict afterwards."

Dr. Mehmet Haberal, one high-profile victim

On April 13th, 2009, in a fresh Ergenekon roundup, Dr. Mehmet  Haberal, a transplant surgeon, founder and rector of the Başkent university in Ankara, was arrested. As yet, he has not been charged with anything definite.

Prof. Dr. Mehmet Haberal

By then I was already full of the frustration and anger from the farce of supposed justice going on around me. I hung up a flag outside our window- the same one that accompanied me during my professional life abroad. (Was beside me on my desk through my Disney years!) I said “I won’t take this down until they release this man!” I figured on a few weeks, months at most. It has been more than three years! Dr. Haberal still does not know what he is in for.

What is it all in aid of?

The present ruling party is dismantling Atatürk’s secular republic by slow, hypnotizingly slow, yet terribly efficient steps. The discrediting of the Republican era, its founders and ideals, and the glorification of the Ottoman past point in one direction: the resurrection of a theocratic Turkey ruled by the Sharia. Recent "reforms" in education have been, to my eyes, the most dangerous of all blows, the target now being the impressionable young minds that are our most precious reserve for the future.

People more intelligent than I (some of whom have been arrested as “Ergenekon" members) have pointed the finger at a Turkish Islamic guru named Fethullah Gülen living in the United States (Saylorsburgh, Pennsylvania) whose sect has slowly, almost imperceptibly infiltrated the Turkish police and judicial system. With the discrediting and eventual paralyzing of the Turkish military, traditional “guardians of the secular Republic”, a fundamentalist Islamist government holding parliamentary majority has all the power it needs to effect a full transformation of the state.

The same intelligent people also see the United States as the protector of this Islamic sect, and see the whole setup as a part of the America’s new Middle East project. It apparently all boils down to this : NATO ally Turkey may have been useful as secular state with Western pretensions when the great threat was the Soviets, but with the cold war over and political Islam a new danger, a “moderate Islamic” model at the beck and call of the U.S. would be more preferable as a role model to bring the other Muslim countries in line. If they can reinstate the Caliph as well, so much the better  The big fuss Time magazine made over Prime Minister Erdoğan’s enthusiastic reception in Egypt seems to confirm this view of U.S. strategy. To me it appears no more sound a tactic as supporting Hitler against the Communists, or  the Taliban against the Russians. If there is truth to these allegations, I wish the U.S would re-evaluate this policy and desist from throwing the secular Turkish republic to the wolves.

19 MAYIS ATATÜRK'Ü ANMA; GENÇLİK VE SPOR BAYRAMI

TÜRKÇE

19 Mayıs 1919- öğrencilik günlerimizde ezberlediğimiz bir tarih.

 O tarihle ilintili olarak aklımızda kalan sözcükleri hatırlayın.

 “Geldikleri gibi giderler!” (13 Ekim 1918, Haydarpaşa garı rıhtımında)

“Birşey mi yapacaksın Kemal!” “Evet paşam, birşey yapacağım!” (14 Mayıs 1919’da Mustafa Kemal ile Cevat Paşa arasında geçen konıuşma.)

 “Bandırma” gemisi ile yolculuk! (15-19 Mayıs 1919)

19 Mayıs’ta Mustafa Kemal’in Samsun’a "ayak basması".

 “Dağ başını duman almış”! (O günlerin marşı!)

Sonra Erzurum ve Sivas kongreleri, telgraf, Kuvva-yı Milliye, ilk meclis,Çankaya,  İnönü savaşları, Sakarya, Dumlupınar...! Bu kelimelerin hepimiz için birşeyler ifade etmesi anlamlı değil miydi?

Fransız için Bastille, 14 Temmuz, Belfort (mükemmel bir anıtı vardır) Amerikalı için Valley Forge, Gettysburg,  Alamo (“Remember the Alamo!”- “Alamo’yu Hatırla!” deyişi), Pearl Harbor (Franklin Roosevelt’e göre “Day of Infamy”-   “Menhus Gün”), Iwo Jima (onun da mükemmel bir anıtı vardır!) İngiliz için Waterloo (adına bir gar var),  1588’de “Yenlmez Armada”’yı yenmeleri, Dunkirk’de yenilgi içindeki düzen ve özverileri haklı gurur vesilesidir. Hele "Battle of Britain"’i hiç unutmazlar, İngiliz pilotlarının ülkelerini havadan işgale teşebbüs eden Almanları durdurmaktaki başarılarını kutlayan Churchill’in “hiçbir zaman bu kadar çok insan bu kadar az kişiye bu kadar çok şey borçlu olmamıştı” sözleri İngiliz altşuuruna işlemiştir. Ruslar için Napolyon’un Moskova seferi, daha sonra Stalingrad, Avustralya ve Yeni Zelanda için Gallipoli- yani bizim Çanakkale- bunlar o milletlerin milli şuurlarını oluşturucu destanlaşmış tarihsel olaylardır, kimse de çıkıp bunları unutturmaya teşebbüs edemez, ederse de alır cevabını!

Yenilgileri insanlık suçlarıyla ağırlaşmış Almanlar bile unutmak, unutturulmak istemezler. Yerlebir olan Dresden’e eski ihtişamını vermek onlar için ne kadar duygulu bir zamandı, ben şahidim.

Peki bize ne oluyor?  Ya da ne oldu?

Kurtuluş mücadelemizin ilk adımını Mustafa Kemal Paşa ve arkadaşlarının 19 Mayıs 1919’da Samsun’a ayak basmalarıyla özdeşleştirmemiş miydik? Atatürk bu bayramı gençliğe armağan etmemiş miydi? (20 Haziran 1938’de çıkan bir kanunla!)

Bu bayram 1981’den beri aynı zamanda “Atatürk’ü anma” bayramı değil miydi? (Evet, bu 12 Eylül döneminde alınmış bir karar. N’olmuş?) Bu kararın dayanağı da, Atatürk’ün bir söyleşi sırasında  “ben 19 Mayıs’ta doğdum!” demiş olması değil miydi?

Ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti hükümeti 2012’de bayramın eskisi gibi kutlanmayacağı, geleneksel Samsun-Ankara bayrak koşusunun da artık yapılmayacağı müjdesini verdi. Sıhhi sebeplerden! (Gençler üşüyormuş!) Bir de vatandaşa külfet olmasın diye!

(Ama “Avrupa Birliği Bakanlığı” cep telefonuma bir mesaj göndererek “Avrupa Birliği Günümü” kutladı!)

30 Ağustos’u, 29 Ekim’i yedikleri, 23 Nisan’ı da sakat ettikleri gibi. (TRT Uluslararası Çocuk Şenliği’ni gördünüz mü? Dünyanın dört ucundan gelen çocukların gösterilerini 45 saniyeye sıkıştırmaları da, herhalde, aman misafir çocuklar yorulmasınlar diyedir! Ama minik Mevlevilerimizin uzunuzadıya dönüp durmalarında bir sıhhi sakınca görmediler herhalde.)

Neyse ki duyarlı oldukları kadar atak bazı vatandaşlar meseleyi yargıya götürdüler de Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı’nın 19 Mayıs’la ilgili sıhhatimizi gözeten genelgesinin yürütmesi durduruldu! Şimdi hükümet cephesinde bir “çevir kazı yanmasın” tavrı var ama iyi niyetlerinden şüphe etmemi anlayışla karşılasınlar, sözleriyle, davranışlarıyla pek güven telkin etmiyorlar.

Ben çizgi filmciyim! Bizim dünyamızda iyi iyidir, kötü de kötü. İyiler kazanır, kötüler de- baştan ne kadar güçlü gözükürlerse gözüksünler- sonunda hak ettiklerini bulurlar.

Bizim dünyamızda karaktersizliğe yer yoktur, Duruma göre kalıp değiştirmek büyüklerin dünyasında var. Bizim filmlerimizin kahramanları önce kendilerine güvenmeyi öğrenirler, hatalarından sıyrılırlar, mücadelelerini kazanırlar, sonra ne Shere Khan kalır, ne Scar, ne Jaffar ne de Clayton.

Onun için hepinizin

19 Mayıs Atatürk’ü Anma, Gençlik ve Spor bayramını kutlarım.

Ve yeri gelmişken de milli marşımızın ilk kelimesini burada tekrarlamak isterim:

KORKMA..!