TURKEY’S POWER LIES IN ITS HISTORICAL DEPTH
By Bulent Kenes
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 19 2007
Aware of its strategic depth since the years of the Cold War era,
and using every opportunity to turn this asset into a profit in the
international power markets, in recent years Turkey has been rapidly
gaining consciousness as regards its cultural and historical depth.
The fact that Turkey’s history is not limited to 85 years and that
it is in reality profound and straddles a colossal geography is
now becoming embedded in the national consciousness, signaling
reconciliation with the past.
Up until a few years ago neither the Malazgirt Victory of the Seljuk
Turks in 1071, which opened the gates of Anatolia for the Turks,
nor the conquest of Ýstanbul on May 29, 1453, which began a new
era in world history, nor other great victories of the Ottoman era
were as recognized as they deserved to be and were not celebrated in
a way befitting their glory. A weird historical understanding that
limits Turks’ history to that of the Turkish Republic — which can be
considered very short in comparison to the vast history of the Turks —
and that disregards the pre-republic Turkish history was prevalent.
This approach, which had a principle of sullying and denigrating
Turkish history before the republic at every opportunity and which
ignored it when it was unable to denigrate it, was an elitist one
denying its roots and descent. As the effect of this misconstrued
understanding started to wane in recent years the familiarity of the
Turkish people with their history, of which they should be proud, and
with their cultural depth, a natural concomitant of such consciousness,
began to increase. Also as the new generations reclaimed the historical
victories the self-confidence of the Turkish people grew stronger
and in turn they started endeavoring to secure themselves a more
deserving place in the balance of international power. Nor would it
be meaningless to evaluate Turkey’s heading forward in the recent
years from this perspective.
For instance until several years ago the anniversary of the Canakkale
Victory, which gave a whole new direction to world history, would be
passed off with insipid celebrations. While the fact of how profoundly
this victory had affected world history was confined to a couple of
titles existing only on the unlovable pages of history coursebooks
that students were made to memorize, we would watch with envy the
dawn services on the Gallipoli Peninsula held enthusiastically by an
annually growing number of the children and grandchildren of Anzacs,
whose nonsensical adventures, into which they had been dragged by
their colonial rulers, ended in a crushing defeat. During those years
the memorial cemeteries of Anzacs were well maintained whereas ours
were forlorn, alone and doleful.
As the Turkish people delved further back into the depths of their
historical greatness, which had long been kept from them with great
care on the pretext of a "revolutionary reasoning," the tide turned;
the Canakkale War Memorial was visited by some 3 million Turks in 2006,
whereas this figure was a mere 300,000 only a couple of years ago.
With a desire to see the lands where their ancestors, most of whom
were very young, had sacrificed their lives in a selfless manner
that changed the flow of the world history forever by stopping the
Allied Forces that attempted to take Canakkale with an incomparably
greater number of soldiers and arms, some 3 million people converged
on Canakkale. They offered prayers to the spirit of their grandfathers.
As people visited the tombs of their grandfathers the ideals of these
sublime-spirited people visited and filled the minds and hearts of
the visitors. The state did not turn a blind eye to this sensitivity
and improved the war cemeteries and completed infrastructural works
to make these sites more accessible.
Turkey will grow stronger to the extent it leans on the power springing
from the depths of its history. Actually in recent years we have
come to realize that reducing Turkish history to an Independence War
and the history of reforms, however important they may be, serves no
one. How saddening it is to see that the Turkish education system’s
"imprisoning" Turkish history and the developments during World
War I in a few titles chosen with great care in an attempt to keep
emotions against other nations in check while ignoring very important
pages in history provides Armenians with an advantage in their fight
to extract an ferocious national identity from their enmity against
Turks. How strange it is that they have started pressurizing Turkey
with their unsubstantiated genocide claims which they "over decorated"
with historical lies!
The pre-republic era did not cease to exist by being considered
non-existent. On the contrary the responsibility stemming from their
historical and cultural depth did not leave Turks, although they
attempted to escape it. Is there any among you who cannot see the new
responsibilities loaded on the back of Turkey by each new development
of the last 15 years in the Caucasus, the Balkans and the Middle East?
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