NOVEMBER 10 AND THE FEELING OF LOSS
Today’s Zaman
Nov 11 2011
Turkey
You know Nov. 10 is the date of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s death. We
commemorate him every year on this date.
Alarm bells ring at 9:05 a.m., which is the time of his death, and
life stops momentarily in Turkey. Memorial ceremonies are organized
for top officials in addition to ceremonies in schools. Anıtkabir
(mausoleum of Ataturk in Ankara) is visited. All newspapers use
headlines that have become meaningless since they have been used over
and over every year. This year the Cumhuriyet daily was published
with a poster of Ataturk on both front and back pages. The newspaper
called Sözcu ran the headline: “Number one spoke,” indicating a
clinical case disguised in the concept of Ataturk. The newspaper
published an interview as if Ataturk was speaking about contemporary
issues in Turkey such as the earthquake in Van, a new constitution,
arrests and teacher assignments. The fact a person who died 73 years
ago is loaded with such deep meanings and that he can be used for
fraud is an issue worth consideration despite its being tragicomic.
Last Nov. 10 at 09:05 a.m. I was sitting in a small bus and waiting
for it to fill with commuters. When the bells rang, everybody in the
bus got off. Everybody went out and stood still. A woman and I were
left on the bus. We did not have a big problem since we were in a
closed place. The previous year, I was walking on the street.
Naturally, I kept walking when the bells rang. I did this not only
because I am not a Kemalist (an ideology linked to Ataturk), but also
I am a normal human being.
Actually, I like Ataturk a lot. The influence of the education
we received is so deep that the inclination to see him as a good
superhuman, just like we were told when we were children, automatically
works inside me. I wrote a 35-canto-poem about Ataturk’s life when I
was in primary school. I suppose the fact that an Armenian kid going
to an Armenian minority group school attempted to do such a thing
on his own must have rattled the “Turkish chief assistant to the
head of the school” who was assigned as a commissar of the state by
the government to monitor our school. (By the way, the assignment of
Turkish chief assistant still goes on in the minority group schools.)
My poem was read in a couple of official celebrations, and I received
many compliments because this case was a special event that proved
that the republic system in Turkey had attained its goal. An Armenian
kid was writing a saga for Ataturk by himself without any obligations,
and I guess the poem was not bad.
The daily pledge
However, one morning our chief assistant asked me to read aloud “Our
Pledge” (the national oath recited every morning in primary schools in
Turkey; the oath is mostly about the commitment of Turkish people to
Ataturk and his reforms), a declaration of Kemalist faith. I started
reading it with excitement, but I forgot the words of the declaration
after reading a few verses. He showed me no mercy. In front of all the
students he said things like: “Even Turkish children cannot memorize
‘our pledge’. So I see why you cannot. Get back to your seat.” I felt
so sorry about this event that I could not go to school for a few
days. When my father learned what had happened, he went to school to
argue with the chief assistant. It did not matter whether he mentioned
his apology since I had already undergone a serious trauma that would
affect the relationship between my country and me.
Therefore, I can understand how sorry that young girl with a headscarf,
named N.N.E, felt when a woman approached her and said; “I want you
to leave this place” in the course of the memorial organized at Izmir
Republic Square on Nov. 10.
I understand her sorrow because what that chief assistant implied to
me with his words or how I perceived his words meant the same as what
that woman said to the young girl:
“You do not belong here. I want you to leave this place…”
Maybe their words would not hurt us that much if we were really
foreigners. However, that girl and I, we are children of this country.
Who has the right to order the other from this country?
This Kemalist republic made millions of children of this country,
whom it saw as different or as a threat, live through the same trauma:
You do not belong here. I want you to leave!
Nobody protected or was able to protect me on that day. I went back to
my place crying and full of shame. I could hardly stand until evening.
It was the period of the military coup in Turkey, Ataturk was almost
a god, and nobody had the courage to utter even a word to that
government commissar.
However, in Ä°zmir a Cyprus veteran approached N.N.E., a university
student, who was crying after the severe abuse she was exposed
to, and cheered her up by saying: “Good for you; I congratulate
you. That woman is being insolent. Is it possible that Ataturk would
be against the headscarf? Such people made Ataturk seem this way. No,
my daughter, you should be confident about this issue.” The young girl
responded, lamenting: “She does not understand, she does not want to
understand. If she was just a little bit respectful, she would let
me speak. Those are the people who depict Ataturk as being hostile
to religion. Ataturk’s mother and wife wore the headscarf. Making a
connection between wearing the headscarf and the regime is nonsense.
What is the benefit of insulting people’s beliefs in this way? It is
as if Ataturk just belongs to her. Ataturk is my ancestor, as well.”
When people around supported the ideas of the veteran, the woman left
the square saying, “If you cannot see that she is the product of a
counter revolution, I have nothing to say to you.”
I think that is an important change…
But do why people like that woman have such a pathetic mindset?
I call it “the arrogance of the property owner.” Actually, such people
do not care about the historical importance and value of Ataturk, his
faults or rights. First and foremost, today’s Kemalists are living
by constantly referencing issues in the past, as they do not have
anything new to say with regards to present day and do not have any
actual political ideas. As the Kemalists had to share the government
and the sources of the country with various social groups, such as
minority groups, people of non-Turkish origin and the pious citizens
from smaller towns, they looked down on them and became surrounded with
a “feeling of loss” in terms of their privileges. They were the real
owners of the country. “Their ancestor” Ataturk and his fellow soldiers
founded this country in spite of the “folk” and entrusted the country
to them, the real citizens. According to the project, all people in
Turkey were going to become a single prototype in accordance with the
“public project” in Ataturk’s mind, and they were going to share the
vision of that woman in Ä°zmir, and Turkey would become a paradise.
The imprints of Kemalism
This was not possible and hence it didn’t happen. However, Kemalism
left serious imprints on all social groups of this country as well
as in me. We became a one-of-a-kind society. For instance, most of us
suffer from Stockholm syndrome, as we were exposed to fear, oppression
and disinformation for such a long time. Think of Alevis, Kurds,
Muslims and minority groups who are the most important targets of the
Kemalist order. Within themselves, they faced very contradictory,
neurotic and sociological situations. We are still in tragicomical
states.
For instance, the Acık Kapı Association (Open Gate Association),
whose honorary president, is Suheyla Gönen, nicknamed Mother Zöhre,
fasted to mourn the death of Ataturk on Nov.10 this year. They broke
their fast with rice and meat followed by rice pudding, which were
Ataturk’s favorite foods. If such a ritual existed in the Alevi
doctrine, of course we would respect it. However, Mother Zöhre is a
“spiritual leader” who is an active member of the Republican People’s
Party (CHP). They wanted to show their reaction with such an act as
the Oct.
29 Turkish Republic Feast celebrations were partially cancelled due to
the earthquake in Van. The majority of Alevis are strict supporters of
Ataturk. They do not see the ideological connection with Enver Kemal
Pasha, the founder of Committee of Union and Progress. The members of
this committee later joined the CHP, the leader and founder of which
was Ataturk, and the Ergenekon deep state in Turkey. They treat the
leader who ordered the murder of 50,000 Alevis in Dersim (Tunceli
province) between 1937 and 1938 almost like a prophet.
When you examine the speeches of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of
outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), you can see that he thinks
highly of Ataturk. He is mostly inspired by Ataturk and the democratic
sovereignty, and the contract of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK)
is a very primitive imitation of the Kemalist state.
A proportion of minority groups still vote for the CHP as they think,
“At least I know the way they mistreat me, I am accustomed to it,”
even though the Kemalist republic made them pay a great cost for
being minorities and they were the direct victims of racism. This
inclination towards the CHP is dominant especially among the Jewish
population. The pogrom in Thrace organized in 1934 the Wealth Taxes
are just the icing on the cake.
What about Muslims? Did they not accept an Enverist- Kemalist
(pertaining to the ideology of Enver Pasha and Ataturk) Turkish
Islamic synthesis despite the fact that it conflicted with their
beliefs? There are still millions of Muslims in this country who
think it is not contradictory to behave as a Muslim under certain
circumstances and as a Turkish nationalist under others and to behave
and speak in a militarist way. Whereas, the last sermon of the Prophet
Muhammad prohibits a Muslim from being a nationalist, does it not? Is
the fact that the girl in Ä°zmir read about Ataturk normal or is it
acceptable only in terms of history?
Then nobody can allege that Kemalism is an unsuccessful ideology. It
is successful. It transformed us. It became our property. This
intervention is the reason why we have such serious contradictions
in today’s Turkey, which is undergoing a process of change. Although
newspapers such as the Sözcu daily, which articulates “the arrogance
of the property owner,” “the feeling of loss,” and the feeling of being
powerless and naked in the face of change are bought by hundreds of
thousands people, we should admit that the rest of the country still
has a sick relation with the past and that we are reproducing Kemalism
over and over together.
Therefore, change in Turkey has unique characteristics, and it is
slow and contradictory. It is because our tutor is a man who passed
away 73 years ago no matter what his good deeds and sins were. And
this still sounds normal to us.
What can be said in such a situation?
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-262371-november-10-and-the-feeling-of-loss.html