The conquest of Istanbul and Atatürk’s legacy

We have been witnessing in recent days the biggest propaganda campaign Turkish politics has ever seen.
The resurrection...

If we are resurrected, does that mean we have died?

We are celebrating the conquest of Istanbul.

This is not a year that ends with a zero or a five. But that’s okay, let’s celebrate it.

But… let it be known that we know the real purpose behind it. While it what is being resurrected is not said clearly aloud, it is crystal clear that this is Ottomanism to end with a presidential system.

Right there we have a word to say, too.

How are we to forget that this beautiful city, conquered by the Ottomans, was handed to the British by the last Ottomans with their own hands?

Let’s assume we have forgotten it... How then can we not recall that this city, given away by the hands of the last Ottomans, was given back to us as a present by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the war of liberation?
We Turks have put Mehmed the Conqueror in a special place in our hearts. The conquest of Istanbul has a special place in our hearts too. We won’t let anything bad be said about the sultans who won victories for our country.

But of course this truth has a very special place in our hearts as well, if today you can hear the prayer five times a day in the 80,000 mosques of this country...

If this country has its own free homeland and a national flag…

If you can hold a huge celebration in this city...

We know that we owe it much more to Atatürk, his brothers in arms, the children of the people who died in Anatolia and a handful of intellectuals who left their schools and ran to the frontlines to die, rather than this grandiose show. 

The heaviest propaganda campaign in history cannot make us forget the legacy of independence and freedom that is left on us, as well as the heroism.

The Turkish nation lived the last and biggest resurrection of its history with the war of liberation.

If, God forbid, we were to live through a collapse similar to the end of the Ottoman Empire, during a period when everything is going bad, our borders are like a colander and our cities are being bombed, it will be the spirit of the war of liberation that will realize that resurrection.

So, rest in peace.

That’s why you owe this nation an equally spectacular May 19 celebration next year.

A resurrection of a free world

Indeed, I also miss a resurrection.

A free press in my country…

A country where people live without fear and can express themselves freely…

Where there is unbiased and independent judiciary…

A country where the peace process is in force…

Where there is meritocracy and loyalty to the leader is not rewarded…

A Turkey where dissidents can feel safe…

To me, that’s a resurrection.

Nobel laureate

The book “Aziz Sancar and the Story of a Nobel” written by Orhan Bursalı is a must read. 

An anecdote in the book is particularly moving. Sancar had just successfully finished his doctorate at Texas University, and before that he had already made a discovery that gained him a reputation in the world. He needs to find a job, but he has to find a position at another university. He applies to two different departments at Stanford University, as well as a famous research center in America.

He is sure that he will receive a positive reply. Yet all three said “no.” This was the worst day of his life. He would buy beers and get drunk. After sleeping for 18 hours, life would begin again, as he received a positive reply from Yale University.