We are no longer a ‘nation’

A very tragic sentence concerning my country came to my mind: “Fifty-one percent of Turkey is non-existent...”

Therefore, “Unfortunately, we are no longer a ‘nation.’”

A very simple, ordinary sentence, isn’t it?

Repeat that sentence to yourself a few times and ponder. This country’s 51 percent does not have any consensus. In other words, we do not have a climate and culture that make up the minimum conditions of sharing a common land and cohabitation.

It is as if people who have pledged to wipe the other out have been made to live side by side with a forced sentiment…

On one hand, there are “Carthage conquerors” who have declared themselves victorious…

On the other hand, there are people who are waiting for the Carthage conquerors to arrive and sweep them into the sea…

On side is conceited, the other side is downtrodden…

And we still want to believe that a “nation” lives in this country…

No, 51 percent of the country is not there anymore… In other words, there are no joint neighborhoods left where we are in a consensus, where we share the same feelings, the 51 percent and others. 

Including those in power, we are all living in ghettos. Some of us are living in the endless ghettos of Anatolia; some others in ghetto neighborhoods of big cities the boundaries of which have been drawn by votes.

Yes, we are no longer a “nation.” We have a country that we have turned into a nonphysical confederation, an unnamed one.

How can we learn to become a “nation” again? How can we create a new national pact (Misak-ı Milli) drawn with a consensus exceeding 51 percent? What kind of a contract should we make with each other so that we also have a Magna Carta?

We all know it and we are all aware… We have experienced an unnamed civil war; we are going through it… We do not have any weapons in our hands… However, our language has become a weapon more dangerous than a nuclear one.

Each day, one of us, some of us are being shot…

And all of us, on both fronts, are the unpaid freelance soldiers in a war of mujahedeen who have taken an oath to finish off the other…

This is a war where the gentlemen’s agreement has been forgotten.

Yes, we do trust the ballot box… Thank God that our biggest faith is still in democracy… We hold elections… We hold them again.

However, in each one, we are drawing, once more, with our votes the boundaries of our new ghettos. That place is yours; the faraway place is theirs; here is ours; there belongs to some of us; over there…
Well, we do not know to whom over there belongs…

Unfortunately, each election demonstrates one more time that we are no longer a “nation...”

We have one flag, but unfortunately it does not cover all of us… We have one language; unfortunately, instead of talking with that language, we fight with that language…

We have one country. Unfortunately, we cannot step out of our ghettos…

We are thirsty for justice… Unfortunately, there is no impartial justice which we can all trust.

We have a state, but we do not have police in which we all have confidence…

The time has come now to make a decision… Are we going to live in this unnamed virtual confederation, building walls around our ghettos?

Or, are we going to search for a way to become a nation again, knocking down the walls of the ghetto?
We now need more than 51 percent, much more… The reason is that the past 12 years have been, besides many accomplishments, very destructive, very exhausting and very eroding… Both for those who feel victorious, as well as for those who expect to be swept out to the sea…

Becoming a nation while preserving everyone’s personality, character and colors…

It is a good thing…