Diogenes, Turkey’s top problem?

When asked about Diogenes, Plato described the philosopher as “a Socrates gone mad.”

Diogenes was considered mad because he threw people’s contradictions, hypocrisy and double standards in their faces…

Or because he strolled around the city squares in daylight with a lamp, saying, “I am just looking for an honest man”…

Maybe they considered Diogenes mad because he lived in a barrel, did not care about possessions, was out at the elbows…

It was only natural for them to label the man who, as one would say in modern slang, “dissed” Alexander the Great, asking the ruler to “stand out of [his] sunlight.”


Our guy is from Sinop

As you know, our guy, Diogenes, is from Sinop, the Black Sea town of Turkey. 

There are various stories, but it is thought he had to leave his hometown after his father became embroiled in a currency debasement scandal. Basically, he was banished…

He went to Athens, was taught by Antisthenes (a former pupil of Socrates), espoused his teacher’s cynic philosophy, and advocated and implemented the teachings of cynicism.

Believing that virtue glorifies humans, the cynics reject property, possession and institutions such as family.

Diogenes questioned moral and material rules, presupposition and imposition; lived by pushing people’s patience to the limits through his intelligent, humorous and controversial nature…

He was captured by pirates and sold as a slave to a Corinthian, yet his master was a clever man and hired his “slave” to tutor his children; and thus, the philosopher passed away in peace and prosperity.


The kiss of Diogenes

Before dying, Diogenes asked to be thrown outside the city wall so that wild animals could merrily eat his body parts, though Corinthians preferred to erect a pillar in his memory.

We are neither close to the date of his birth or the date of his death. So you might ask why I have brought up the issue.

We remember Diogenes once again nearly 2,400 years after his death because of a cry of rebellion rising from his hometown, Sinop.

The Provincial Office of the Erbakan Foundation in Sinop issued a press statement in front of the statue of Diogenes in Sinop: “We are not against art and statues. We are against gluing [meaning identifying] Greek philosophy, Greek ideology and Sinop together while hiding behind the statue. We are appealing for the removal of the statue of Diogenes from the entrance of Sinop and its relocation. We will do our utmost to make this happen…”


The only obstacle is the statue

So it seems that in order to deal with this crucial problem of the country, in order to get rid of the only and biggest obstacle in front of our sacred march to the future, and our spectacular leap forward in science; the statue of Diogenes must be removed.

I don’t think Diogenes would care at all. At any rate, had he been alive, he most probably would have joined his compatriots from Sinop in their action for the removal of his statue.

Remove it! Or destroy it. Our only problem is the statue of Diogenes. And actually stand in place of the statue. And even if you were to make a shadow, I would not ask you to get out of the sunlight.