My dear Sunni brother

My dear Sunni brother,

If Alevis feel victimized, otherized, antagonized, excluded, exiled, beaten and killed, this is because of you. You haven’t raised your voice against politicians’ rhetoric and action that alienate Alevis.

Let alone raise your voice, you tend to take the side of the Sunni majority.

When you act like that...

Politicians whose sole concern is “my vote should not go down but up” antagonize Alevis in a very intentional way.

 In other words the politician is encouraged by your stance.

- If you were only to object once seriously...
- If only once you were to ask: “We solved our headscarf problem because we were a majority, are their problems not solved because they are in a monitory?”
- If once you were to punish the policies and politicians that alienate Alevis...
- If once you were to say, “Give them their right to have their cemevi.”
No one, no politician in this country would dare exclude Alevis.

My dear Sunni brother!

You know the whispers that go around here and there in this country? I’ll tell you if you don’t.

- It is said, “No Sunni would vote for an Alevi party leader in this country.”
- It is said, “The Alevi/Sunni dichotomy is still very much alive.”
- It is said, “Anti-Alevi policies have always worked, they will work again.”
- It is said, “The votes of Alevis go to a known party, so Alevis are expendable.”

There is only one reason for these shameful words and heartless statements: you.
My dear Sunni brother:

You have to do something to destroy this perception. Get up! Say, “If you are excluding my Alevi brothers, then there is no vote to you.”

Try it once. And see how they will flood to the gardens of the cemevis.

Today’s conqueror: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

“Turkey is proud of you,” is a cliché slogan attributed to so many people that it has lost its value. But it really fits Nuri Bilge. Turkey is proud of him.

His movies make people face the truth, calm and monotone nature of life. They gracefully slap our helplessness in our face. They do not scream, run; they are not in a hurry.

It is very difficult for our contemporary people who are used or forced to live at a speedy tempo to penetrate his movies.

That’s why I have always understood those who equate “boredom” with Nuri Bilge films.

But this film certainly comes as a lesson to those who think organizing an arena meeting in a German city as a revival of the dream of conquest.

Because in today’s world, Europe is not conquered by arena meetings in a country where you can only enter with a visa.

It is conquered with big international successes that make everyone from Uma Thurman to Quentin Tarantino look at you with great admiration.

A big thanks to Nuri Bilge, who showed everyone how a conquest is done in our modern day.