The real drama
It must not be easy to stand in front of cameras and - as the winner of the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival - dedicate a prestigious award to those who were killed back in your homeland, either by horrendous and excessive state violence against demonstrators or in a mine because of political and entrepreneurial greed… After all, there is the day after. The master back at home, who is proud of raising “religious and revengeful” new generations, would definitely not forgive what he might perceive as “insolence” against his absolute will.
Gathered in a stadium in Cologne, thousands of supporters of the man with absolute will were cheering slogans, further boosting his super ego, while in front of the same stadium a group of a few hundred people were condemning him as a new Hitler, a new dictator.
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for his film “Winter Sleep,” dedicated the award to “the young people in Turkey and those who have lost their lives over the past year.”
Back in Cologne, placards such as “Welcome, the last Ottoman sultan” were carried inside the stadium, while outside crowds condemned the “last dictator,” and Germany’s leading Bild newspaper appeared with a bold headline: “Sie Sind Hier Nich Willkommen,” with a Turkish sub-heading “Hoş gelmediniz” (You are unwelcome). What is obvious is that in the pursuit to satisfy his exploding ego, the absolute ruler has also perfectly succeeded in dividing Turks in Germany.
Since last summer, Turkey - and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan - has passed the point of no return. Cohabitation has become impossible and Erdoğan has been in efforts to impose himself on the nation, at least half of which considers him to be the biggest danger, trying to extend his judicial immunity by another five to 10 years by getting elected to the presidency. Why? Remember the post-Dec. 17 corruption probe, the misuse of office, the favoritism and the shoeboxes full of dollars, the legal and illegal voice and video recordings revealing all kinds of massive “alleged” graft.
Can it be possible for a political team to be cleansed of graft claims by winning a local or general election? Is it possible to talk about justice while policemen, prosecutors, judges and top bureaucrats involved in any way with the investigation are banished by the political authority, suspected or at least feared, of becoming an organized crime network?
Still, people - including this writer - are under pressure not to talk and write about the transcripts of the video recordings implicating the absolute ruler, particularly those of his sons and daughter.
In a country where the consciences of the masses have been rented to fear, the demand for stability, and the sheer exploitation of religion by a party of alleged wrongdoers, how important was director Ceylan’s generous dedication of his prestigious award to the young people of Turkey, either killed by horrendous state violence in squares or through greedy political-entrepreneur negligence in a mine?
Many would think “it’s not important at all, Ceylan just staged a show.” I bet that was the reaction of the absolute ruler to reports from Cannes about Ceylan’s brave and exemplary act. However, only when Turkish intellectuals learn to undertake actions beyond just dedicating their awards will this country perhaps have a new dawn.
“Winter Sleep” is a domestic drama telling the story of a family running a hotel in the snowy Turkish mountains. When will it be possible to have a drama on the sufferings of the Turkish nation enslaved by their phobia of earthquakes (since 1999), and by the ensuing political quake (in 2001-2002), since when they have enslaved themselves to the current Islamist and opportunist political clan?
Is there anyone out there willing to film such a drama?
