Our only concern is the country’s situation

MELİS ALPHAN melisalphan@hurriyet.com.tr

Famous novelist Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar said it years ago.

“Turkey does not give its children the possibility to deal with anything but itself.” If we still use this sentence and it does not sound weird.

Whose responsibility is it?

Tanpınar’s or the country’s?

A friend of mine sent me the other day an article in English titled “The best five punctuation marks in literature.”The note in the e-mail was, “There are so many different lives.” It was one of the best articles I have read these last days.

I wonder how many novels the author had to go through to find the best punctuation marks. I wonder how many months the author worked for the two-page long work.

It is difficult not to be jealous of a meaningful mental work.

Ours is a country that forces us to be political.

This is a country where you get scolded when you share something in the social media that is not on the agenda of the press.

This is a county, where after five hours away from the internet or the TV you go over the news with fear asking “what new horrendous thing has happened?”

This is the country where you go over the agenda and ask “is it the right time? Is there something horrendous going on?” before you want to post a funny tweet.

If you just happen to have fun, the country shakes you by your shoulder saying “Get up, this is the time to think of your country now.”

A friend who used to spend their energy following the sales in the city now sends mass mails about the birthday of Nazım Hikmet (Turkey’s legendary poet).

Those who keep posting their children’s pictures on facebook now have Marx’s sayings in their profiles.
Make no mistake, apolitical people did not become political, they became fanatics.

This is how a country transforms someone. 

After trying to follow 88 things happening each day is there time to read political history, civilizational history or penal law?

As a consequence the conversations are highly superficial.

In the meantime, there is a wonderful activity in the city called another cinema; where you can watch movies you cannot see elsewhere.

How many people are aware of it?

A place called Moda Sahnesi, a performance center, has been opened. How many of us went there to see a play? Most have not even heard of it.

Our life has become so uniform.

There is no starter, appetizer, soup, dessert.

The main course makes us sick.

We don’t have time to read books since we spend our time to read on the recordings.

We miss the wonderful taste of a concert as we follow the actualities from the phone.

We do not get informed. We just try to follow developments and get concerned.

Not that we are saving the country; yet when you let go, it slides away.