Why did the Sivas wound bleed more this year?

AHMET HAKAN

Let me leave aside the president and the prime minister… Not even one Cabinet minister came out on July 2 and said, “Today is the anniversary of the Sivas massacre… May God rest the souls of those killed at Madımak… I wish to God that such pain never be experienced again by our people… This is a shameful incident in our history… What went on there was a villainous massacre…” I wish one would have said that.
 
I wish there had been a moment of silence in the memory of those massacred in Sivas in Parliament upon the proposal of ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputies.

I wish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç would have spoken in front of cameras and reminded that 33 intellectuals died of burns and smoke inhalation after their hotel was torched, saying, “As one of the top executives of this country, upon this painful incident that happened in our recent history…” and that he would not be able to complete his sentence because of his tears.

I wish those associations, communities, writers, nongovernmental organizations that work heartily to secure the real meaning of “Allahu ekber” (God is great) had put a full page advertisement in newspapers on this July 2 saying that “Those who yelled ‘Allahu ekber’ while people trapped in a hotel were being murdered are not from us.”

I wish every formation that called itself “Islamic” filled the social media this July 2 with sincere, heartfelt messages, without any conjunctions such as but and however, demonstrating how they feel the pain felt by family and friends of those massacred at Sivas.

I wish the papers of the conservative community at least this July 2 had not engaged in a race of massacres, saying “Well, ok, but at Başbağlar, people were also massacred,” and instead of trying to balance Sivas with Başbağlar… Instead of this, I wish they had been engaged in a radical interrogation that might go, “How come among all these pious people gathered in front of the hotel in Sivas there was not one person who poured a bucket of water on that fire?”

The wound of Sivas would not have bled this year more than any other year.

No, it did not happen. And that wound was bleeding more this July 2.

Is it like it or not?

From the very beginning of Gezi incidents, those who were trying to find similarities between Taksim and Tahrir were stopped with, “No, dear… Egypt is different, Turkey is different.”

Now even a month has passed… In Egypt, opponents gathered at Tahrir against Mohamed Morsi.

And, all of a sudden, we saw this:

Those who were saying, “No, dear… Egypt is different, Turkey is different” have sided themselves immediately right next to Morsi.

Those who have taken the side of Morsi, none of them are asking these:

“What is the issue troubling those people who have taken to Tahrir?”

“What kind of mistakes could Morsi have done in his rule of one year?”

There is nobody who says, “Opponents are opposing the military coup; that means those who took to Tahrir are not coup stagers.”

Nobody is paying attention to the fact that the poor are the leading in the protests.

Nobody is thinking that Egypt has very different circumstances, issues and breaking points than Turkey.
Well, what is there to it?

There is this:

There is the tempo, the chant that goes, “We won’t give up Morsi… Give up Morsi… Never, never give up.”

Well, didn’t you say, “Egypt is totally different from Turkey.”

Well, didn’t you say the two never resembled each other, that it is futile even to try to search for a similarity?

Ahmet Hakan is a columnist for daily Hürriyet, in which this piece was published on July 4. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff.