{"id":53606,"date":"2012-05-15T21:56:53","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T18:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=53606"},"modified":"2023-07-25T15:15:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T12:15:15","slug":"as-he-lay-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2012\/05\/15\/as-he-lay-dying\/","title":{"rendered":"AS HE LAY DYING by Cem Ryan"},"content":{"rendered":"

AS HE LAY DYING<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Cem Ryan<\/strong><\/p>\n

As he lay dying in those autumn afternoons of 1938, Atat\u00fcrk had one abiding desire. He longed for those distant days on horseback, just one more afternoon riding in the hills above the Bosphorus. He would go again with his military academy classmate, Ali Fuat, to the sultan\u2019s hunting lodge in Alemda\u011f. They would once more picnic in that nearby meadow. Oh those cadet days, those days of youth. To be twenty-one again, rejuvenated. But by then\u00a0the lodge was in ruins and Ataturk could barely walk.<\/p>\n

Such is Turkey today. The nation of Atat\u00fcrk is in ruins, his legacy near death. Think otherwise? Go see the ruination that today is Alemda\u011f. Go see where once grew the forests on the hills above the Bosphorus.<\/p>\n

An emasculated army, a captive media, a politically compromised judiciary, and incompetent political opposition have sealed the fate of secular Turkey. These are the hammer blows to Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n

Like Alemda\u011f, Turkey is a ruined landscape. Political corruption and environmental plunder have risen to the level of popular culture. Hundreds of those opposed to the ruling power are in jail. Listening devices and wire taps abound. Comments and demonstrations are stifled. The tone of public political discourse remains rancid. Insults, sex tape disclosures, threats and arrogant boasts are the fare fed to the passive Turkish public. The prime minister and his business cronies propose vast and bizarre infrastructure plans. They will dam all the rivers in order to generate electricity. They will dig a ridiculous canal from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. And they will do it, the Turkish public being what it is. Money. Money. Money. Capitalism on amphetamines.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the needs of the vast armies of the unemployed and the impoverished go unaddressed. The ruling party presents outlandish schemes as fait accompli, so confident is it of an election landslide. Imagine a canal that circumvents the Bosphorus. Imagine two new cities built to extend the already polluted and seething Istanbul. Why? To make Istanbul safer from earthquakes, they say. Such is what passes for logical thinking. Bizarre? Yes, well then consider the prime minister\u2019s plan to build a nuclear reactor along a fault line. Dangerous? Not to worry. It\u2019s no more dangerous than the cooking gas container in your kitchen assures the prime minister at the top of his lungs. So much for the land that Atat\u00fcrk started on the path to science and knowledge. Turkey lies dying, its natural resources plundered, its brain lobotomized.<\/p>\n

Even Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s Address to Turkish Youth is attacked by the media jackals. Undemocratic, intolerant, authoritarian mentality, illiberal, paranoiac, racist, fascist, are some of the labels that these hacks use to describe Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s words. How sensitive these petty scribblers are to his cautions about internal enemies, and those in power collaborating with foreign governments. They throw their words, these so-called journalists without being aware of time, history or treacherous religious underbelly that has always prevailed in Turkey. It is no mystery why the Turkish society has been so violent. Just observe the way they drive their cars, cheer on their favorite football teams, conduct their political discussions. It is really ludicrous.<\/p>\n

Among many other things\u2014military leader, tactician, strategist, political scientist, social philosopher, educator\u2014Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk was a revolutionary thinker. He placed his trust in education and science. He trusted the future. For him, the future resided in the nation\u2019s youth, not only in age but in mind. Such \u201cyouth\u201d saw the way to a better world through the enlightened, founding principles that Atat\u00fcrk embraced and applied to the new, revolutionary Turkey. That Turkey is dead.<\/p>\n

The Turkish War of Independence was a great struggle for survival. The improbable victory was against all odds. The occupying great and not-so-great powers were sent away as they came. The backward, repressive five-century rule by religious dictators called sultans was consigned to the garbage dump of history. Youth was served. Instead of dark-minded ignorance there was the promise of education and enlightenment. Turkey was a young, revolutionary country, rid at last of the exclusive claims of religion, structured and heading towards a democratic future. But guess what? Turkey has a new sultan now, one with a sour face and an attitude to match. And the likes of him and his army of business jackals and covered women have the field to themselves. The treacherous political opposition works for its archaic itself. Turkey heads headfirst into the abyss, sleeping all the way.<\/p>\n

A parting word on the political opposition. On Election Day, 12 June 2011, twenty-three separate parties stand in opposition to one party, the ruling party, the AKP. Representation in parliament requires gaining at least 10 percent of the total vote. The leading opposition party, the CHP, the party of Atat\u00fcrk was the only opposition party sure of gaining some representation. It takes a special brand of ineptitude to be unable to find common ground to unify the opposition, an opposition that represents the majority of the total vote. The CHP, like Nero, fiddles around in nonsensical internal fights and petty arguments. But take a bold, active stand?\u00a0 Never! Rally the people? Impossible! It has been the best friend AKP. Who could imagine, a political weakling bearing the name \u201cAtaturk\u2019s Party.\u201d Shameful!<\/p>\n

Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s Turkey is in an existential struggle against the forces of fascist Islam. The Turkish army, the guarantor of Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s legacy, licks its wounds in silence. It\u2019s generals run to America for help and instructions. The political opposition is doomed by its smug, selfish arrogance. The Turkish people, Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s beloved people, stand paralyzed, like the sheep on the eve of Kurban Bayram. Whither Turkey? Don\u2019t ask.<\/p>\n

Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s close friend, biographer and confidant, Falih R\u0131fk\u0131 Atay, wrote in 1968: \u201cWhat would Atat\u00fcrk do if he were alive today? Shall I tell you? He would curse the lot of us.\u201d<\/strong> *<\/p>\n

Cem Ryan<\/p>\n

Istanbul<\/p>\n

15 May 2012.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Atay, Falih R\u0131fk\u0131. The Atat\u00fcrk I Knew<\/em>, Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi, Istanbul, 1973, p. 252.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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As he lay dying in those autumn afternoons of 1938, Atat\u00fcrk had one abiding desire. He longed for those distant days on horseback, just one more afternoon riding in the hills above the Bosphorus. He would go again with his military academy classmate, Ali Fuat, to the sultan\u2019s hunting lodge in Alemda\u011f. They would once more picnic in that nearby meadow. Oh those cadet days, those days of youth. To be twenty-one again, rejuvenated. But by then the lodge was in ruins and Ataturk could barely walk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":53607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2221],"tags":[1211,78,102,1018],"class_list":["post-53606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cem-ryan","tag-akp","tag-ergenekon","tag-istanbul","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}