Fires fed by Crisis

"Together with its nation, with the Turkish Armed Forces and with all its security forces, the Republic of Turkey will decisively wage its rightful war on the divisive terror that is targeting its unity and indivisible integrity until the last terrorist disappears."

"Until the last terrorist disappears..." These words do not belong to a child that believes the world consists of computer games and thinks that winning a war involves taking out enemies one by one with his joystick, but to President Sezer.
We live and observe that for years the Kurds´ demand for rights and the poverty of the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia have been treated only within the framework of security and internal threats by the state. The mentality which suppresses the civil society´s demand for democracy and human rights and does not move one step forward in forming a culture of common living does not abstain from raising the level of violence whenever it gets into difficulties.
Those that have swept the problem under the rug with their discourse on unity and integrity instead of building an inclusive and pluralist political regime have committed the greatest crime by passively allowing divisiveness to take root in society over the years. Currently, the division in society has entered a dangerous path where every Kurd is regarded as an enemy and terrorist. Obviously the Kurdish politicians who cannot establish politics independent of Abdullah Ocalan are also responsible for today´s situation. But we should not forget that the state apparatus programmed to violently suppress every demand for rights does not leave a lot of room for democratic expression.
The crisis in the country is turning into a hungry fire which grows by consuming everything it encounters. The opposition of the regime to the AKP government has led to a fire that took advantage of the presidential election chaos for inviting a coup. This fire has grown since and now, with the aid of warmongers, is trying to find an opportunity to jump out of the country.
More than ever, it is now necessary to advocate a civil freedom perspective that aims to affect the results of the polls on July 22 and does not refrain from speaking aloud against the current problems.
From the moment you get your ticket and walk into the darkness through the doors, you are aware that you face a small representation of the world we live in, clothed in dark colors.

An excerpt
Military life consists of someone having authority over someone else. What is worse is that everyone has too much authority. A sergeant can make life hell for privates just because he feels like it. A lieutenant can do the same to a corporal, a captain to a lieutenant, a major to a captain and so forth. Everyone is sure of their authority and used to misusing it. Here is a simple example: We come back from training and are dead tired. Then, all of a sudden, they ask us to sing a march. We can barely carry ourselves upright. The result is a feebly sung march. As punishment they immediately make us go back and undergo one more hour of training. On the way back, the order to sing is repeated, we sing together vigorously.

I now ask you, what the meaning of all this is? Nothing! It is simply that the commander is mad with the extent of his authority! No one will blame him, to the contrary he will get commended for being tough.

Erich Maria Remarque, Nothing New on the Western Front (1929)

Translated by Deniz Akkuş
June 15, 2007