It would not be an overstatement to call it a striking ad with important messages. It can even be argued that it touched on a major problem in the society. Our prejudices or biases are deadly diseases that build insurmountable walls among us and repel us from other people. Actually, these prejudices are nothing but repercussions of intolerance that did not exist in deep Anatolia, but was imported from the West. For centuries, this land served as a homeland for many nations, and the culture of peaceful coexistence had become so deeply rooted that people lived peacefully although no city or town had a homogeneous community. I do not argue that this coexistence was without problems, but people still could live together and produce a common culture without separate ghettos for each community. Today, the occasional debates that emerge concerning who first invented a specific dish or specific folksong are clear proof of this joint cultural production.
The concept of otherization was introduced to this land after the Westernization efforts that started in the Tanzimat era, and particularly at the hands of the republican elites. First, religion was used a basis for otherization. The republican elites created an Anatolia and a whole country in which the Nişantaşı district of İstanbul otherized the Fatih district, which in turn otherized the Balat district. Turks otherized Armenians, who in turn otherized everyone except themselves, while Sunnis and Alevis otherized each other. Everyone pushed away those who were not like themselves or who did not wear the same apparel as themselves.
The strictest form of this otherization was put into practice by the state, which built its governance strategy on tensions. First, the state otherized everyone else. For it, devout people, Kurds, leftists, minorities, Alevis and, in short, a great majority of the society were threats. Yet, the bitter truth was that these groups, otherized by the state, opted to otherize each other. And this alienation created so many prejudices among them that they grew blind, mute and deaf to other people. When one specific group was tyrannized, others did not help it. When the rights of one group were violated, others remained silent. Said Nursi was the other for Sebahat Akkiraz, and Mehmet Akif for Ahmet Kaya. Pir Sultan was the other for us, and Ahmet Yesevi for them.
Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli, Tatyos Efendi, Yunus Emre, Mevlana, Sabahat Akkiraz, Cem Karaca, Ahmet Kaya, Mehmet Akif, Nazım Hikmet, Ahmet Hani, Said Nursi and millions more like them were the others for the state. However, this was so alien to deep Anatolia that it did not quite fit its disposition.
Perhaps for the first time, a chairman of a ruling party, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said that these people were not others, but rather major assets to this country. His words were a major step toward removing this intolerance, this alienation that does not belong here, from these lands.
Isn't it high time for us to break free from the glass walls? Haven't we paid a sufficient price for this intolerance? Aren't the people the victims, in this process that reinforces the rule of tyrants?
