She is making a late but meaningful confession: “Who was behind these affairs is still not clarified. What will happen if it is disclosed now? I don’t know that either. Since we were receiving threats related to religion, we always condemned ‘Iran,’ or ‘The Religionists.’ I am an Atatürkist, an army-loving, patriotic woman. Thus, I never got angry with my state. I didn’t want to face other realities. Therefore, I think, it suited me to condemn Iran. I wanted to believe that Iran did it…”It is unjust to jump on this statement and claim that Bilge Emeç, at last, realized that her late husband was a victim of an internal conspiracy. Çetin Emeç may well have been killed by whatever “Iran” or “The Religionists” corresponded to in her mind. The fact that Bilge Emeç has started to question her faith in the state is not enough to condemn the state -- the deep state, to be more precise. The shattering of this blind faith in the innocence of the state is not a development in the Emeç dossier; this is a mental, cultural and paradigmatic change. That change will hopefully lead to new developments in unsolved murder cases, among them the Emeç dossier. But even better than that, their numbers won’t increase.
There is a clear relationship between the ability to question a state organ and the accountability, transparency and trustworthiness of a state organ. As long as a state, or any state organ, cannot be questioned, it will be a state which is unaccountable, non-transparent and consequently untrustworthy. Being able to question a state organ serves the trustworthiness of that state organ. Emeç has become a true army-loving patriotic woman only now that she is able to question the actions of the state. A state that is turned into a Leviathan is also demonized. If it serves the needs and ambitions of its citizens, a state is a necessary tool; if its citizens start to worship it, it will not turn into an all-merciful god. It will naturally turn into a demon-god. And that is not patriotism.
I am an army-loving patriotic man. I question the wrongs of the personnel of my army and praise what they do right. The army itself is not an agent. It cannot be turned into a subject. Whatever is done in the name of the army is done by some army personnel. The ability to question and the accountability of those personnel are the safety fuse of the trustworthiness of the army. If that questioning makes some of the army personnel lose patience, let them leave the army. Any person working in any state organ is by definition a servant of the nation. Let no servant be so arrogant as to resist the questioning of the master!
Emeç was able to face the bitter truth and break the vicious cycle of self-deception. It is now the turn of the army generals who dare to declare that they are out of patience to face and accept the bitter truth:
I fund you! I employ you! And I ask the questions! I am the nation. The master…
Emeç is not alone. A new wave of “secularization” is surging through the “worshippers of the state religion.” This secularization is a true liberation of minds and souls. This secularization will be the driving force of our renaissance.
