Because the man was crying. If I’m not mistaken it was an award ceremony for the Radio and Television Journalists Association. When Mr. Arınç’s presenting of an award was brought up, deputy Kamer Genç went on a rant in front of the cameras, raising his voice. It may be acceptable for him to not take a liking to Arınç, but his repeated reference to Arınç as the “crying man” was a strange reaction. According to him, crying was a great mistake -- a crime that could not be forgiven. It was then that I had decided to write a few lines on tears. But the deluge of items on Turkey’s agenda prevented me from doing so. But the disdain towards tears remained a topic that resonated with me -- this is a stance that belongs not only to a Tunceli deputy whose thoughts often fail to precede his words, but to many circles.Most recently it was Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who bore the brunt of the scorn of tear enemies after he couldn’t contain his tears while delivering a speech in Parliament. But that wasn’t a situation that was odd or strange at all. The prime minister was reading a goodbye letter written by a young man who was executed 30 years ago. Mustafa Pehlivanoğlu was bidding a final farewell to his family and leaving them in the trust of Allah. Kenan Evren, the coup commander of that era, had commanded that “one from the left and one from the right” be hanged and thus an “impartial justice” mechanism was triggered. In his last letter Pehlivanoğlu wished his fiancée a life of happiness. It was while reading those particular lines that Erdoğan choked up and began to weep. Here was a young man whose letter was being read years later. A man who had left behind a family in suffering and a fiancée who had been left in the trust of Allah. What kind of a person wouldn’t become emotional from something like this? Here neo-nationalism resembles the Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the Herons. There are many words but no people. And where there are no people, there is no compassion, no mercy, no justice, no love and no respect. That’s why from the left to the right you don’t encounter a sentiment that touches upon the essence of man. A pile of conspiracies and outlandish slander. Lies that have been made up in order to spread hatred. Can a nationalist group emerge from such ill-intentioned propaganda? Never. Because attributes such as love of one’s country and flag derive their strength from the human heart. What value is there in a country or the sacred values it holds if there are no humans in it? This is something that the neo-nationalists just couldn’t comprehend. They thought that by saying, “We are losing our country,” people would take to the streets, embrace their flag and that all of the sullied information of all those conspiracies would disappear on their own. They overlooked that which is human. That’s why I’m not taken aback by their disturbance with tears. The rage of those who appear to be rightists and the hatred of those who appear to be leftists arrive at the same point: the fear of tears! Because they know that tears are like rain -- they not only cleanse the waste but enlighten the darkness within, drawing us nearer to one another.
Another victim of the enemies of tears is undoubtedly Fethullah Gülen. An alliance that calls itself neo-nationalist but thinks of Ulus only as a neighborhood in Ankara has been attacking Gülen for years due to his tears. Some of those who were part of this choir were unfortunately individuals who had assigned themselves the titles of journalist and writer. They criticized and shunned Gülen, saying that he was continually teary-eyed. Gülen was talking about the self-sacrifice of the companions of the Prophet and the devoted Muslims of our day. And in doing so he was drawing the two eras nearer to one another. This comparison caused him to be unable to fight back his tears. It’s so sad that this bothered some whose hearts had hardened and become shrouded by gloom and whose vision has been confined to darkness. Tears have never been something to be feared. I have always been enamored by the late poet Necip Fazıl’s verses: “‘Ağlayın su yükselsin belki kurtulur gemi’ (Cry so that the water rises; perhaps this ship will be saved) and poet Mehmet Akif’’s words ‘Ağlarım, ağlatamam söylerim dinleyemem dili bağlı kalbimin bundan pek bizarım’ (I cry but I cannot make cry, I speak but I cannot listen. My heart’s tongue is tied and of this I am weary) are a great truth for those who understand that kind of suffering.
Nowadays neo-nationalists have devised a brutal discourse based on the hatred of tears. The late Mushin Yazıcıoğlu, upon being freed from the torture-wracked prisons of the Sept. 12 coup, produced a series of programs titled “Tear Nights.” It was a very fitting choice. For it was impossible for a people devoid of tears to spell out a new civilization. For years, those who labeled themselves as leftist listened to verses of a song by Ahmet Kaya, “Ağladıkça,” (As I Cry). Now neo-nationalist leftists are staunch enemies of tears.
One must have a conscience. Tears are not something that should be feared. One who has lost their tears has lost their humanity. To separate politics (and life on a greater scale) from mercy, compassion and respect is to distance one’s self from the truth of humanity. Politics without human beings is an adventure conducted with a vehicle of lies -- one that is without a conclusion. There will be no point in becoming the leading power and directing the country when you run away from tears, or in becoming the opposition and monitoring the other side’s performance. If you can’t cry over generations whose lives were wasted by coups, then why are you in politics? This holds true for politics as well as journalism. One who fears tears is afraid of themselves.
