He said this with regards to human beings, but lately I have begun to think that this is true for societies, too. The recent developments in Turkey frequently remind me of this wise man, especially when I follow the events regarding the Malatya case and the Turkish-Kurdish ethnic cleavage. Even saying ethnic cleavage breaks my heart, but on the other hand not yet being at the point of saying ethnic clashes makes me happy.
But the situation is not giving much cause for hope, as we can see from the Malatya case in which three Christians, two Turks and one German, at a biblical publishing house were tortured and murdered on April 18. The recent evidence has raised serious questions over the shadowy connections among the suspects, prosecutors, police officers and military personnel. But whether there will be any progress in finding out the answers to these questions is very doubtful.
This week a story was reported in the press; tags are being distributed in İstanbul saying “Don’t buy from Kurds.” According to rumors some underground groups are also urging violence against Kurds. A nationalist friend of mine, while complaining about these developments, said he is sure foreign fingers that want to divide Turkey are involved. He believes these foreign fingers are also involved in the Malatya case. To tell him that if Turkey was strong enough foreign powers could do nothing is, of course, useless because he is part of negative nationalism that cannot face up to past traumas.
Nationalism can contribute to society only if it is positive; this means not creating any “others” and also not asking all its members to be the same, to be one-dimensional.
At the moment I am reading a book on “psycho-political facing up,” as it were, by Dr. Murat Paker. According to him Turkey is unable to face up to its past traumas. In one of his articles he claims that in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, losing land in the Balkan wars dealt a great trauma to society. Instead of facing up to it, the state preferred to join World War I -- we lost that, too. We did not face up to this defeat, either. In the school books there is a very funny definition of the situation: “We were in alliance with Germany. Since Germany was defeated, we were considered defeated, too.”
We thought we were excellent, we were undefeatable, one Turk equals one world; whatever has happened to us is just a result of actions by foreigners who want to divide Turkey.
I am not rejecting the idea that foreign powers have some aims as regards Turkey, but what I am saying is that if we were strong enough, if we were able to see our own mistakes, it would be difficult to harm Turkey. As this wise man said, the path to being strong lies in successfully facing up to our traumas rather than repressing them.
Since we did not do this as a society we are reaping the fruit of our buried traumas. This fear of foreign powers makes most of us enemies of those who are not thinking according to “official ideology.” People are emerging from all sides who think they are the ones who will save the country. They have a tendency to think that if the state apparatus is not able to protect itself, then they are the ones who can, by using all kind of illegal methods if necessary. Anyway, according to them legality and democracy are something forced on Turkey by foreign powers who want to divide the country. Those who think that way are easily made toys in the hands of some powers, but I have my doubts as to whether these powers are foreign or just those who would otherwise lose their source of power in Turkey.
Whatever the case, in order to be healthy and strong, society must face up to its traumas, starting with the most recent ones.
The encouragement we need for this process lies in our hearts and souls.
