Atatürk was fond of the Turkish youth. In his famous call to youth, he designated the duty of upholding independence and securing the regime of the country to the youth. Up until the Turkish military intervened in politics in 1960, young people were regarded the guardians of the constitutional system that ran the regime. In 1960, the military decided that it was the “youth” the founder of the republic was referring to. The term “young officers” is an Egyptian addition to the dictionary of military interventions, but it was successfully translated into Turkish then.From then on, the military has been the guardian of a Turkish regime that is fully embodied in colonial secularism that has been applied in Turkey. Having assumed the duties of the youth, the military regime decided to shape the youth according to its will as well.
The Youth and Sports Day festivals of the 1960s and 1970s were symbolic of this “youth engineering.” The celebrations were organized in a manner that completely contradicted traditional Turkish values: young girls were forced to wear miniskirts, and those who didn't want to join the celebrations were punished either by bad grades or by disciplinary investigations. Thousands of girls who wanted to wear modest dresses for cultural or religious reasons still have disturbing memories of May 19 celebrations.
The 1980 coup added an extra dimension to the May 19 celebrations. The perpetrators of the coup loaded real meaning to a saying of Atatürk, who stated that he was born on May 19, 1919. Thus, May 19 became the official birthday of the founder of the republic, and the name of the holiday was changed to Commemoration of Atatürk and Youth and Sports Day.
The regime change that Turkey underwent during the second half of the 1980s helped the country overcome the trauma of engineered May 19 celebrations.
I happened to be young for some time, and I never felt that I was celebrating my own festival in May 19. It was rather a memorized and repeated role imposed upon me by some unseen -- but easily felt -- powers that wanted me to turn into what I said I was. I felt myself addressed when Atatürk's call to the Turkish youth was recited during those celebrations, but I never felt like part of the youth who replied to Atatürk with a memorized poem. However, I joined the masses in promising the founder of the republic that we were “fearless guardians of freedom, independence, sovereignty, the republic and the revolutions.”
Today is May 19, Commemoration of Atatürk and Youth and Sports Day. I am no longer a young man. Do the youth feel fearless? Are they guardians of the freedom and independence of this country?
Only a youth that has the will to fight for the democracy of his country's political system has the right to say so. A youth that is afraid of raising his voice in the face of a military coup is no longer young. A youth that is afraid of speaking to the other is not young. A Turk that is afraid of speaking to and about a Kurd is not a young Turk; a Kurd that is afraid of speaking about the problems of his community -- of the relations of certain people within his/her community to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- is not a young Kurd.
For many youngsters, the value of today is limited to the fact that the day is an official holiday, and given the good spring weather, it is a good time to picnic. Is this the kind of youth the founder of the republic was hoping to see in three generations' time?
I assume not!
Article 58 of the Constitution is titled “Protection of the Youth,” but it refers to the youth as the protectors of “our state, independence and republic.” Every year, youth groups try to use the opportunity of May 19 celebrations to make their problems heard by the general public. A day after the celebrations, all is forgotten. I hope this year's Youth and Sports Day will bring a wider understanding of the problems of the youth.
