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Let Atatürk rest in peace
by
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ
by
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ
During my entire educational period, starting from elementary school, I read, saw and heard about Atatürk every single day. His picture was hanging on the wall right across from me in all the classes I attended. I have seen his statue in every garden of every school I went to. Every year I had to take a lesson on Atatürk's Principles and Revolutions, not to mention all other school books starting and finishing with his remarks. Whenever I opened up a new school book, the first thing I saw was his picture. Every morning we had to salute him in set ceremonies.
Whichever institution I attended, I read his remarks on the walls of these institutions. He had original sayings for any situation, for any occasion, for any subject. From aviation to agriculture, from taxation to sailing, just name it, Atatürk had a saying about that particular subject.
After a while, my intuition started to tell me that Atatürkism and Kemalism were a kind of religion in Turkey. You can find anything you want in Kemalism that you could find in institutional religions. Was Turkey really secularized or did it create a unique religion out of the cult of Atatürk? All these ceremonies, rituals and symbols cannot be just appreciation for a leader, we are actually worshiping him. Whenever we are in trouble or want to give a message, we visit his tomb in Ankara.
We have a special law protecting his “reputation.” One of the most important Turkish intellectuals, Professor Atilla Yayla, received a suspended prison sentence of one year, three months for just his mention of Atatürk as “this man.” It is hard to believe and understand. Because of these two words, Yayla was sentenced to “intellectual death” for quite some time because if he receives any other sentence for any other “crime” he commits, he has to serve this sentence as well. Very recently a 19-year-old boy received an 11-month prison sentence just because he addressed Atatürk as Mıstık -- quite a friendly way of saying Mustafa, which is Atatürk's first name -- when he signed a special book at Atatürk's mausoleum.
While trying to break a taboo, we may be exaggerating our criticism, but it is obvious that almost a complete religion was created around his name in Turkey. And this religion does not dictate moral rules; instead it is used to legitimize an authoritarian regime, the guardianship of the military and as an excuse to close Turkey's doors to the outside world. Very recently, I saw a picture in which Ergenekon supporters covered their faces with Atatürk's masks, which was too much for me to be exposed to. No prosecutor, of course, has taken up any case against these Ergenekon defenders under the law “protecting” Atatürk.
We may be exaggerating our criticism of Atatürk while we are challenging a religion and type of mass hysteria which was not created by him. We, as the Turkish nation, need to see his positive and negative sides; we need to remember him as a historic figure. However, to be able to do these things, we need to bury him first. Then we need to let him rest in peace in his grave. After we have done this, I guess we will have a genuine relationship with the memory of Atatürk, the founding father of the Turkish Republic. Rest in peace, Atatürk!
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