Whether they liked it or not, everyone had to conform to this ritual of paying homage to Atatürk, which has nowadays become utterly dogmatic. The current archaic mentality that has created taboos out of Atatürk’s ideas, and his physical existence as well as his death is still able to conduct these Atatürk commemoration programs with the air of a totalitarian worship ritual despite democratic progress the country has made. I don’t know to what extent we are aware of it, but our country -- already rife with Atatürk statues which can hardly be regarded as having much aesthetic value -- is reduced to being one of the few despotic countries dominated by a leader fetishism such as North Korea, China and Cuba with these unusual ceremonies. No doubt there is a lot to be said on this subject, but in this article I would like to point you to a video that bothers me very much as the father of a 2.5-year-old girl.I’d like you to sit down at your computer and go directly to YouTube. Search for “Atatürk öldü biliyor musun?” (Did you know Atatürk is dead?) in Turkish. Please attentively watch the heartrending video that lasts one minute and 36 seconds and which froze my blood. If you ask, “Why is this girl crying so grievously?” read on for the answer. As a service to our readers who do not speak Turkish, I would like to show you how the love for Atatürk -- which amounts to a cult of personality -- can be made into a great danger at the hands of Kemalist teachers who are ignorant of pedagogy and child psychology. I present the translation of this striking and alarming dialogue between a small girl at the age of 3 or 4 with her parents as she cried nonstop.
Little girl: Atatürk is dead? Did you know Atatürk is dead?
Mother: Who said that?
Little girl: My teacher.
Mother: Are you very upset, honey?
Little girl: Yes! He is dead.
Mother: Even so, honey, he left this country for us. Should we not thank him for this?
Little girl: But he is dead.
Mother: What difference does it make, honey?
Little girl: Atatürk died.
Mother: Who said that?
Little girl: My teacher.
Mother: What else did your teacher say?
Little girl: He did not say anything else. I cried, and I was very sad. Very sad... So sad... We cannot bring him back, yet...
Mother: We can still love him.
Little girl: No, he died! We cannot love him.
Father: How did you cry, honey?
Little girl: I was so sad. And I cried a lot. My friends cried, too.
I think this video of a poor little girl crying incessantly while talking to her parents -- posted on YouTube exactly one year ago, but which I only noticed on Nov. 10 of this year -- needs no comment.
I would really like to know whether the Turkish education system, which burdens little children with emotions so as to create psychological traumas in their small worlds, or her teacher, who caused this little student to enter into emotional shock, have any knowledge about pedagogy and child psychology.
I also wonder how our minister of education, a mother herself, and ministry officials reacted to this terrifying video. Were they only touched by this poor little girl’s reaction, as her parents were? Or did they launch an investigation into the teacher and the school where he worked for distorting the psychology of small children for the sake of the cult of personality?
Is this really what teachers understand when it comes to the love for Atatürk and the education of children? I am really curious about the answers to this.
Benzer Haberler 
