To Kill and To Write

They'll never let it go. It's been years since they've murdered Hrant. The only unlawful thing he did was to write. He was cautioned by the government before his death. He was told that if he keeps on writing "things would happen to him and his family". Law enforcement officers knew about the plan to end his life. Even on the Internet, if you search about dialogues among law enforcement officers on Hrant Dink's death, you can reach recorded telephone conversations proving this knowledge. The trial is going on for two years. Attorney General is asking for 20 years imprisonment for the accused murderer. The establishment is protecting its killers. The victim is a Christian, he is an Armenian and " a Turk is worth the Universe", let alone an Armenian's life.

A journalist is researching the facts behind this killing. He collects public information and writes a book about the blind spots in this case. Now he's in court. The establishment wants his life. Attorney General asks for 28 years of imprisonment. His name is Nedim Şener. He's a reporter from Milliyet daily.

Turkey is an EU candidate state. She's undergoing so-called judiciary reforms to be accepted as a member. What judiciary reforms I hear you asking. To reform something, it has to exist first.

With its recent record of judiciary mishaps, Turkey should be banned from all International forums let alone EU membership. Until the establishment in this country would be aware of the fact that in the global village every neighbor has to clean his act our of respect to his peers. Either democracy now and for everyone or marginalization in the full sense. These should be the options left for Turkey.

The Best Antidote

Discrimination is a social disease. When Greek police started to fight with Muslims a few days ago, one cannot stop but think that discrimination can only be fought with determination. Determination to heal that disease if only by correcting our own behavior against discrimination.

Disrespect against the millennium old Christian relics all around Asia Minor obligates us to respect every minor religious artifact in the Christian world. Let alone burning down a small makeshift mosque at a basement of an apartment building.

This is not about to not justify the acts against Christian minorities under Muslim rule. This is only what Christianity and Western Civilization is all about.

Since the acceptance of fascistic acts of past governments in Turkey by the Turkish Premier, newspapers in this land is publishing interviews with Greeks who has left the country against pressures from the state since 1940's. Old pains have resurfaced. Old memories galore on every page. However, we have to take the example of Mr. Hercules Millas, who has left the country with nothing and dedicated his life as a writer to better the conceptions of Greeks against Turks and vice versa in Greece. Only the Romiossini (Greeks of Asia Minor) and only them, and democratic thought in Greece or elsewhere are the most powerful weapons of this fight against bigotry. Nationalistic and totalitarian speech was never a solution and it surely is not at this time and age.

Turks have to consider the historical context of the successes of Ottoman Empire more carefully. They need to distinguish between the Golden Years and the era where nationalism and need to oppress became the rule of thumb, and its results for themselves.

A post nationalistic enlightenment is needed very badly on these lands. And democracy and tolerance are the only solution. When others would become one of us, we would be able to enjoy our sun, our moon, our wine and our worldly chores better than ever.

Kingdom of Fear

When we are asked "what are you afraid of?", we internalize the question. The answer is almost always about personal fears. However what we are afraid of on a daily basis is totally different than virtual fears we talk about. Modernization resulted in a terror society. Political, technological and spiritual gains, augmenting variety and possibility of choices increased casual shrewdness and rudeness paradoxically. Terror observed radically and exceptionally in democratic societies, affect societies which does not incorporate a social order, and lacking a social contract more. From politics to media; entertainment to driving, terror rules every aspect of our common schedules. That's the real fear.

Agitating when asked, fears like "I'm afraid to tell my opinion", "I'm afraid to drive", "I'm afraid to go to the police office" are the real fears.

We are afraid of speaking our minds. But we are not afraid of embezzling millions of liras.

We are afraid of crossing the street, but not afraid of attacking someone with a knife.

We are afraid of educating ourselves but not of ignorance.

We are afraid of law, but not of unlawfulness.

We have created an order where rules can only be broken. And we hate it, though we do nothing to change, or to change it.

The kingdom of fear, chaos, disorder is our making. It's our choice. We have to change our choice: we have to chose to let live to live humanly. Without dismissing our past, our experience, we have to learn about ourselves by looking at our society through the scope of historical reality. Not by retaliatory action, far away from orientalist reflexes, we have to democratize ourselves.

That's to be our lesson...