What Is All This Fury, My Dear Brother!

Turkey’s agenda is shaken every single day by different acts of violence. We are passing through days where intolerance festers and hostility multiplies. Any trivial matter can cause people to instantly resort to violence. It is glaringly obvious how we arrived at this state! But explaining it to you, my dear brother, is no easy task. There is blood everywhere!

If the song Her Yerde Kar Var (Snow Everywhere), which was once on everyone's lips across the country, were written today, its meaning would probably shift to Her Yerde Kan Var (Blood Everywhere). Sadly, "songs" crafted by resentful people to stoke bigotry and hatred are now officially permitted to circulate among the public, and this is actively tolerated. Yet, a woman carrying a cello, completely oblivious to any threat, tries to use the underground and is assaulted and beaten!.. Yes, the incident at the entrance of the Kadıköy tube station ended with Gülşah Erol being taken to a police station, where she was subjected to violence and torture. The police officers even used words like, "You and your kind can get the hell out of this country." As if they owned the bloody place!

Let us move on… Erol concludes her account on social media by saying, "I could have died yesterday." And we learn, too, that another woman, again in the underground, is subjected to a strip search!.. In truth, for a long time now, anyone in this country who isn't a government lackey, anyone whose progressive stance is clear, simply can-not-live. Physical and psychological violence is escalating! Any guarantee of safety has vanished. Everyone who can is fleeing the crowded, chaotic environment of the major cities. Indeed, people cannot breathe.

"Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." (Nietzsche)

Who can deny the deep, unifying power of music? Those who deny the theory of evolution, of course! Music is the most binding thread across all cultures. Indeed, those who turn up the volume of the call to prayer while nurturing all this violence must understand that the call to prayer is also a form of music. Research indicates that music has existed for fifty-five thousand years, presumably spreading across the world from Africa. Humanity first discovered its own voice through humming and whistling, arriving at where we are today. The earliest forms of music consisted of percussion instruments. In 4000 BC, the Egyptians created harps and flutes, and by 3500 BC, lyres and double-reed clarinets emerged. Thus, people integrated their emotions with music, and forms of expression took root. Music is laden with emotion; it moves a person—or at least, it is expected to. However, societies that have lost their humanity openly declare through their conduct that they are not only deaf to the music, but have lost all capacity to feel.

Let us look at the music genres in demand in Turkey and across the world, particularly in developed (!) nations dominated by popular culture. Sadly, songs completely devoid of emotion, consisting of two fabricated verses slapped onto technologically manufactured backing tracks, are being drilled into our ears. They force lyrics that convey absolutely no meaning or feeling straight into our homes, driven solely by the anxiety of "whatever sells". In fact, we should look at the behaviour of the police officers who dragged that cellist to the station from this perspective. For years in this country, theatres have been shut down, decent films are not being made, and those making alternative music eventually retreat due to a lack of means... We are facing a government that has made it its mission to close every single door that touches art. Communities that have cast aside their conscience and compassion never leave the headlines, completely enveloping every sphere of life.

Excuse me, but who do you think you are? We must realise that we are imprisoned within borders. On top of that, we have our migration stories, which exhaust a person just to recount. One of the greatest reasons for migration is the desire to build a better life. Yet, because no such ideal system exists anywhere in the world, hardships meet us at every turn—though in some regions, perhaps in a slightly milder form... While stoking all this hostility and driving this "us versus them" feud, we ought to look at the places we migrated to, at our origins; perhaps we are brothers after all, my dear brother!

Fostering violence... Whatever people experience, it only becomes grounded when they process it deeply; otherwise, it sits awkwardly, and the problems grow larger day by day. Major cities in Turkey have absorbed migration from countless provinces. We now find ourselves sharing environments with people speaking in every kind of accent and language. Splendid! Yet without mingling with one another, it is impossible to dismantle this hostility. Diversity ought to bring people together, but that is not how it works in this country. They have successfully raised a resentful and devout generation, exactly as they intended.

To the extent that when people take to the streets—the only place they can make their voices heard after being unjustly dismissed—the nationalist sentiments of the ordinary citizen are so deeply ingrained that they pass by putting on a performance, bellowing, "How happy is the one who says 'I am a Turk'!" What a pity! Without for a second questioning how all those people are going to put bread on their tables, they degrade themselves to display their loyalty to the regime in public. Let us applaud you! Thanks to you, the state of this country is crawling on the floor. To hell with your authority!

In major cities, people ought to show greater respect to one another because they are richer in terms of diversity. This is how it works in established systems across Europe. Sadly, in my homeland, it is the exact opposite! Government officials who promote patriarchal dominance in every arena have, with great success, manufactured a mob of thugs. It has reached a point where a man thinks he has every right to slap a young woman passing by simply because he cannot tolerate her wearing shorts. We all know what follows! The state feeds violence with its own hands, which is why these people roam the streets with complete impunity. Acts of violence, which used to manifest more within lower economic brackets, have now enveloped all social classes. Of course, the hardships of migration and integration are undeniable, but even when a person feels like an outsider, do they not experience other emotions? Can they really be so inherently prone to violence?

You are like a scorpion! The children of humanity, having destroyed everything else, are determined to finish themselves off too. The news, scientists, researchers... they are all shouting that the end of the world is nigh. The wealthy buy themselves private islands to spend their remaining days in luxury, while the poor are locked in the same daily struggle. I remember a time when "fraternity" concerts, attended by hundreds of thousands of people, were organised to ease the tensions between nations. We would watch those concerts on television and find hope. In truth, we always return to the same point. As long as the people remain divided, the big bosses keep turning a tidy profit... It is within your hands once more to say enough to this violence and darkness, my dear brother. If you choose not to, the finest response to you and the darkness you yield lies in the magnificent verses of our esteemed poet, Nazım Hikmet;—though my tongue hesitates to utter it—the greater part of the blame is yours, my dear brother!