Let me first begin this column with a shocking fact: We are the passengers of a ship that has lost its compass in the middle of a stormy sea, trying to find its way and orbit and to save its soul, and “we” are not the captains of this “ship.”
That’s why Turkey cannot go far without confronting itself, its spiritual roots, its own historical experience and the West.
No society can make history by imitating other societies or civilizations; It can’t even carve out a place for itself in history.
The children of a society with generations who are afflicted with an inferiority complex, dragged into shallow, rote and hedonist dead-end streets and who became slaves of postmodern global popular culture and seductive and nihilating mind patterns cannot even survive, let alone offer anything to the world.
Turkey’s most basic problem is shallowness: All segments approach each other with incredible hostility and hatred!
Each segment is fighting to protect itself and its place. The traits of righteousness, law, justice, brotherhood, solidarity, sharing, coming together in pain and sorrow, unity in joy and happiness, and enthusiasm are rapidly disappearing…
It is inevitable that the main problem in Turkey is shallowness and prejudices.
Because both our ties with the West and our relationship with Islam (that is, with our own spiritual roots) are simulative and cyclical!
Simulative that is shallow, fake and superficial.
It takes shape according to the cyclical winds.
That’s why we couldn’t face the problem of westernization.
That’s why we didn’t talk about the quality of our Islam, we never discussed it.
SHALLOWNESS AND THE SOCIAL ENGINEERING PROJECT WILL DESTROY THIS COUNTRY…
What happened in the country was not Westernization, but a “social engineering project” as Nilüfer Göle determined in her pioneering study years ago. None of the projects called civilization, secularization, Westernization, and modernization had a real equivalent; It was attempted to be imposed as an engineering project from the top.
To this end, educational institutions were secularized, and a chilling social and cultural engineering project that colonized the minds was set in motion.
Was the goal to modernize as claimed; Or to cut off relations with Islam?
Both the alphabet revolution, the language revolution, the legal revolution, and the educational revolutions caused the children of this country to lose their claims to civilization and to lose their awareness of history: What was experienced was “cultural denial”, as Tanpınar aptly defined it. A radical cultural denial, moreover. Turkey was drifting in front of the blowing winds, turning from an actor who pushed history ahead and was instead turned into a mere extra in the history made by others…
Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, the founder of Kadro magazine and its movement, which raised the leading cadres of secular Turkey, openly admitted the destruction in one of his latest books, titled Revolution and Kadro: We destroyed everything, but we couldn’t do anything to replace it.
This was inevitable, all attempts at cultural denial would inevitably result in cultural suicide.
The same had transpired in Turkey.
In fact, there were a few honest Europeans who warned us. We could have at least listened to them, right? I would like to end the article with the observations of one of those people.
Austrian Chancellor Metternich was one of them, perhaps the most prominent among them.
It is useful to read and reread by emphasizing the following striking observations by Metternich, which reveal that he knows us better than some of us know themselves, or that they actually know everything, but they act cynically:
“The empire is getting weaker by the day. Why should you hide it? The Europeanization mentality comes first among the reasons that led it to this state. The foundations of this mentality were laid by Selim III, whose deep ignorance and endless imagination, have led Mahmut II to the brink. Our advice to the Sublime Porte is this: base your government on respect for your religious laws. The basis of your existence as a state, the strongest link between the Sultan and the Muslim subjects, is religion. Obey the time, take into account the needs of the age. Get your administration in order. But do not tear down the old ones to replace them with institutions that will not suit you at all. Do not take from European civilization laws that do not comply with your laws and regulations. The basis of Western law is Christianity. Let’s stay Turkish. Do not enact a law that you cannot enforce. Proceed on the path you deserve. Do not listen to the words of the West.”