Turkey's Fridays

We are talking about the "Fridays" of Turkey, bought cheaply by the established order. We are talking about the useful Fridays of the master, which have persisted from the late Ottoman period to the present day, sterilizing and decaying our intellectual world. Let us begin our article with the entry of "Friday-ism" into our political terminology.

Daniel Defoe, famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, was an adventurous slave trader who dabbled in various businesses. The novel Robinson Crusoe bears traces of his own life. The novel's protagonist, Robinson, is also a slave trader, just like Daniel Defoe!

Let us come to the reason why this novel, which has no literary merit, is so popular. In the novel, the economic and political hegemony of Western imperialism over the rest of the world is not just approved, but sanctified. The fact that the novel, which develops around the identities represented by the Western white master (the Englishman) Robinson and the Black Slave Friday who enters his service, was so popular among the readers of that period should be reflected upon.

The work is a product of the era when British imperialism was transforming into an empire on which the sun never sets. Let us briefly summarize the novel, which processes the thesis that colonizing the rest of the world is a natural right from the Western perspective:

"The ship, which also carries the slave trader Robinson, runs aground on rocks during a storm. Robinson, who is forced to live on a forgotten island in the Ocean for 28 years, will dominate nature, engage in animal husbandry and farming, and claim his rights as the owner of the virgin land! Robinson will save the life of a captive Black man, who was about to be executed by the evil Black men who landed on the island, and take him into his service. The good Black man, named after the day (Friday) he was saved by the white master, will repay his debt to his master with slave loyalty, fulfilling every command without objection!" As you can understand, the novel presents to oppressed peoples the idea that unquestioningly submitting to the Western white master, serving him—in other words, being a "good Black man"—is the best option.

The reason why the novel, which was released in 1719, is still read and filmed dozens of times even after three centuries have passed, should be sought in the fact that the master-slave relationship, even if names and terminology change and softer concepts are used, still continues in its essence.

The ability of Western imperialism to maintain its economic and political superiority in the rest of the world depends on the reproduction of the "Friday" identity in every era. The adoption of the Friday identity by colonized peoples, especially by their intellectuals, and the coding of those who reject this imposed identity as "bad Black/savage/barbarian" is a problem that needs to be addressed and pondered.

Such intellectuals of the Ottoman collapse period (colonial intelligentsia) are among the subjects frequently addressed by the literature of the period and the national literature movement in the first quarter of the Republic. In the novels and stories of Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem, Ahmet Mithat Efendi, Ömer Seyfettin, Yakup Kadri, and Mithat Cemal Kuntay, they are portrayed as characters without identity who have lost their common ground with their people and their sense of belonging.

The preference of the Armistice-era intellectuals during the War of Independence was not Ankara, but Istanbul. It was not the Society for the Defense of Rights, but the Society of the Friends of England. The young Republic, having learned lessons from the recent past, had formed its education and culture policy to raise citizens who possessed a sense of Turkishness, were anti-imperialist, and held contemporary, secular views. Citizens with a developed sense of belonging who would not fall into an identity crisis could only be raised through a national and contemporary-based education.

What is described in the paragraph above is the reality of the recent past, while Postmodern Friday-ism is the reality of today. Once the values represented by October 29, 1923, ceased to be the roadmap of the state, it was inevitable that Friday-ism would become a rising value again. The contributions of Turkey's Fridays, after November 3, 2002, to the process of liquidating the regime architecture of October 29, 1923, and the dynamics that kept this regime alive, without any "ifs" or "buts," should not be forgotten!

The recent efforts of our Fridays, such as their cheerleading in the postmodern Silivri Inquisition, the "yes, but" visa they gave to the liquidation from the left/liberal wing, and their "Yes be annem" (Yes, my dear) support for the Annan Plan trap aimed at Turkish Cypriots, as well as their "opening" and "wise men" tours, will undoubtedly be remembered with disgust by future generations!