Gezi, the judiciary, and a mindset

In a speech he delivered at the parliamentary podium, Justice Party member Zeki Efeoğlu accused Çetin Altan of treason and continued as follows: “I declare that it is a patriotic duty, as well as a sacred task, to lift the immunity of Çetin Altan, who openly declares that the communist revolution—which attempts to put to sleep our ten-thousand-year-old Turkish history, our religion, language, customs, and justice, and which we know is not a communist revolution but clearly a revolution of rights under the ‘Hammer and Sickle’—is not a communist revolution; a revolution that seeks to hand over our sacred homeland, which fought with the thought of ‘if I die I am a martyr, if I remain I am a veteran’ with cries of ‘Allah Allah,’ whose every inch of soil is kneaded with the martyr blood of our ancestors, and which once galloped across three continents and over whose lands the sun never set, to Moscow.”

As Efeoğlu clearly stated in his words, he was voicing these remarks amidst the debates over the lifting of Çetin Altan’s immunity. Ultimately, that immunity was lifted. Let us call it one of the burdens of shame in history. It has been nearly sixty years since the history we are referring to. Sixty years later, a similar mind has attacked Can Atalay, known for his socialist identity, using similar methods. Despite Constitutional Court rulings, his parliamentary membership was revoked. He has been in the dungeon for six years. The case, as is known, is Gezi.

What kind of anger, grudge, and intolerance is this that, even after more than a decade, they still harp on Gezi, putting people on trial and trying to terrorize them through it? Yet, as Yavuz Bingöl, now one of the constant regulars on the government's boat, once said, Gezi was also the name of the objection, reaction, and will that had accumulated against the government over the years. Gezi was the name of millions of people who took to the streets, flowing from their homes, workplaces, and schools into the city squares. There was no organization or similar structure behind it. In this respect, Gezi is one of the country's magnificent actions; if we want to give it a name, we can call it honor, virtue, dignity; Gezi is the honor of this country.

Destroying people spiritually happens a bit through these avenues. They want to take away their values, their acceptances, and ultimately their dignity. They want them to trample upon the history they once defended with great faith and the mission they undertook, and to waste their honor. This reality lies behind the lives that are sought to be destroyed, from Can Atalay to Osman Kavala, from Çiğdem Mater to Ayşe Barım. However, this reality we are talking about also costs people their lives. This is the burning truth demonstrated by re-arresting Ayşe Barım today while she is in her hospital bed.

Of course, we cannot read this entire process independently of the mindset, ideology, and understanding held by the government and its partner. The “right-wing conservative” politics, starting from the fifties and extending to the present, has left Turkey alone with different wounds from different periods of history. Who incited which fires in that history, whose homes and workplaces were looted and torched, who spread poison into time using words like “religion, homeland, nation”—all of this is in our memory. Therefore, the issue is not so much a judicial matter as it is a matter of understanding, thought, and mindset. Then it must be said clearly: the interlocutor has never been the courthouse corridors in history; the Ergenekon days of the more recent past are a witness to this.

On the other hand, there is certainly a judicial mindset: a mindset that wants to destroy those it sees as rivals, ignores law and justice to do so, turns trials into collective lynchings, and abuses the public power in its hands. History is full of judicial mindsets that want to annihilate those they see as the “other” through such attacks. That is why the calendar pages of this country are no strangers to this mindset, both yesterday and today. Now, what person of conscience can explain the arrest of Fatih Altaylı with “law”? Let it be. One cannot talk to moldy consciences anyway.

On the other hand, this is another truth: If there are shameful court decisions unfolding before our eyes, that is also the shame of a country and, of course, the political government. This is the reality of the country created by that government. Just as we write the pluses on the government’s board on behalf of the country, we must write the minus sides on behalf of the government as well. Now, will we explain the Inquisitions, witch hunts, despotic courts in different geographies, and the terrible decisions they made only through the courts? Let’s say we did; will we not ask, “In such a pitch-black order, what does the political government do, why does it remain a spectator to these persecutions?” We will certainly ask, and where we have arrived, the truth will meet us with this answer: The government is responsible for the reality of the country in every situation.

We started the article with a historical example; let us finish by returning to those days again. İsmet İnönü also opposed the lifting of Çetin Altan’s immunity and said: “…To pursue deputies who tell us all that they are socialists with a fixed idea just because they are socialists would be an injustice and a lack of conscience, and if unjust and unconscientious treatment is accompanied by violence, the country will suffer from its reactions, we will all suffer.” When the mindset does not change, it is as if time never flows. We are almost spinning in a whirlpool. If we take the word from İnönü, there is no end to the damage that has emerged from yesterday to today. Well, how can a country endure so much pain? I don’t think it can; we understand this from its unhealed wounds.