Was İsmet İnönü a draft dodger?

In a letter he wrote to the Moscow Student Community in 1878, Dostoevsky says: “It is only pure lying that governs our rotten society.” The greatest goal of fraudsters is for lies to grow by becoming organized. Because if this happens, the lie will spread to the entire society and become that society's truth. Do not ask, “Can a society live in an order built on lies?” For those who own it, there is no such concern; the goal here is to extend the life of their power as much as possible and to spread their reign over time. Besides that, they do not care at all how much society has lived or died.

So, how does a lie become the truth of a society?

There is actually no single answer to the question; many factors, from the point where social disintegration has reached to the overtime hours spent by the regime's hitmen, from the industry of lies to the spirit of the times, cause this. When this is the case, lies told openly, accompanied by advertising and propaganda, along with blind hatred and the ideological bigotry that complements it, can be accepted as if they were true. Let alone acceptance, some can claim to see things they have not seen, hear things they have not heard, and watch things they have not viewed. Just think, images that are clearly montages can be served to the entire society as real. Once the threshold of shame is crossed, the whole society takes a step toward schizophrenia. This is exactly where we have arrived; the lie turns into the reality of societies, and we keep living within it.

Let us continue with historical examples, if you wish.

In 2020, one of the former speakers of the Parliament, Hüsamettin Cindoruk, spoke to the newspaper Yeniçağ and said: "We used to say that İnönü was a draft dodger, and they would believe it. Can you imagine, the man is both a pasha, the commander of the Western Front, and a draft dodger..."

As far as we know, Hüsamettin Cindoruk began his political career in the youth branches of the Democrat Party; if he said the words he expressed above during those years—which is likely—the late İsmet İnönü was still alive at that time. The Pasha lived until 1973. In other words, you can believe the lie that a person who is alive and whose reality you could learn with a little research is a draft dodger. Unfortunately, society and human reality are like this.

Moreover, this situation does not remain hidden only in the pages of history; a similar lie is served years later in a different way. And this time, through a document! What of it? Isn't politics conducted and elections won through montage videos in this country? In that case, let a document be presented; whether it is real or fake does not matter! That fake document we are talking about entered circulation through a social media site in 2022; according to this, İsmet İnönü had a medical exemption report. I am quoting the statements in that fake document verbatim. It writes exactly as follows: “İsmet İnönü, born in Kadıköy in 1884, has earned the right to receive this report because his hearing is impaired.”

The issue is not just the inaccuracy of the place of birth, of course; this fake document claims that a pasha who reached the rank of General did not go to the military. It is worth remembering, the person we are talking about is one of the most important commanders of the War of Independence. So much so that, after the Second Battle of İnönü, Atatürk wrote to İnönü: “Our nation's independence and life relied with great confidence on the hearts and patriotism of your command and comrades-in-arms who performed their duties with honor under your genius leadership. You defeated there not only the enemy but also the nation's ill-fated fortune. Along with our unfortunate lands under occupation, the entire homeland is celebrating your victory today to its farthest corners. The enemy's passion for invasion was shattered by crashing its head against the unyielding rocks of your effort and patriotism.”

Here, the lies I expressed above can be served for a name who was worthy of these words and who had great devotion and labor in the liberation of the country. The first stage of this collective evil is this, and the second emerges with the acceptance and adoption of these words. In the second stage, without needing the slightest research or questioning, large masses can embrace these words and conduct propaganda through them. As we said, where the threshold of shame is crossed, the borders of schizophrenia are entered; now, one must examine separately who is healthy and who is not there.

Especially when it comes to establishment politics, we can give many examples regarding the production of lies that are sometimes consumed like bread and cheese. However, I think it will be sufficient to give a few examples within the limits of our topic. Let us start with Nazım Hikmet, if you wish. The military and naval trials opened in 1938 in the person of Nazım Hikmet were literally built on lies, and as a result of these trials, the poet was sentenced to decades of imprisonment. Think about it, Nazım Hikmet, one of the important poets of Turkey and even the world, had to spend a significant part of his life in dungeons after files built on lies. In more recent times, there are of course the Ergenekon and Balyoz trials, processes where courthouses were turned into concentration camps. We remember them all, with their judges and prosecutors.

I also want to give one last example from outside our borders. Have you heard the name Yahya Jammeh? Jammeh, born in 1965, came to power in The Gambia after a coup in 1994. Jammeh, who remained in this position uninterruptedly until 2017 and said that he did not recognize the election results and would not leave his office despite losing the election in 2017, was eventually persuaded and forced to leave office after a while. The most important events remembered from this period are mentioned in the context of corruption and human rights violations. After he left office, many countries froze Jammeh's assets. On the other hand, it is said that he was supposedly religious. So much so that it was none other than him who declared The Gambia an Islamic Republic in 2015. These words belong to him: "If you do not believe in God, you can never be grateful to humanity and you are even lower than a pig.” Let us come to what is written about him in the book titled “Encyclopedia of Lies and Fraudsters.”

According to this, Jammeh says that he has knowledge about medicine and has different ideas on this subject. Moreover, he can provide healing “thanks to charisma, magic, herbs, and charm.” According to Jammeh, who could even treat AIDS, “AIDS was a one-day job and asthma was a five-minute job.”

That is how things are.

Then, as we bid farewell to our article, we must state the following: İsmet İnönü was one of Turkey's greatest soldiers and politicians, Nazım Hikmet's place in our poetry was indisputable, and of course, so was Jammeh's fraudulence. However, with lies, all of these could be reversed in an instant, and white could be presented to us as black and black as white. Indeed, history has witnessed this, and unfortunately, the legacy of fraudsters has been embraced by their followers like a genetic predisposition. We are witnessing this as well.