Eros

İbrahim Keloğlan 

2 years and 6 months, and a ban on traveling abroad!!!

This is the sentence a murderer received (with a good conduct reduction!!!)…

A cat killer…

A MURDERER!

The sentence received by someone who, in a very determined, premeditated, and conscious manner, slaughtered a creature deemed less valuable than a human simply because it lacks the ability to speak like us, is 2 years and 6 months.

Eros was the neighborhood's own cat, who harmed no one.

He was likely cold and got into the same elevator as this brute.

He received his first kick in the elevator, couldn't understand, and ran away.

His executioner followed him, tracked him down.

He closed the door on him and kicked him for a full 6 minutes. Until he took his life!

He saw, he decided, he kicked, he chased the fleeing animal, cornered him, closed the door on him, ignored his pleading sounds and gaze, and kicked him for 6 minutes. 

In front of the cameras that would later become the eyes of us all, without caring, without fear, without hesitation! 

Where is the good conduct? What good conduct? 

There isn't even an 'i' of good conduct or good intention here.

***

İbrahim, the disgrace of humanity; the living being in front of you, the one who created you and the one who created him are the same. He cannot tell you not to do it. You are much, much stronger than him. Looking from afar, you are a strapping young man. He is a defenseless little cat. He has a mouth but no tongue, he cannot even beg you for mercy. You keep kicking because you are not the man your stature suggests, İbrahim!

Unfortunately, Eros is not alone in this heartlessness. He is one of thousands of living beings who are raped, kicked, tied by their mouths and paws and left in a corner, burned, doused with acid, buried in concrete, whose lives are not valued, and who are subjected to cruelty. 

***

So, who are these İbrahims?

They are ordinary people living among us, who have families, who sit somewhere like you and me, drinking coffee, eating, working. They have families, spouses, children. They have loved ones. What separates them from us is the angry, spiteful evil they nurture within themselves. And they hide it so well… That is what is truly terrifying…

These evil İbrahims, who today unleash that evil within them onto a cat they have cornered in a dark nook, could tomorrow, for no reason, spew this unstoppable anger onto you in traffic, your child in the park, or an elderly person walking down the street. Is there any guarantee that it won't happen?

***

The trial for Eros was quite crowded. While there were those who did not leave him alone, there were also those who said, “What is all this fuss about, really?”

What they fail to understand is this; Eros does not just represent a cat. 

***

EROS

Eros represents every living being killed by the use of disproportionate force

Eros represents everyone who has no choice but to cower against a wall in the face of violence

Eros represents the powerless

Eros represents those who are stunned when they encounter evil.

***

Eros also throws in our faces the torture, 

The loss of sanity,

The reality of how defenseless we are against the walking dangers living among us in society,

The heartless,

Those who are not bothered by heartlessness,

And the fact that we are in danger at every moment.

***

Those who say “What is all this fuss about for a cat” are a separate case. They say this perhaps because they have realized they carry such potential within themselves… Perhaps because they did something similar in the past. Perhaps because they see the life an animal carries as superior to the life a human carries. Because they believe their supposedly “superior” souls are more valuable than another life.

***

İbrahim Keloğlan is a murderer. Not a cat killer or anything else. A plain, unadorned, straightforward MURDERER.

I find it appropriate to call him this because I realize that someone who kills a cat today could kill a human tomorrow, that he cannot control himself, and that his heart does not beat like ours. He cannot restrain the urge to kill within him. 

***

Volkan Uzun, who raped a dog, is also not a dog rapist. A RAPIST!

A rapist who could tomorrow rape a woman, a child (regardless of gender), or a baby. He cannot restrain the sexual urge within him.

***

The person who threw acid in the face of Ayşegül, whom Meriç Keskin recently adopted, is no different from the one who threw acid in Bergen's face. 

Pure evil, inability to control oneself, normalization, spite, hatred, lovelessness, violence…

***

I also do not understand those who are surprised that the courthouse corridors were so full.

If we cannot be the voice of “just a cat,” “a few trees,” “children about whom it is said -nothing will happen from one time-,” in short, “the helpless,” why did we come into this world? Where is the human's status as the 'noblest of creatures'?

***

According to the Quran, isn't the most honorable of creations, the 'noblest of creatures' (eşref-i mahlukat), the summary of the universe, HUMAN? 

The 'noblest of creatures' is someone who does not oppress those weaker than themselves, does not shy away from helping the needy, respects their elders, thinks about how to help, cannot bear to harm a child, does not fall into the arrogance of seeing their own life as superior to another's, shows compassion to the sick, protects nature, plants trees instead of cutting them down, helps a powerless person subjected to cruelty, and would never even think of burning a forest; but if they are truly human, they are someone who does not 'remain silent' and does not shy away from speaking up on behalf of the oppressed. 

The 'noblest of creatures' is a person who raises the child they brought into the world well, teaches them what is right, takes an interest in them, and does not just give birth and leave them to their own devices. 

Therefore, the family that raised him is as responsible for Eros's death as that murderer.

Anyone who gives their child a car without a license, ignores the possibility of them harming someone, or sees their child's bad behavior toward another living being and does not teach them the right way, is an indirect accomplice to the crime.

***

It is meaningless to take a life and then cry, saying 'I was in a bad mood,' 'I had problems,' 'we became unable to show our faces in public.' It is futile to say, 'I am suffering from a guilty conscience, I buy food for animals and feed them to get rid of the guilt inside me.' These are not good conduct, and they should not have been considered good conduct. 

There is a truth we all know: it is not just Eros who died in this country… Justice died, humanity died, honor died, professional ethics died, dignity died. If everyone who wears a white shirt and cries in court saying they are sorry receives a good conduct reduction, then woe to us…