The spirit of May 19

Understanding the spirit of May 19 is exceptionally important in the context of understanding the quagmire into which Turkey is being dragged today. So, let us discuss: what is the meaning of the spirit of May 19, and why is the importance of this spirit so critical in terms of today's conditions!

In 1919, while the country was under occupation, the reason Mustafa Kemal crossed into Anatolia was the belief that uniting with the people of Anatolia was the only meaningful way to counter the enemy forces that were in alliance with Istanbul. The meaning of this movement was that the people of Anatolia—Turks, Kurds, Alevis, and people from all walks of life—aimed to crown their lands, which they sought to live in as a union, with victory, to make them their homeland, and to live upon them in peace and tranquility, free from all kinds of threats and dangers. This is why the spark of the War of Independence had to be ignited not from Istanbul, but from Anatolia. Indeed, people from all walks of life in the heart of Anatolia came together for their homeland and, with a magnificent victory, made these lands their home and began to live upon them.

However, just as time wears everything down, Anatolia, too, entered a path of surrendering to the enemy in a role reversal where its clean spirit and purity were once kept alive; Anatolia entered a path of surrendering to the enemy—to imperialist powers that want to dominate the Middle East under the influence of reactionism and religious sects that erupt as if competing with one another, and whose command structures are unclear. Who is the manager of this power? Is it inside or outside, or is it inside under the management of an external power? How large is the cadre, and what is the ultimate goal! Under these uncertainties, because of the ambiguity and insidiousness of the enemy, this struggle appears much more difficult than the one in the past. For, in a state of occupation, the enemy is concrete and clear; occupying soldiers belonging to different nations were spread all over the country, putting the people under pressure and openly leading to the formation of a counter-consciousness. Despite all its gravity, the uprising against an open enemy created a very favorable environment for struggle. Because the enemy was seen clearly and distinctly and could be perceived through all its actions. However, if we come to the current situation, as the Great Liberator clearly stated, if all the fortresses of the country have been captured and there is no clearly perceivable enemy image, it means the enemy has seeped into the veins of the nation. In such cases, while social unrest may persist at a high level in some way, the society remains in a state of complete blindness and impasse regarding where the unrest stems from and toward what goal it is dragging society; it clings to the government at times, and to the opposition with hope at other times, but it cannot reach a definitive judgment on what exactly needs to be done. So much so that a misperception is made regarding the general social drift, but no information can be reached about the nature, purpose, and power of the enemy. In fact, the amorphous enemy is often unrecognizable because it enters society with sympathy. This, in short, is the clear difference between May 19, 1919, and May 19, 2026. Therefore, as much as we can, let us examine the potential enemy, perceived through the idea that it is virtual on today's abstract plane, with its reality dimension on a concrete plane.

In all peripheral economies, the enemy is not virtual but real; it aims to disintegrate from within by infiltrating the inner world of the people—who cannot be destroyed by military force—through a broken education system, the deception of religiousness, and other social institutions. The social regression of countries, the official permission for the entry of sects into the system, the extinguishing of the future expectations of the country's people, especially the youth, the transformation of countries into a community of parties managed covertly from the center, and the enabling of the division of peoples are the visible faces of the enemy. Well, when we look at who or what the actual subjects using these weapons are, we are confronted with a huge system and the exploitative dominant elements of that system. In short, the summary of the enemy in a single sentence, after such a long explanation, is that squeezed capitalism starts from the periphery, pulling countries into itself like a black hole, gradually exploiting them, and trying to maintain the wealth level of the central economies. The exploitative suckers that the center releases to the periphery can sometimes be politicians tasked with seizing power through the votes of their people and enslaving their people to imperialism; sometimes they can be the brains pulled from peripheral economies to the center through the education system; sometimes it can be education and cultural imperialism serving the intellectual collapse of the periphery; and sometimes it can be the central attraction that causes qualified youth who have passed the first stages of education to be pulled to the center after the initial stages of education are dumped onto peripheral economies. The essence of the matter is that it is central capitalism that pulls peripheral resources to the center through policies that serve to darken the future of society by putting the country into an economic bottleneck and collapsing nutrition, housing, and health problems as a result of capitalist practices. Not content with this, central exploitative capitalism works to support social structures that form a society of mere repairmen, maintenance workers, and unconscious consumers for the central economies of the future by producing millions in peripheral countries whose futures have been darkened and whose intelligence levels have been regressed. In short, the enemy is invisible, insidious, methods that can be effective in the future are in play, and neither is the enemy overt, nor can the methods be clearly perceived in daily life. In a process similar to osteoporosis in the body, peripheral societies are practically being led to the "altar" by the very politicians they carry to power with their own votes, and to whom they are attached with a senseless emotion as if they were family members. The most fundamental feature that distinguishes today's imperialism from the colonialism of the past is the ambiguity of the enemy's weapon, which is beyond perception, alongside its high degree of effectiveness.

I hope that we realize with clarity and lucidity that the excitement of this year's and future years' May 19 celebrations does not cloud our minds, nor dull our perception and thought!

Despite everything, looking to the future with hope and pride, I wholeheartedly celebrate the 'May 19 Commemoration' of all our youth and our people!