The Republic, the CHP, and a century-old grudge

The meaning that the Republic holds for the Turkish Nation goes far beyond being a form of government.

For those living on these lands, the Republic represents the closing of an era and the opening of the path toward Enlightenment.

It is a REVOLUTION.

It is a REBIRTH.

It is the nation meeting its true identity, the birth of the Republic of Turkey, which takes its name from the National Identity.

It is the liberation of the individual from being a “subject,” becoming an equal, respected, and free citizen.

For this reason, the Republic is FREEDOM.

The Republic is the nation attaining secularism, contemporary civilization, a consciousness purified of dogmas, positive law, and its own culture and belief liberated from occupation; in short, it is the attainment of HUMAN DIGNITY.

The Republic is also WOMAN, it is SCIENCE, and it is PEACE at home and in the world.

Above all else; it is REBELLION against imperialism and INDEPENDENCE.

The enthusiastic celebration that millions perform every October 29th by filling the squares and streets is the expression of upholding all these values and the ATATÜRK REPUBLIC.

Among the states of the world, it is rare to find one that is not a Republic in its form of government. In fact, most religious states even have the word Republic in their names.

Look back at history, and you will see that totalitarian, fascist, and theocratic regimes that did not emerge from the ballot box are also in the minority.

History is full of examples where the “ballot box” has been used as a trap to deceive the public in societies where the consciousness of democracy and contemporary civilization has not developed.

For this reason, we, the Republicans and Kemalists of this country, do not settle for merely upholding the ballot box and a form of government legitimized by Parliament while defending the Republic; we express our determination to uphold the Atatürk Republic, which encompasses all the gains of the Republic and the revolution of enlightenment.

This is the underlying reason for the concern that the Republic is under attack.

There are valid reasons for these concerns.

1. Neo-Liberalism and Anti-Republicanism:

The perception that neo-liberals—who supported separatist movements by using human rights, freedoms, and democracy, and who contributed greatly to the AKP's rise to power—have created in society for years is that there is a contradiction between the Republic and Democracy.

The project of presenting democracy as an alternative to the Republic has been an indicator of the war that the 2nd Republican generation has waged against the Nation-State and the unitary structure. The package presented by this generation, which acts as a puppet for global actors, also aims to include secularism, limiting it only to “freedom of religion and conscience.”

While neo-liberals advance by exploiting the society's values of faith for their own purposes, there is only one target they focus on destroying: “Kemalism and secularism.”

The representatives of this movement, who focus on the missionary work of the Greater Middle East dream and are burning with the desire to resurrect the Treaty of Sèvres, have always maintained their cooperation with the separatist organization.

2. The Separatist Terrorist Organization

The PKK and its extensions, which have been operating for half a century as the most relentless enemies of Kemalism and the Republic, are now before us, hiding behind a new scenario.

Separatist terror and its imperialist supporters, who are skilled at using democracy against the Republic, have been trying to advance by adding Islamism to this cooperation, starting from 1994.

The message Öcalan sent to the 1994 Berlin Congress is the flare signaling what is happening today.

Öcalan, who said, “Kemalism is an Antichrist regime. Muslims who cooperate with it are hypocrites, even infidels,” continues as follows:

“The opening brought by the PKK is definitely Islamic. Today, there is only a difference in terminology between PKK fighters and Islamic mujahideen. At the end of our struggle, a situation close to the Age of Bliss (Asr-ı Saadet) that all Muslims long for may emerge.

Solving the Kurdish problem in the Middle East means making Kurdistan the cradle of Islamic Internationalism. The Kurdish problem is the most burning Islamic issue.”

Today, Öcalan continues to say in the Democratic Confederalism Doctrine he published that “the first step to be taken with the PKK will be an Ottoman-style Provincial System,” and that “the era of the Nation-State has closed, and the Democratic Confederation model is the antidote to Nationalism and the Nation-State.”

They are also moving forward by giving the green light to the Neo-Ottomanism movement and by sweet-talking the government.

It is a matter of curiosity what those who call Öcalan a “founding leader” and those who sat at that table established in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) have to say in response to these facts.

It is impossible to claim that the Atatürk Republic is under protection without escaping from a process where ideological and principled politics are abandoned and the focus is purely on “harvesting votes.”

3. The AKP and its coded messages

• President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan now prefers to move forward with symbolic, subliminal messages instead of speaking openly and imprudently as he did in the 1990s.

For example, on the 100th anniversary of the Republic, he saluted the navy from the Vahdettin Mansion.

Is it not an open stance against the values of the Republic to practically sanctify a traitor who cooperated with the enemy and handed the homeland over to invaders for the sake of his throne?

• Does limiting the celebration of National Holidays with State Ceremonies only to the October 29 Republic Day not count as an expression of a stance against the history of the Republic?

• Is it not a message that members of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), who represent the Turkish Army—the home of the Mehmetçik (Turkish soldier) who shed blood and gave their lives for the liberation of the homeland and the attainment of freedom and independence—were removed from the protocol for accepting ceremonial marches, wreath-laying, and congratulations on all national holidays (2016)?

• How can the removal of ceremonial marches and State celebration ceremonies for April 23, the anniversary of the founding of the TBMM, and May 19, the day Atatürk landed in Samsun and started the National Struggle, be explained?

• Is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's failure to visit Anıtkabir on any April 23 a reaction to the founding of the TBMM?

As is known, the Chamber of Deputies (Meclisi Mebusan) was closed on April 11, 1920, by the will of Vahdettin and the efforts and suggestions of Damat Ferit Pasha; the TBMM was established in Ankara on April 23, 1920, and managed the War of Independence as the Veteran Parliament (Gazi Meclis).

• More clear and concrete than these symbolic messages is the TURKISH CENTURY concept introduced starting in 2023.

The Turkish Century is also the beginning of the 2nd Republic. It is the date when the fire of competition with the Republican era was lit.

• It is THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW IDENTITY that will demonstrate the superiority of the conservative circle against the Republican segments of the public.

• It is a message of a NEW AND CONSERVATIVE CULTURE AND IDENTITY against the culture of the Republic.

• The AKP, which emerged with a Conservative Democrat identity, eventually shed its “democrat” identity and settled into a political strategy centered on religion. During the construction process of its new identity, neo-liberal pundits strengthened the AKP in this field by signaling a “multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-identity” structure.

• Erdoğan's expressions that began in 2022, accompanying the “CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTIONISM” discourse and emphasizing that this will be a century of rise, are accepted as the opening of the Turkish Century. The explanation of why and with what logic two opposite meanings like “Conservatism and Revolutionism” are used together naturally falls to Erdoğan.

• However, it is possible to find the codes of the concept in Necip Fazıl's famous “Great East” (Büyük Doğu) thought. According to Necip Fazıl, this revolution is an “Islamic Revolution.”

• Erdoğan's most well-known reference to Necip Fazıl can be remembered from the instruction he gave to youth branches before the 4+4+4 law: “To raise a youth that is a claimant of its grudge and its religion”... Immediately after these lines taken from Necip Fazıl's Address to the Youth, the following is written: “A youth that believes not in the people, but in the Truth (Hakk), and yearns for the maxim ‘sovereignty belongs to the Truth’ on the wall of the parliament”....

• The poem Erdoğan reads at all his Congresses is again Necip Fazıl's “Good News” (Müjde) poem.

• “A mind will come that will drive minds mad

   A Revolution will come that will OVERTHROW THE REVOLUTION”

IS THE CHP A SYMBOL OF A CENTURY-OLD GRUDGE?

We have experienced many concrete examples of the ongoing fight against the values of the Republic. We have witnessed attacks ranging from education to the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), and even to the economy with “nas” (religious decree) policies. We also got to know a President of Religious Affairs who cursed Atatürk during the opening of Hagia Sophia for worship.

We witnessed the AKP, which had a closure case filed against it for being the “focus of anti-secular activities” and narrowly escaped it, gradually becoming more comfortable by using legal regulations and its power to design the judiciary.

We also faced an Opposition that remained silent against attacks on Secularism, which is the main pillar and load-bearing column of the Republic.

However, the process experienced today shows that despite wearing down secularism and Republican values as much as possible, the accumulated grudge and fear of the AKP and its administrators toward the Atatürk Republic have not been overcome.

There are two main reasons for this fear. The first is the Turkish Nation's commitment to Atatürk and the Republic. The determined and enthusiastic stance of the millions who fill the squares and streets every Republic Day.

The second is the Republican People's Party (CHP), which is the guarantor of the founding values of the Republic of Turkey.

We are moving through a process where we have experienced countless examples of those who cannot control the enthusiasm of the people targeting Atatürk's Party.

For the AKP, the CHP is not just a main opposition party or the party that receives the most votes. For them, defeating the CHP also carries with it feelings of revenge against Republican Turkey, secularism, and the revolution of enlightenment.

It is no coincidence that representatives of a mentality that has sworn to make the CHP pay the price for the Atatürk Republic are rising up with the words “a revolution will come, it will overthrow the revolution.”

The determination of the increasingly totalitarian understanding of governance to sit in the Presidential seat for life, and the goal of realizing this ideal, should not escape attention.

The lawsuits filed under these conditions and the projects to bring Kılıçdaroğlu back with “absolute nullity” are not in vain. This case is a result of the AKP's longing for a period where the greatest concessions from Republican values were made, the CHP was stripped of its ideological identity, the secular Republic was left ownerless, and the ruling party tasted no defeat.

In the destruction operation against the CHP, there are issues that the party management should not overlook.

It should not be forgotten that every concession made from the CHP's founding values, ideological identity, and clean political history will strengthen the hands of those who approach both the CHP and the Atatürk Republic with a sense of revenge.

The CHP does not come from a political history established with the condition of loyalty to global bosses and designed by Rand Corporation reports. It is the product of an epic struggle waged on battlefields at the cost of life and blood for a fully independent Turkey.

Those who have given their hearts to the CHP are determined to continue the struggle for Atatürk's Turkey with the strength this spirit provides.

Those who set out to destroy the CHP are gradually approaching a bitter defeat.

Protecting the founding party of Turkey also encompasses the responsibility of reuniting the values of the Republic with our Nation, completely and anew, and delivering the trust to its owner, to future generations.

Happy Republic Day!