While Sending Cem Karaca Off
Fethullah Gülen, Baris Manco and Cem Karaca. To see or mention these three people in the same sentence during the 1970's was not possible under the circumstances of Turkey or even the world. This impossibility undoubtedly was not due to these people's own preferences. Like most people in those years, I knew of these three people by their works. Values that this geography raised were evaluated within the ideological patterns at the time. Fethullah Gülen sincerely defended this country's Islamic, national and historical values and strongly desired a generation ideal that would live the present and found the future upon these values. In each of his sermons was a teardrop, a grief and a hope. While Baris Manco was the musician admired and listened to by people on the right and sung about the country's national-historical-social values, Cem Karaca represented the left rebellion and tried to carry Dadaloglu and the Koroglu epic into the modern times.
Then the time has come. Our people, who were divided around imposed ideologies and considered themselves moving in opposite directions, have begun to embrace each other in the warmness of tolerance and dialogue, which Fethullah Gülen Hodjaefendi tried to create. While telling about the days of imprisonment experienced after March 12 and his memories concerning the September 12 period, the Hodjaefendi noted two important points and said: 'I stayed with the leftists in the prison. I knew people, who had so strong and sincere personalities, among them that I put faith in them in my dreams and then I found a [Companion of the Prophet Muhammed] (Sahabe-i Kiram), an Omer, an Ali and a Halit before me. I wrote an article during the September 12 [coup détat] period stating that sincere young people with good intentions were making a mistake by playing a state role in the 1970s. I still cannot forget a burnt letter, which I received from on such imprisoned young person. I still feel that letter in my bosom like a dagger.'
We have victimized thousands of people for the sake of continuance of an oligarchic sovereignty around the imposed ideologies. The same dominant circles could not stand the fact that the tolerance and dialogue movement initiated by Fethullah Gülen brought people together. Because he was forced into exile, Cem Karaca had spent most of 1980's in Germany like a traitor. However, he must have loved this country at least as much as the people who exiled him. The years in Germany had fueled that fire of faith that everyone carries within themselves. After returning to Turkey, and particularly in the tolerance and dialogue atmosphere that was formed in the country, he had embraced with people who were once considered impossible to bring togehter, and Fethullah Gülen Hodjaefend in particular.
Friendship between Hodjaefendi and Cem Karaca gradually grew. Cem Karaca recorded Hodjaefendi's poems; he invited him to his wedding. The Hodjaefendi could only respond with thanks and presents, because both his health problems and Turkey's conditions at the time prevented him from accepting Cem Karaca's invitation.
Cem Karaca passed into eternity earlier this week, but not without leaving an important lesson to the people who remain. His request, 'do not bury me with applauses but by prayers,' stressed people's real values and the values that each person carries within themselves... The Hodjaefendi is ill and alone in foreign land but I believe that he continues to live, longing for his land that he loved much more than the people who wanted to make Turkey a prison for him. He continues in exile because Turkey still cannot stand the climate of tolerance and dialogue he had created; the people who forced Cem Karaca to live in Germany and cannot stand seeing Hodjaefendi in Turkey, want a constant winter in Turkey rather than spring.
No matter what the people who rule Turkey do, the only way this country can become itself again and overcome the hardship is to make peace with its own history, which was a target for years. It must embrace the values that made this history and embrace the people, who wanted nothing more than the opportunity to serve their country. That is why nobody should consider themselves ahead of others in loving the country.
I wish Cem Karaca's funeral was broadcasted live by channels like STV and Channel 7 as well!
ZAMAN
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