Tag: James (Cem) Ryan

  • The Honorable Barack H. Obama  President of the United States

    The Honorable Barack H. Obama President of the United States

    From: Pulat Tacar
    Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 10:26 AM
    To: turkish-forum-advisory-board@googlegroups.com

    Subject: Bir Amerikalinin Obama’ya mektubu…


    Dear Friends,

    The following letter (in English and Turkish) has been written
    to Mr. Obama, by an American, about the facts of Turkey..

    This letter is, in my opinion, the most realistic assessment about
    Turkish affairs, written by a westerner, so far I have ever read…

    Hope this letter reaches Mr. Obama and he finds time to read it.

    It seems, to understand Turkish affairs, one should live in Turkey
    for sometimes, let’s say some nine years!!!…

    Best regards,
    *****

    Cem Ryan, Ph.D. Istanbul, Turkey

    godotawaits@gmail.com


    20 January 2009

    The Honorable Barack H. Obama  President of the United States
    The White House  1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW  Washington, DC 20500  USA

    Dear Mr. President:

    I write this letter to you, Mr. President, with my highest and warmest regards, best wishes, and my hope for a better, more just world. I have fond memories of this particular day, 20 January, your day of inauguration as president. Forty-eight years ago—six months before you were born—I, along with my fellow West Point cadets, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to salute the newly sworn president, John F. Kennedy. Next to graduating from West Point, it was the highlight of my life. January 20, 1961—it had snowed heavily the night before and the day dawned windy with arctic temperatures. It was perfect, a memory crystal buried deep. How young we were, so enthusiastic about confronting a dangerous world with our young president. But while euphoria is grand, it is also dangerous, Mr. President. It didn’t take long for reality to take hold. And so time goes. I have now lived in Istanbul, Turkey for nine years. Over these years a “reality” has set in regarding our beloved country, America. And so I write to you today, Mr. President, to warn you about conditions in Turkey. “The world,” wrote Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, “is an arena of trials.” And the Bush policy of making Turkey a “moderate Islamic republic” has been, and continues to be, an arena of disasters. Mr. President, time is of the essence to correct this. And you need to know more about Turkey to do so.

    Accordingly, I have enclosed two books: one a biography, Ataturk, by Andrew Mango, the other, a copy of The Great Speech by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Nutuk in Turkish). The latter epic work flowed from the pen of Ataturk, a 36-hour speech delivered over six days in October 1927. Therein, he recounts the Turkish War of Independence and the founding of the Turkish Republic. It is an astounding document.

    “I have tried to show, in these accounts, how a great people, whose national course was considered as finished, reconquered its independence; how it created a national and modern state founded on the latest results of science. The result we have today is the fruit of teachings which arose from centuries of suffering,and the price of streams of blood which have drenched every foot of the ground of our beloved homeland. This holy treasure I lay in the hands of the youth of Turkey. Turkish youth! Your primary duty is ever to preserve and defend the national independence of the Turkish Republic. “(Ataturk, The Great Speech, 715)

    By reading this book, Mr. President, you will immediately understand the enormous genius of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. You will see how the forces of religious fundamentalism didn’t magically vanish after Ataturk ended the sultanate and abolished the caliphate. Instead, they continued to subvert his revolutionary reforms from the very beginning. This is the nature of religious fundamentalism here in Turkey. It never stops. It is vital that you understand this, Mr. President. Turkey has always been a target for these dark-minded forces. And now these ignorant minds run the country. Reading the words of Mustafa Kemal will also help you marshal your own significant resources and talents, for you seem to be blessed with a capacious mind much like Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s. Decisive, informed leadership is needed today by the president of the United States. These were defining characteristics of Ataturk, along with his great personal integrity. May you learn well from him, Mr. President, a man who fought a war against religious terrorists for his entire life.

    Now the democratic, secular, social state of the Republic of Turkey, governed under the rule of law, is under siege, both from without and within. I know this, Mr. President, I live here, and what I know is not sanitized by political niceties and outright propaganda. The undoing of this nation, created in Ataturk’s mind as a young army officer, has been long underway. But now the day is here. The black-minded ignorance of religious fundamentalism becomes more apparent every minute. Alcohol bans, women shoved under politically symbolic headscarves at the behest of duplicitous politicians, a compliant, subverted media. Here, so-called “liberals” work in compliance with outside forces (your CIA, for example, Mr. President). And the corruption of the religious ruling party is stunning and stinks to the high heavens from theft, rampant bribery, and election fraud. Currently, a scam called Ergenekon purges the left-wing opposition rivals (all adherents of the enlightened principles of Ataturk). To further contaminate his work, a smattering of outright criminals is added to the list of detainees. All this and more has brought democratic Turkey near its knees. And Mustafa Kemal Ataturk never knelt for anyone, ever. As a child he even refused to play leapfrog.

    European Union members, who never read him, wonder why so much fuss is made about Ataturk. Of similar traitorous stripe as the “entente liberals” of Ataturk’s day who conspired with the British occupiers for a mandate over Turkey, today’s “liberal” Turks (libos) fall over themselves subverting secular Turkey and the principles of Ataturk, in the name of democracy. The ruling party works its religious agenda demeaning the integrity of women at every turn, debasing the liberation of women by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. And the United States of America, our country Mr. President, directly aids and abets these subversive forces. This is shameful.

    Mr. President, most Americans remain ignorant about Turkey and, amazingly, even more so about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Without knowing this man one knows nothing about this country. The enclosed books are my attempt to prevent you learning about Turkey solely by reading sterile briefing books, self-serving CIA studies, State Department policy papers, memoranda from your national security advisors, and, most particularly, reports from the western press. Most of the Turkish press, and, in particular, the current Turkish government are similarly ever-willing purveyors of self-interested propaganda. Beware, Mr. President, for you will receive regurgitations of superficial, stale, and even incorrect information, like the Bushian nonsense that Turkey is a “moderate Islamic nation.” Via the headscarf issue—the “ocular proof” of piety for western consumption—this ill-conceived initiative, without any Koranic justification, has created a gigantic, violent, societal schism in Turkey. Mr. President, is America a moderate Christian nation? I mean, should Americans wear visible crucifixes? Please reconsider this nonsensical policy, Mr. President. (Again, read The Great Speech to see how religious subversions beset Ataturk at every turn.)

    “One will be able to imagine how necessary the carrying through of these measures was, in order to prove that our nation as a whole was no primitive nation, filled with superstitions and prejudices. Could a civilized nation tolerate a mass of people who let themselves be led by the nose by a herd of seyhs, Dedes,Seyyits, celebis, Babas, and Emirs, who entrusted their destiny and their lives to palm readers, magicians, dice-throwers and amulet sellers? Ought one to preserve in the Turkish State, in the Turkish Republic, elements and institutions such as those which had for centuries given the nation the appearance of being other than it really was?” (Ataturk, The Great Speech, 714)

    Mr. President, even worse than misinformation, you will be regaled with assertions and protestations that the current religious-rooted government is representative and similar to the majority of Turkish people. Mr. President, it is extremely dangerous for you, and for the United States, to be deceived in this manner. Indeed this must sound strange to you, Mr. President, but it is true. There is a great muffling happening in Turkey today. So I caution you, to become truly aware of the situation in Turkey, you must first meet Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in depth. You must come to enlightenment about Turkey on your own recognizance, Mr. President, and not rely on the misinformed, the flatterers, and the deceivers, of whom there are legion.

    While you may think you are different, Mr. President, be forewarned that, despite your access to the bright minds of the CIA, the State Department, and your White House staff, you will not get a true idea of the essence of Turkey, the nation. You may learn about this Turkish government, but that’s not learning about the Turkish nation. And you will certainly not learn anything from members of the present Turkish government about the nation’s soul.
    The essence of the modern Turkish soul reposes in the materials I have sent, in a word, Ataturk. His accomplishments—military, political, social, educational, creative—represent a quest for justice for the collective life of his people, and in no small regard, for the world. “Peace at home, peace in the world,” he famously said. He possessed, as I suspect you do as well, Mr. President, what Reinhold Niebuhr called the “sublime madness in the soul,” saved from excessiveness by unusually astute powers of reason. So armed, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk battled against the powers of darkness and spiritual corruption in high places. So armed, he rescued his people from the debris of the Ottoman Empire. Today, his thoughts and deeds define the existential principles of the Turkish nation. But, Mr. President, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is now under attack from outside Turkey and within.

    Nevertheless, his principles still inspire tens of millions of proudly secular Turks who long for the truly democratic nation he established. Believe me Mr. President, the “secular elite” described by the disgracefully biased and ill-informed writings of Sabrina Tavernise of The New York Times as “an immensely powerful coterie of generals and judges” is nonsense. Millions of us—yes, Mr. President, I too am a citizen of Turkey—took to the streets in the spring of 2007 against the policies of the U.S.-backed Erdogan government. And matters have become even more dire since. Mr. President, perhaps you don’t know what’s going on with this government.

    In the name of democracy, the ruling party, the AKP (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, Justice and Development Party) has made a shambles of Turkey’s founding principles. In the name of democracy there is vast bribing of the AKP electorate, predominantly poor and uneducated, with coal and appliances. Higher court deliberations on suits against the ruling party are regularly attacked by the ruling party, particularly by the prime minister, and literal targets (complete with crosshairs) are made of individual judges in the religious press.
    In the name of democracy and social justice and legal egalitarianism, an enormous purge of hundreds of alleged opponents of the ruling party is taking place in a “fishing expedition” called Ergenekon. A literal witch hunt, so-called suspect members of a military-coup conspiracy ring are held without benefit of writs of habeas corpus; they have been held in jail—some for over 18 months—without being charged and later prejudicially tried in jail. Writers, journalists, university presidents, labor union leaders, lawyers, retired army officers, leftists all, are caught up in this disgrace of a dragnet. (As mentioned earlier, some ordinary criminals are mixed in for pollution purposes.) Mr. President, I write to you on their behalf, the educated, western-thinking intelligentia, now imprisoned in a Turkish gulag called Silivri, the largest prison in Turkey, and in Europe. And that’s where they are tried! In the prison! So you, Mr. President, as an attorney, undoubtedly instantly understand the extremely prejudicial nature of this trumped-up case.

    Mass arrests typically happen immediately after the ruling party suffers a legal or corruption setback. For example, consider its trial in early 2008 where the AKP was found guilty of being the center of anti-secular activity in Turkey. A second roundup occurred as a result of a German charitable foundation called Deniz Feneri, “lighthouse” in English. Organized by Turks in both Germany and Turkey, Deniz Feneri stole 41 million euros from pious Turks in Germany and transferred 17 million of it to Turkey, some to media companies friendly to the ruling party. The AKP manager, Zahid Akman, of the Turkish government’s televison and radio system (RTuK), was identified by the court as the bagman. He remains in his position, dutifully protecting the nation’s morals by blurring televised images of smoking and the consumption of alcohol. The German prosecutor stated that links of the Deniz Feneri embezzlement were traced to the office of the prime ministery.

    The movement of Turkey toward sharia continues. Vast areas of the nation have been made alcohol-free. Swimsuit advertisements are banned in Istanbul. The Ataturk Cultural Center, located in prime space in downtown Istanbul, has been closed. No details are given regarding its status. Consequently, the Istanbul symphony, opera, and ballet, all state sponsored, have been sent packing. They are rumored to perform occasionally, somewhere. So much for cultural enlightenment. Oddly enough, Istanbul has been selected to be the European Capital of Culture in 2010; this is known as political lip service.

    Mr. President, for too long a time America has attempted to efface the Turkish soul, to reshape this country, to include it in the American hegemony. All this subversion has been to, in effect, lobotomize the Turkish brain, ridding it of the noble thoughts of Ataturk, making it a congenial dolt, bowing and scraping to America’s wishes. Internally, this has been the primary responsibility of the ruling party. And it has done its job very well, almost bringing the once proud nation of Ataturk to its knees. Once, after a waiter dropped a heavily laden tray at a state dinner, Mustafa Kemal turned to his foreign guests and said, “As you can see I have taught my people to do everything but serve.” How ironic, how angering to the followers of Ataturk is the current servile, US-installed government. Consider this, Mr. President. Banned from running from office, without any legal credentials whatsoever, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was welcomed to the White House by George W. Bush as de facto head of the Turkish government. How outrageous! No wonder Erdogan, habitually a dour, scowling man, beamed broadly whenever he visited Bush. Do not be deceived Mr. President, this government neither serves you, nor the Turkish people. In the name of so-called democracy, it serves itself. It has long been at its destructive work, this imperialism. You know this personally, Mr. President. Why your very roots—one foot in Hawaii, the other in Kenya, your days of youth in Indonesia—all these highly personal experiences have surely informed your persona. Surely they speak to you of the same issue that so afflicts Turkey. Imperialism. Internal subversion. Corruption.

    When Mustafa Kemal Ataturk rescued Turkey from the ruins of the Ottoman five hundred year reign, he established a new way for the Turkish people to live their lives. It was the way of enlightenment, the western way. I hope that you can now begin to see how the west, for its own ill-reasoned self-interest, has encouraged the sabotaging of the enlightened principles of Ataturk. Most importantly, I hope that this whets your reading appetite to learn more about this incomparable man.

    Mr. President, I am confident that you will adopt your policies, both within America, and without, in the spirit of those stirring words you wrote in Dreams from My Father about a different kind of politics:
    “That politics will need to reflect our lives as they are actually lived.”

    The majority of Turkish people want the very same thing. And if the United States can get out of their way, they can have it.

    Sincerely yours,

    James (Cem) Ryan

    Enclosures:
    Ataturk. Andrew Mango. John Murray Publishers, London, 2004.
    The Great Speech (Nutuk). Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk Research Center, Ankara, 2005.
    Posted by Cem Ryan, Ph.D. Istanbul, Turkey godotawaits@gmail.com

    for turkısh versıon please go to turkısh pages

    Türkçe www.turkishnews.com/tr/content

    0000000000000000000000000000000000000000

    James (Cem) Ryan

    godotawaits@gmail.com

    James (Cem)Ryan is a writer living in Istanbul, Turkey. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he holds a Ph.D. in literature. His historical novel, Natural Affinities, about New York City during World War I, was published in 2004 by (www.trafford.com/robots/03-1783.html).

    5 Articles

    Sunday, February 1, 2009
    Erdogan Does Davos
    (1 comments) By his courageous stand ErdoGan has unified a badly divided nation. We shall soon see the degree to which he is an equally passionate advocate for human rights in his own country.

    Sunday, January 25, 2009
    Letter to President Obama: Turkey in an Arena of Trials
    I have now lived in Istanbul, Turkey for nine years. Over these years a “reality” has set in regarding our beloved country, America. I write to you today, Mr. President, to warn you about conditions in Turkey. “The world,” wrote Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, “is an arena of trials.” And the Bush policy of making Turkey a “moderate Islamic republic” has been an arena of disasters. Mr. President.

    Monday, January 12, 2009
    THE ISRAELI-AMERICAN KILLING MACHINE
    (3 comments) The tentacles of God’s bloody instruction have been embraced as a political policy by the ancient Israelites, the papacy in Rome, the new world colonizing countries, the early government of the United States, and the current governments of the United States and its favorite strategic partner-in-crime, Israel. It reaches back four thousand years. It has been a disgraceful, bloor-ridden legacy.

    Wednesday, December 24, 2008
    Forget Armenia, Turks Should Condemn American Indian Genocide
    (2 comments) It is high time that Turkey takes the offensive on the matter of genocide. In this day of widespread destruction, it is high time to remind America, Americans, and their government, that they are up to their ancestral elbows in the blood of the American Indians. The Turkish government must condemn the American Indian Genocide, or itself be condemned.

    Sunday, April 13, 2008
    Turkey!s “Undemocratic” Constitution
    The furor regarding the case accepted by Turkey’s highest court that could result in the banishment of the AKP ruling party makes me laugh out loud. Never forget that in the name of democracy, the institution that brought the Bush regime to power was none other than the Supreme Court of the United States. A judicial coup? Don’t make me laugh harder. No one said a word about that.

  • FORGET ARMENIA, TURKS SHOULD CONDEMN AMERICAN INDIAN GENOCIDE

    FORGET ARMENIA, TURKS SHOULD CONDEMN AMERICAN INDIAN GENOCIDE

    Massacre, Wounded Knee, South Dakota, December 1890

    Turkey is today beset on all sides by the shock doctrine strategy of the west, and from within by its US-backed marionette government. Now the Armenian Genocide issue has once again bubbled to the surface. Apologize! Apologize! yell the so-called Turkish liberals, egos stroked and, no doubt, palms greased by their western puppeteers. It’s the same old drama with the same stodgy cast burbling the same trite lines. As usual, the Turkish government does nothing, thus contributing to the confusion, apathy, and fear that stalk the land. But that’s the whole idea isn’t it?

    Turkish people! Instead of handwringing and moaning, ACT! Turkish people, you heirs of the Atatürk Revolution, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave you the right (and responsibility) to save your country. https://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~sadi/dizeler/hitabe2.html ) Fight the rush-to-judgment efforts of the Armenian Genocide lobby. Every “Turkish child of future generations” should demand that their parliament immediately enact a resolution that condemns the American Indian Genocide. Turkish people…ACT! Defend your country against the dark powers that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk foresaw over eighty years ago. The facts of the catastrophe done to the American Indians are in plain sight and beyond dispute. Spain, Portugal, England, and, most importantly, the United States of America should stand condemned in the eyes of the world for the crimes committed against the aboriginal population in the Americas.

    More than 200 million Indians lost their lives on the combined North, Central, and South American continents after Columbus landed in 1492. The Indians in South and Central America were mostly enslaved to extract precious metals. The Indians in North America were displaced, starved, and slaughtered to make way for the enormous flow of European immigrants. Vast numbers died from European diseases, perhaps the first weapon of mass destruction, in this case, biological warfare. Surely Turkey has the right to defend itself from the Western claims of genocide, given the historically bloody hand of the West.

    From approximately 15-18 million North American Indians present in the days of Columbus, only 190,000 were left in the territorial United States in 1890. The destruction of the Southern Indians (the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek tribes) resulted in the seizure and clearance of their enormously fertile forest lands (the Southern black belt) in order to expand both slavery and cotton production in Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi. In this manner, the red and black races were displaced, enslaved, and murdered in order for white America to prosper. The proof of this assertion is fully documented and unassailable.

    On the other hand, Turkey has welcomed the persecuted minorities of many nations. The same year that the destruction of the American Indians began, 1492, Turkey’s Sultan Bayezit II accepted with kindness and consideration the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal. Similar compassion was rendered to Jews centuries later who fled Hitler’s genocide. Surely Turkey has the right, the responsibility, and moral authority to counter the orchestrated, poorly documented, rush-to-judgment of the Armenian Lobby and its collaborators, both western and Turkish.

    The horrific destruction of the sophisticated Native American cultural system was encouraged by the government of the United States, particularly under the administration of that so-called champion of so-called democracy, Andrew Jackson. By 1890, the American Indians were finished. Their numbers had been reduced by 98 percent over the 400 years since Columbus landed. By 1890 the United States government had seized 98 percent of their land. No greater genocide or land grab has existed in the history of the world. Surely Turkey has the right to challenge the unproven claim of so-called genocide by affirming through parliamentary resolution the well-documented genocide of an entire race of people by an act of policy by the government of the United States of America.

    It is high time that Turkey takes the offensive on the matter of genocide. In this day of widespread destruction, it is high time to remind America, Americans, and their government, that they are up to their ancestral elbows in the blood of the American Indians. The Turkish government must condemn the American Indian Genocide, or itself be condemned. And if you, the Turkish people, think that makes you a traitor, then read again Nazım Hikmet’s magnificent poem, Vatan Haini (“Traitor”) below, along with Atatürk’s statement of your “primary duty.”

    Cem Ryan, Ph.D.
    Istanbul
    21 December 2008

    TRAITOR


    “Nazim Hikmet is still continuing to be a traitor,
    We are a half-colony of American imperialism, said Hikmet.
    Nazim Hikmet is still continuing to be a traitor.”
    This came out in one of the Ankara newspapers,
    Over three columns, in a pitch-black screaming streamer.
    In an Ankara newspaper, beside a photograph of Admiral Williamson,
    smiling in 66 square centimeters, his mouth in his ears,
    the American admiral.
    America gave 120 million lira to our budget, 120 million lira.
    “We are a half-colony of American imperialism, said Hikmet.
    Nazim Hikmet is still continuing to be a traitor.”

    Yes, I am a traitor, if you are a patriot, if you are a defender of our homeland,
    I am a traitor to my homeland, I am a traitor to my country.
    If patriotism is your farms,
    if the valuables in your safes and your bank accounts is patriotism,
    if patriotism is dying from hunger by the side of the road,
    if patriotism is trembling in the cold like a cur and shivering from malaria in the summer,
    if sucking our scarlet blood in your factories is patriotism,
    if patriotism is the claws of your village lords,
    if patriotism is the catechism, if patriotism is the police club,
    if your allocations and your salaries are patriotism,
    if patriotism is American bases, American bombs, and American missiles,
    if patriotism is not escaping from our stinking black-minded ignorance,
    then I am a traitor.
    Write it over three columns, in a pitch-black screaming streamer,
    Nazim Hikmet is continuing to be a traitor, STILL!

    Nazim Hikmet
    28 July 1962

    (Translation: Hüda Cereb and James Ryan, 1 June 2005)

    ATATÜRK’S SPEECH TO TURKISH YOUTH
    O Turkish Youth! Your first duty is ever to preserve and defend the national independence, the Turkish Republic.

    That is the sole foundation of your existence and your future. This foundation is your most precious treasure. In the future, too, there will be ill-will, both in the country itself and abroad, which will try to tear this treasure from you. If one day you are compelled to defend your independence and the Republic, then, in order to fulfill your duty, you will have to look beyond the possibilities and conditions in which you might find yourself.

    It may be that these conditions and possibilities are altogether unfavorable. It may be that the enemies who desire to destroy your independence and your Republic represent the strongest force that the earth has ever seen; that they have through craft and force, taken possession of all the fortresses and arsenals of the homeland; that all its armies are scattered and the country actually and completely occupied.
    Assuming, in order to look still darker possibilities in the face, that those who hold the power of Government within the country have fallen into error, that they are fools or traitors, yes, even that these leading persons may identify their personal interests with the enemy’s political goals, it might happen that the nation came into complete privation, into the most extreme distress; that it found itself in a condition of ruin and complete exhaustion.

    Even under those circumstances, O Turkish child of future generations, it is your duty to save the independence of the Turkish Republic.

    The strength that you will need for this is mighty in the noble blood which flows in your veins.

    Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

    From“The Great Speech”
    20 October 1927

    https://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~sadi/dizeler/hitabe2.html

    VATAN HAİNİ

    “Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.
    Amerikan emperyalizminin yarı sömürgesiyiz,” dedi Hikmet.
    “Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.”
    Bir Ankara gazetesinde çıktı bunlar, üç sütun üstüne, kapkara haykıran puntolarla,
    bır Ankara gazetesinde, fotoğrafı yanında Amiral Vilyamson’un
    66 santimetre karede gülüyor, ağzı kulaklarında, Amerikan amirali
    Amerika, bütçemize 120 milyon lira hibe etti, 120 milyon lira.
    “Amerikan emperyalizminin yari sömurgesiyiz, dedi Hikmet
    Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.”

    Evet, vatan hainliğine, siz vatanperverseniz, siz yurtseverseniz, ben yurt
    hainiyim, ben vatan hainiyim.
    Vatan ciftliklerinizse,
    kasalarınızın ve çek defterlerinizin içindekilerse vatan,
    vatan, şose boylarında gebermekse açlıktan,
    vatan, soğukta it gibi titremek ve sıtmadan kıvranmaksa yazın,
    fabrikalrınızda al kanımızı içmekse vatan,
    vatan tırnaklarıysa ağalarınızın,
    vatan, mızraklı ilmühalse, vatan, polis copuysa,
    ödeneklerinizse, maaşlarınızsa vatan,
    vatan, Amerikan üsleri, Amerikan bombası, American donanması topuysa,
    vatan, kurtulmamaksa kokmuş karanlığımızdan,
    ben vatan hainiyim.
    Yazın üç sütun üstüne kapkara haykıran puntolarla:
    Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.

    Nazım Hikmet

    28 Temmuz 1962

    https://nazimhikmet.fisek.com.tr/siir/vatanhaini.htm

    ATATÜRK’ÜN GENCLİĞE HİTABESİ

    Ey Türk gençliği! Birinci vazifen, Türk istiklâlini, Türk Cumhuriyet’ini, ilelebet, muhafaza ve müdafaa etmektir.

    Mevcudiyetinin ve istikbalinin yegâne temeli budur.
    Bu temel, senin, en kıymetli hazinendir.
    İstikbalde dahi, seni bu hazineden mahrum etmek isteyecek, dahilî ve haricî bedhahların olacaktır. Bir gün, istiklâl ve cumhuriyeti müdafaa mecburiyetine düşersen, vazifeye atılmak için, içinde bulunacağın vaziyetln imkân ve şeraitini düşünmeyeceksin!
    Bu imkân ve şerait, çok nâmüsait bir mahiyette tezahür edebilir.
    İstiklâl ve cumhuriyetine kastedecek düşmanlar, bütün dünyada emsali görülmemiş bir galibiyetin mümessili olabilirler. Cebren ve hile ile aziz vatanın, bütün kaleleri zaptedilmiş, bütün tersanelerine girilmiş, bütün orduları dagıtılmış ve memleketin her köşesi bilfiil işgal edilmiş olabilir. Bütün bu şeraitten daha elîm ve daha vahim olmak üzere, memleketin dahilinde, iktidara sahip olanlar gaflet ve dalâlet ve hattâ hiyanet içinde bulunabilirler.
    Hatta bu iktidar sahipleri şahsî menfaatlerini, müstevlilerin siyasî emelleriyle tevhit edebilirler. Millet, fakr ü zaruret içinde harap ve bîtap düşmüş olabilir.

    Ey Türk istikbalinin evlâdı! İşte, bu ahval ve şerait içinde dahi, vazifen; Türk istiklâl ve cumhuriyetini kurtarmaktır!

    Muhtaç olduğun kudret, damarlarındaki asil kanda, mevcuttur!

    Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
    “Nutuk”
    20 Ekim 1927

    2 comments:

    Ergun Kirlikovali said…
    Dear Cem Ryan,

    I appreciated and enjoyed your commentary and would like to publish it in my columns at www.turkla.com and www.turkishjournal.com in its entirety, if you give me your permission.

    Keep up the good work!

    Ergun KIRLIKOVALI: Ergun@turkla.com.
    12-24-2008

    Anonymous said…
    Turks Should Condemn American Indian Genocide, indeed but, if Armenian were as ‘lucky’ as native Americans, they would have Casinos and ‘tribal’ lands in Turkey. Armenian Genocide should never be forgotten and you’ll be rotting in hell for being Turkish government’s thug.

  • FORGET ARMENIA, TURKS SHOULD CONDEMN AMERICAN INDIAN GENOCIDE

    FORGET ARMENIA, TURKS SHOULD CONDEMN AMERICAN INDIAN GENOCIDE

     

    Massacre, Wounded Knee, South Dakota, December 1890

    Turkey is today beset on all sides by the shock doctrine strategy of the west, and from within by its US-backed marionette government. Now the Armenian Genocide issue has once again bubbled to the surface. Apologize! Apologize! yell the so-called Turkish liberals, egos stroked and, no doubt, palms greased by their western puppeteers. It’s the same old drama with the same stodgy cast burbling the same trite lines. As usual, the Turkish government does nothing, thus contributing to the confusion, apathy, and fear that stalk the land. But that’s the whole idea isn’t it?

     

    Turkish people! Instead of handwringing and moaning, ACT! Turkish people, you heirs of the Atatürk Revolution, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave you the right (and responsibility) to save your country. https://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~sadi/dizeler/hitabe2.html ) Fight the rush-to-judgment efforts of the Armenian Genocide lobby. Every “Turkish child of future generations” should demand that their parliament immediately enact a resolution that condemns the American Indian Genocide. Turkish people…ACT! Defend your country against the dark powers that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk foresaw over eighty years ago. The facts of the catastrophe done to the American Indians are in plain sight and beyond dispute. Spain, Portugal, England, and, most importantly, the United States of America should stand condemned in the eyes of the world for the crimes committed against the aboriginal population in the Americas.

    More than 200 million Indians lost their lives on the combined North, Central, and South American continents after Columbus landed in 1492. The Indians in South and Central America were mostly enslaved to extract precious metals. The Indians in North America were displaced, starved, and slaughtered to make way for the enormous flow of European immigrants. Vast numbers died from European diseases, perhaps the first weapon of mass destruction, in this case, biological warfare. Surely Turkey has the right to defend itself from the Western claims of genocide, given the historically bloody hand of the West.

    From approximately 15-18 million North American Indians present in the days of Columbus, only 190,000 were left in the territorial United States in 1890. The destruction of the Southern Indians (the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek tribes) resulted in the seizure and clearance of their enormously fertile forest lands (the Southern black belt) in order to expand both slavery and cotton production in Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi. In this manner, the red and black races were displaced, enslaved, and murdered in order for white America to prosper. The proof of this assertion is fully documented and unassailable.

    Turkey has welcomed the persecuted minorities of many nations. The same year that the destruction of the American Indians began, 1492, Turkey’s Sultan Bayezit II accepted with kindness and consideration the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal. Similar compassion was rendered to Jews centuries later who fled Hitler’s genocide. Surely Turkey has the right, the responsibility, and moral authority to counter the orchestrated, poorly documented, rush-to-judgment of the Armenian Lobby and its collaborators, both western and Turkish.

    The horrific destruction of the sophisticated Native American cultural system was encouraged by the government of the United States, particularly under the administration of that so-called champion of so-called democracy, Andrew Jackson. By 1890, the American Indians were finished. Their numbers had been reduced by 98 percent over the 400 years since Columbus landed. By 1890 the United States government had seized 98 percent of their land. No greater genocide or land grab has existed in the history of the world. Surely Turkey has the right to challenge the unproven claim of so-called genocide by affirming through parliamentary resolution the well-documented genocide of an entire race of people by an act of policy by the government of the United States of America.

    It is high time that Turkey takes the offensive on the matter of genocide. In this day of widespread destruction, it is high time to remind America, Americans, and their government, that they are up to their ancestral elbows in the blood of the American Indians. The Turkish government must condemn the American Indian Genocide, or itself be condemned. And if you, the Turkish people, think that makes you a traitor, then read again Nazım Hikmet’s magnificent poem, Vatan Haini (“Traitor”) below, along with Atatürk’s statement of your “primary duty.”

    Cem Ryan, Ph.D.
    Istanbul
    21 December 2008

     
    TRAITOR

    “Nazim Hikmet is still continuing to be a traitor,
    We are a half-colony of American imperialism, said Hikmet.
    Nazim Hikmet is still continuing to be a traitor.”
    This came out in one of the Ankara newspapers,
    Over three columns, in a pitch-black screaming streamer.
    In an Ankara newspaper, beside a photograph of Admiral Williamson,
    smiling in 66 square centimeters, his mouth in his ears,
    the American admiral.
    America gave 120 million lira to our budget, 120 million lira.
    “We are a half-colony of American imperialism, said Hikmet.
    Nazim Hikmet is still continuing to be a traitor.”

    Yes, I am a traitor, if you are a patriot, if you are a defender of our homeland,
    I am a traitor to my homeland, I am a traitor to my country.
    If patriotism is your farms,
    if the valuables in your safes and your bank accounts is patriotism,
    if patriotism is dying from hunger by the side of the road,
    if patriotism is trembling in the cold like a cur and shivering from malaria in the summer,
    if sucking our scarlet blood in your factories is patriotism,
    if patriotism is the claws of your village lords,
    if patriotism is the catechism, if patriotism is the police club,
    if your allocations and your salaries are patriotism,
    if patriotism is American bases, American bombs, and American missiles,
    if patriotism is not escaping from our stinking black-minded ignorance,
    then I am a traitor.
    Write it over three columns, in a pitch-black screaming streamer,
    Nazim Hikmet is continuing to be a traitor, STILL!

    Nazim Hikmet
    28 July 1962

    (Translation: Hüda Cereb and James Ryan, 1 June 2005)

     

     

    ATATÜRK’S SPEECH TO TURKISH YOUTH

     

    O Turkish Youth! Your first duty is ever to preserve and defend the national independence, the Turkish Republic.

    That is the sole foundation of your existence and your future. This foundation is your most precious treasure. In the future, too, there will be ill-will, both in the country itself and abroad, which will try to tear this treasure from you. If one day you are compelled to defend your independence and the Republic, then, in order to fulfill your duty, you will have to look beyond the possibilities and conditions in which you might find yourself.
    It may be that these conditions and possibilities are altogether unfavorable. It may be that the enemies who desire to destroy your independence and your Republic represent the strongest force that the earth has ever seen; that they have through craft and force, taken possession of all the fortresses and arsenals of the homeland; that all its armies are scattered and the country actually and completely occupied.
    Assuming, in order to look still darker possibilities in the face, that those who hold the power of Government within the country have fallen into error, that they are fools or traitors, yes, even that these leading persons may identify their personal interests with the enemy’s political goals, it might happen that the nation came into complete privation, into the most extreme distress; that it found itself in a condition of ruin and complete exhaustion.

    Even under those circumstances, O Turkish child of future generations, it is your duty to save the independence of the Turkish Republic.

    The strength that you will need for this is mighty in the noble blood which flows in your veins.

    Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
    From”The Great Speech”
    20 October 1927

    https://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~sadi/dizeler/hitabe2.html

     

     
    VATAN HAİNİ

    “Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.
    Amerikan emperyalizminin yarı sömürgesiyiz,” dedi Hikmet.
    “Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.”
    Bir Ankara gazetesinde çıktı bunlar, üç sütun üstüne, kapkara haykıran puntolarla,
    bır Ankara gazetesinde, fotoğrafı yanında Amiral Vilyamson’un
    66 santimetre karede gülüyor, ağzı kulaklarında, Amerikan amirali
    Amerika, bütçemize 120 milyon lira hibe etti, 120 milyon lira.
    “Amerikan emperyalizminin yari sömurgesiyiz, dedi Hikmet
    Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.”

    Evet, vatan hainliğine, siz vatanperverseniz, siz yurtseverseniz, ben yurt
    hainiyim, ben vatan hainiyim.
    Vatan ciftliklerinizse,
    kasalarınızın ve çek defterlerinizin içindekilerse vatan,
    vatan, şose boylarında gebermekse açlıktan,
    vatan, soğukta it gibi titremek ve sıtmadan kıvranmaksa yazın,
    fabrikalrınızda al kanımızı içmekse vatan,
    vatan tırnaklarıysa ağalarınızın,
    vatan, mızraklı ilmühalse, vatan, polis copuysa,
    ödeneklerinizse, maaşlarınızsa vatan,
    vatan, Amerikan üsleri, Amerikan bombası, American donanması topuysa,
    vatan, kurtulmamaksa kokmuş karanlığımızdan,
    ben vatan hainiyim.
    Yazın üç sütun üstüne kapkara haykıran puntolarla:
    Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.

    Nazım Hikmet
    28 Temmuz 1962

    https://nazimhikmet.fisek.com.tr/siir/vatanhaini.htm

     

     

    ATATÜRK’ÜN GENCLİĞE HİTABESİ

    Ey Türk gençliği! Birinci vazifen, Türk istiklâlini, Türk Cumhuriyet’ini, ilelebet, muhafaza ve müdafaa etmektir.

    Mevcudiyetinin ve istikbalinin yegâne temeli budur.
    Bu temel, senin, en kıymetli hazinendir.
    İstikbalde dahi, seni bu hazineden mahrum etmek isteyecek, dahilî ve haricî bedhahların olacaktır. Bir gün, istiklâl ve cumhuriyeti müdafaa mecburiyetine düşersen, vazifeye atılmak için, içinde bulunacağın vaziyetln imkân ve şeraitini düşünmeyeceksin!
    Bu imkân ve şerait, çok nâmüsait bir mahiyette tezahür edebilir.
    İstiklâl ve cumhuriyetine kastedecek düşmanlar, bütün dünyada emsali görülmemiş bir galibiyetin mümessili olabilirler. Cebren ve hile ile aziz vatanın, bütün kaleleri zaptedilmiş, bütün tersanelerine girilmiş, bütün orduları dagıtılmış ve memleketin her köşesi bilfiil işgal edilmiş olabilir. Bütün bu şeraitten daha elîm ve daha vahim olmak üzere, memleketin dahilinde, iktidara sahip olanlar gaflet ve dalâlet ve hattâ hiyanet içinde bulunabilirler.
    Hatta bu iktidar sahipleri şahsî menfaatlerini, müstevlilerin siyasî emelleriyle tevhit edebilirler. Millet, fakr ü zaruret içinde harap ve bîtap düşmüş olabilir.

    Ey Türk istikbalinin evlâdı! İşte, bu ahval ve şerait içinde dahi, vazifen; Türk istiklâl ve cumhuriyetini kurtarmaktır!

    Muhtaç olduğun kudret, damarlarındaki asil kanda, mevcuttur!

    Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
    “Nutuk”
    20 Ekim 1927

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