I feel the liquidation of Mahir Ünal is a lesson to all politicians, lecturers and journalists who fall into the lure of ideological opportunism.
Right this moment is November 3, 2022. In different phrases, November 3, 2002 is the twentieth anniversary of the AK Occasion’s nice victory and coming to energy. I feel particularly AK Occasion politicians ought to take into consideration what I wrote beneath.
In the event that they defend the concepts they don’t imagine with purely political utilitarianism, if they really use the political ideologies that they’re fully reverse to as a weapon based on the conjuncture, someday that weapon will come in opposition to them and shoot them.
What occurred to Unal is the entire self-assassination. Mahir Bey, defending the ideological approaches that he didn’t imagine in, was ultimately liquidated by these approaches.
In truth, he was a politician who was distant from Turkish nationalism and Kemalism or Kemalism and nationalism as a political view. It was even potential to say that this intersection of political ideologies had a very reverse worldview.
As a matter of reality, he has sincerely and faithfully turn into one of many foremost political actors throughout the peace and determination course of. He was within the nook with Yalçın Akdoğan within the {photograph} of the Dolmabahçe Settlement. Mahir Ünal was extraordinarily constant at the moment as a result of he was a politician who defended the peace and answer course of with all its granules, as per the Islamic worldview. It was pure for him to be within the lead position in that course of.
He thought that the Kurdish subject couldn’t be resolved with the ideology of Turkish nationalism or Kemalism. Quite the opposite, these ideologies had turned the Kurdish drawback into gangrene by carrying a straitjacket to Turkey, based on Ünal. He didn’t hesitate to say this till 2015.
The decision course of collapsed in 2015. Yalçın Akdoğan, one of many actors of that course of, stayed within the AK Occasion however retreated to a nook. He didn’t flip round and begin defending Turkish nationalist theses. We didn’t see Akdoğan making speeches praising Kemalism, though he didn’t imagine it to please the Kemalists.
Possibly Yalçın Bey couldn’t say every thing he believed, however he tried to not say that he didn’t imagine. He remained out of sight. He’s nonetheless AK Occasion Ankara deputy.
Mahir Unal didn’t do that. For the sake of the ideology of Turkish nationalism, which he didn’t imagine in, he took a sawmill in his hand concerning the media that he had a subject within the AK Occasion, and went on many media organs with that sawmill. On this means, he preserved his positions within the AK Occasion and the federal government, and even rose increased, however he did so by making many concessions from his personal persona and worldview.
With the energy he obtained from his place, “This commenter of yours speaks non-nationally, however look, this particular person speaks nationally. He tried to present oblique directives to some channels with attitudes similar to “If those that take a non-national angle seem on tv, we are going to distance you.” Within the identify of Turkish nationalism, he virtually minimize off some media establishments.
Unal himself did so although he was distant from the ideology of Kemalism and Turkish nationalism. He acted like the kind of politician portrayed in Stefan Zweig’s pleasant political biography “Fouche”.
So what occurred ultimately? Whereas he was speaking concerning the mental Cemil Meriç, whom he had cherished since he was little, at a ebook honest in his hometown of Maraş, his true ideas spilled out.
The spirit of the three nice poets Necip Fazıl, Sezai Karakoç and Cahit Zarifoğlu, who got here out of Maraş and whom he admired, maybe made the actual Mahir Ünal converse that day.
Specifically, Cahit Zarifoğlu, one in all his favourite intellectuals, was saying, “Ataturkists dedicated a cultural genocide with the language revolution after which the language liquidationism after the 60’s.”
Mahir Ünal additionally expressed his real ideas within the fashion of Zarifoğlu, and after that, the movie broke.
He later tried to step again and repent, but it surely was too late. He was liquidated by the ideology of Turkish nationalism and Kemalism, which he himself tried to make use of as a weapon in opposition to the media.
I feel there’s a nice lesson for each politicians and intellectuals in Mahir Ünal’s story. In case you interact in opportunist conduct as when you have adopted political ideologies that you don’t imagine in because of the conjuncture, someday you can be swallowed by that ideology that you’re attempting to mimic.
I wish to deal with my journalist pals who’ve made the identical mistake with this text… It’s a traumatic state of affairs, like desirous to look white with a Michael Jackson-style surgical procedure although you’re black. No matter you do, they know you are not white. Possibly they deal with you “white” for his or her cyclical pursuits, however when the time comes, they remind you of your blackness.
As a result of the actual house owners of these political ideologies truly know very effectively what you’re. Your insincere gestures will solely make them smile underneath their mustaches. They see that you’re an opportunist and when the time comes, they are going to personally minimize your ticket.