Aydin Inal

I am a father I am at home Outside, a very loud  And lights flare up and vanish suddenly And fear  In my children’s eyes And my wife, my companion  Tightly holding our daughter Yes, I am a father My son’s eyes are on me For the first time I cannot say “You are safe” Another sound Very close Dust all over Then more sounds People running Sirens Voices of women and children Screams of helpless fathers I am a father Holding my family So tight I don’t know What will happen next  I am tired Let it be... now And one more sound Then, light And silence No more shouting No more dust No more voices from anyone I am a father I have a daughter I have a son And my wife, my companion All looking at me They are smiling I am smiling  The fear is gone…  Now I say:  We are safe  *This was not intended to be a poem. Words just came when I was feeling the pain from injustice and suffering of especially women and children. 

Is Partial or Selective Peace Possible for a Cohesive Country? As you might have been following in recent days, there is rightful jubilation surrounding the PKK’s announcement of their dissolution, following a call by their founding leader, who has been in a Turkish prison since 1999. There is plenty of material — both written and audiovisual — available online for anyone wishing to learn more about the conflict, the underlying conditions, and how it escalated into an armed struggle. Like many states and political entities, Türkiye has often tapped into the power of the “arch-enemy” narrative, portraying existential threats to the nation. Numerous ideological, religious, and ethnic groups have been cast in this role over the years. However, the Kurds have consistently been treated as an out-group by the majority of “nationalist by default” Turks. Their pursuit of basic linguistic and cultural rights has been viewed as a threat to the Turkish character of the state by the founding elite...

Mutlu Musunuz? Hani çok güçlüsünüz ya? Artık devletin hatta sivil toplumun her alanı sizin kontrolünüzde. Her istediğinizi yapabiliyorsunuz. Birisi sizi şikayet etse gülüp geçiyorsunuz. Birinin hakkını yeseniz, ağlayan ağladığı ile kalıyor ve sizin keyfiniz hiç eksilmiyor. İstediğinizi suçlu ilan edip sonra da affediyorsunuz. İstediğinize “terörist” diyorsunuz, sonra da “affettim hadi çık” diyorsunuz. Paranızın hesabını siz de bilmiyorsunuz. Her şeyi para ile çözebileceğinizi düşünüyorsunuz. Hatta beceri ve kapasite eksikliğinizi de para ile kapatabileceğinizi düşünüyorsunuz. Beğenmediğiniz insanlara dünyanın her köşesini dar ediyorsunuz. Peşlerine internet ordularınızı, hatta emrinizdeki insanları salıyorsunuz. Bazen de derdest edip alıp götürüyor ve bir de reklam yapıyorsunuz. Herkes de pek beğeniyor. Ve herkesi korkutmayı başardınız ya... En hızlı muhalifi iki gece içeride tutup muma çeviriyorsunuz. Olmadı sokak eşkıyalarınızı salıp darp edip yola getiriyor, sonra da medyanızın başı...

Türkiye’de zulüm başladığından beri bitmek bilmeyen ve bitecek gibi görünmeyen bir tartışma devam edegeliyor. Bazılarını anlayabilsem de bazılarını anlamakta zorlanıyorum. Ciddi birikimi olduğunu düşündüğüm insanlar bazen öyle şeyler yazıyor, söylüyor ki şaşıp kalıyorum.   Dünya üzerinde ne mükemmel bir kişi, ne de mükemmel bi grup var. Dolayısıyla ‘elbette herkes eleştirilebilmeli’ gibi bir tartışmayı çok sığ buluyorum. Bunu reddeden yok ki neden tekrar edip duruyoruz? Maalesef bu cümleyi ne zaman görsem arkasından gelecek şeyleri aşağı yuları tahmin etmek zor değil.  Türkiye’de zulüme daha fazla dayanamamış bir abla hapisteki eşiyle görüşten geldikten sonra intihar etmiş! Burada durmalı gözümüzü kapatmalı ve susmalıyız. Ne denebilir? Kim ne kadar acı hissediyor yarıştırmamın ne anlamı var? Bir insanın tariften uzak  bu halini başka bir cümleye giriş yapmak hangi aydın kimliğiyle ya da vicdanla bağdaşır. Yazık değil mi? Ayıp değil mi?  Bunu yaşayan Türkiye’de zulmün...

  One of the latest expressions we keep hearing is the notion of a “new normal”. Well, It has been some time since I and some of my friends have lost the good old normal. Hence I called it new(est) normal.  Surely this new is not necessarily a better version of the old as it is usually the case.  I have been living in South Africa since 1998. In the old normal we used to go and visit our families approximately once a year. in our new ‘not-so-normal’ we have not been able to do it for that past five years.  In the old normal, we used to be worried about falling victim to a crime in South Africa, but in our ‘not-so-normal’ we also worry about being kidnapped and taken to another country like a criminal as it happened to some of our friends in other countries.  We had to watch our moves more carefully as we could be followed and targeted by long arms of a foreign government.  We had to let people know that we are going to the embassy of the country of our birt...

Dostum nasılsın görüşmeyeli? Evet başımıza büyük isler geldi demiştim ya, demek büyük ve önemli şeyler yapılmış. Başımıza gelen sefa gelmiş. Ne gam! İşler iyiyken alkış kıyamet iken beraber olduklarımızı simdi başımıza bir şeyler geldi diye terk edecek değiliz ya? Başımıza düşen taşı yukarı atanın da pesine düşmeyelim. Senin yolunun Rehberi-i Ekmeli yerini terk eden okçuların pesine düşmüş müydü ki? Bize de onu takip etmek düşmeli.   Herkes heyecanla koştururken olan olmuş. İyi ki de olmuş diyorum bazen. Ama sonra sus diyorum kendime. “Paletler altında ezilen, hayattan bezdirilen onca masum ‘dostuna’ ayıp değil mi?” diyorum? Susuyorum. Rabbim sen görüyorsun diyorum. Yapanları sana havale ediyorum diyorum. Zira biliyorum olan senin kudret dairenin dışında değil ki? Sen olduruyorsun, bize boyun bükmek düşer.   Ama başımıza düşen taşı birisi yukarı atmıştı ki gelip başımıza düştü, öyle değil mi? O atmasaydı düşmeyecekti. Bulalım o taşı atanı ve soralım hesabını. Peki son...

Dostum diyeceğim sana. Neredesin, ne yapıyorsun bilmiyorum. Daha önce tanışmış ta olabiliriz tanışmamış ta. Ama bugünlerde biraz dertliyim de, aklıma sen geldin.   Hani derler ya boşa koyuyorum dolmuyor, doluya koyuyorum almıyor. İşte öyle bir hal var üzerimde.   Yapılması gereken işlere bakıyorum bir de kendime bakıyorum. Is çok büyük, ben çok acizim. İradem zayıf. Ortaya is koymak hiç kolay olmuyor. Ben de ürküyorum, ve üzülüyorum. Ve kalbim burkuluyor birsey yapamamaktan   Hatırlar misin eskiden talebeydik. Ah ne güzeldi. Ne kadar da rahatmışız. Elimiz dünyaya bulaşmamış, her şeyi daha bir saf görüyorduk. Ben pek bir is beceremezdim ama yanımda öyle dostlarım vardı ki, onlarla neler yapılmaz ki? Alınmıyorsun değil mi? Dost alınmaz ama. Sana onun için dostum dedim. İçimi dokuyorum sana.   Sonra islerimiz oldu. Unvanlarımız oldu. Çok ta değil canim, öğretmen olduk. Bak bu çok tatlı bir unvan iste. Öğretmen. Beklentisi, hırsı, menfaati olmayan s...

Last three years have left deep wounds in the psyche of the Turkish society  15 July 2106 was one of the most significant and traumatic days of modern Turkish history. On a summer Friday evening, when millions of Istanbul residents were out on the streets welcoming the weekend, a group of soldiers appeared near the bridge that connects two sides of Istanbul across the Bosphorus.  People fist could not comprehend what was happening. Most people though it was either some kind of a military exercise or the Army was responding to some sort of a terror threat. But later on soldiers were saying that it was actually a “coup”.  People were puzzled. Because Turkish army has done coups before to overthrow governments but they never started like a weekend party on a Friday night during peak hour in a city with over 15 million people. Nevertheless, there were the soldiers in their uniforms claiming to take over the government. Soon after fighter jets started flying low over th...

Last three years have left deep wounds in the psyche of the Turkish society  15 July 2106 was one of the most significant and traumatic days of modern Turkish history. On a summer Friday evening, when millions of Istanbul residents were out on the streets welcoming the weekend, a group of soldiers appeared near the bridge that connects two sides of Istanbul across the Bosphorus.  Most people were puzzled and thought it was either some kind of a military exercise or the Army was responding to some sort of a terror threat. But later on soldiers were saying that it was actually a “coup”.  Turkish army has done coups before to overthrow governments but they never started like a weekend party on a Friday night during peak hour in a city with over 15 million people.  If this was a military coup, which is supposed to be against elected government, why didn’t the soldiers rather go after government figures like the President, PM, ministers, members of the parliament...

This is noted I took few years ago on an article mentioned below. I found them in my email and thought will post them here for safe keeping.  The article titled “ Erdogan and Gulen: A political battle through the courts ” have landed in my inbox today and having an interest in the topic I read it immediately. To my amazement, the article looked like it was translated from Yeni Akit, a daily newspaper which made its duty to justify everything and anything government and Erdogan does and blame everything on Gülen and his movement. I have decided that I should jot down some notes on the problematic aspects of the article. Her we go…  Firstly, some serious assumptions which are based on allegation by mostly AKP media in Turkey with no tangible proof have been included as if they are agreed upon claims. In addition, unfortunately, the corruption allegations have just been briefly mentioned and the scope of it is undermined. This grossly threatens the objectivity of the articl...

Sadly Hizmet Movement and Gulen has always been drawn into contemporary current and political discourses in Turkey. In the past it has been accusations of turning Turkey into an Islamic (Sharia) state and now ruling party and President are accusing them of infiltrating the state for sectarian interests.   We are yet to see whether or not the latest claims will stand the test of time and historical and logical scrutiny. But one thing is clear that such times deprive one of the most significant and unique movements in Islamic world of the attention it deserves.  Scholar of the field would agree that Hizmet bears unique characteristics compared to other modern Islamic movements. It is definitely different to contentious or advocacy movements of the West. Firstly its founder, on the one hand, engages in profound expositions of some of the deepest spiritual traits of Islamic thought and on the other hand he engages in and offers striking discourses on contemporary issues. ...

This story has nothing to do with July 15 coup attempt in Turkey. Don’t get ideas!   Under normal circumstances the state would speedily investigate, identify individuals responsible and establish the link that brings them together and declare the guilty. However this time it went somewhat differently thank to the extreme skills of the leaders. The coup attempt was leaked by a Major of the army (who have just been dismissed form the army as his reward) to the intelligence. Then the Intelligence informs the Chief of Staff of the Army say around 16:00-17:00. Since the attempt has been leaked, the plotters decide to move around 9pm instead waiting until around 3 am the next morning. It is Friday night by the way and it is in Istanbul. For those familiar with Istanbul traffic, you don’t want to be out at that time.  The coup plotters decide that  they should block the bridge (only one direction by the way) connecting two continents as a first step of the coup by...

The recent develeopments in Turkey has brought up some interesting debates. Such debates range from viability of Islamism as an ideology and political system to  comparing Islam and Islamism and extending to more contemporary debate on current dire situation I urley and seeing whose fault is it? It is no secret that Hizmet movement has lended support o Erdogan and his party AKP (previous party I should say) for a while until the fall out between them most visibly corruption probes of December 2013. Those who are not happy with Erdogan today and have always been so are accusing Hizmet for aiding Erdogan to be what he has become. One of the most commonly used phares in social media among such people have been “… but you have been hand-in-hand unitl yesterday, what happened?....” or “… when the interests clashed, the fall out between former allies became apparen …”. The big question is about testing these and attempting to establish what really happened? In order to under...