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The birth of the New Turkey
There is, in every case, a perfection in God's creation. Pessimistic, ominous, gloomy eyes do not see this beauty, this perfection. Fixing their attention on things that do not go as they want, that do not go as they desire, they attribute the defect in their own gaze to creation and complain of it. In the final analysis, while everything leads toward a perfect scenario and destiny, everyone's eyes, sooner or later, at this or that stage, open to the harmony of divine destiny and are dazzled by the light of that truth.
Some see this early and live their lives with a wise dignity; some realize it toward the end of their lives after taking many lessons and ripening thoroughly. Perhaps still others see it even at their last breath.
And do not take my word for it. No one is in a position to know what people see at their last breaths. No one has any superiority over anyone in this matter, or any privilege relative to anyone. But we believe that what a person sees at the last breath is an illuminating truth about the wholeness of life and his own place within that life.
We of course do not expect that this illuminating truth will please everyone who sees it in the same way, or that everyone will experience a happy enlightenment within this wholeness. Divine justice determines the last moment, too, in accordance with what a person's eye sees at what stage. Otherwise it is even related that Pharaoh saw everything at his last breath and believed at that moment. But there is a famous kind of belief, a form of enlightenment, called Pharaoh's faith, and it is also known that this faith is of no use whatsoever, serving only to increase a person's anguish and torment even further.
We are witnessing a beauty today as a nation. Moreover, we are living it on a ground where everyone shares a perception and experience to the maximum degree, and everyone sees the beauty as beauty. This beauty, realized in the magnificent gathering of millions in Yenikapı, with the participation of people from the 81 provinces with the same excitement, is like an Arafat beauty that makes people put aside difference and otherness. The space that opened, in a festival atmosphere even if only temporarily, to the traits that unite us instead of the traits that divide us, came to this nation like a miraculous medicine. Yet what did those centers of evil hope for, and what did they cause? What did they calculate, and what kind of account came up against them? What role did they write for whom in the game they set up, and what kind of role was in the end decreed for themselves?
If only they knew...
Today, without doubt, Turkey has become a much stronger, much more integrated and much more energetic society than before July 15. It has obtained the strongest motivation that a society needs for a social ascent. This motivation will without doubt carry Turkey much further ahead. That is why we can describe the period after July 15 as truly the birth of the new Turkey.
O SQUARE
During the Arab Spring process there is a magnificent song, sung about the discovery by societies suppressed for a hundred years, in claiming their own will, of the squares as a space of freedom, a declaration of will and a ground of existence, and especially for the thousands of people who fell as martyrs in that square. How well it suits those squares that have continued for 22 days and were crowned yesterday by the magnificent show in the squares of all 81 provinces of Turkey. Those squares, where 239 martyrs gave life to the birth of the New Turkey, without doubt deserve many more beautiful literary works.
O square...
where have you been all this time?
We sang with you and we hoped with you
we fought, we feared and we prayed.
We became a single fist, night and day
and now with you nothing is impossible.
It is the voice of freedom that unites us
our lives have found meaning, there is no turning back now.
Our voice is being heard.
Dreaming is no longer forbidden.
O square... where have you been all this time?
You tore down the walls, you lit them up with your light.
You gathered your weary people around you.
We were born again ...
and our dream that we never gave up was born again.
Although we are different, our intentions are the same; clean...
The view was hazy, but we ...
will look after our country and our grandchildren;
in memory of the young people we lost.
O square... where have you been all this time?
We felt with you and began again ...
after drifting away, after being exhausted.
Change must begin first with ourselves,
you gave us a great deal. What comes next is ours...
Sometimes I fear,
that you will be only a memory ...
our idea dies if we move away from you.
Then we will return to the past and remember;
in our tales we will tell your story.
O square... where have you been all this time?
That square, full of all kinds of people...
here is someone devoted; and here is one who is brave.
Here is someone passionate and there someone cycling around...
But our voice is one; we are all one!
We gather and drink tea there
and we know how to bring the right!
Our neighbors have pricked up their ears, the world is listening to us...
O square... where have you been all this time?
Our strength is our idea and our weapon is our togetherness...
The square says: "No to the oppressors!"
The square is like a wave;
some are in it, some are bewitched by its magic...
those outside say it is chaos... but deeds are being written.
O square... where have you been all this time?
Our strength is our idea and our weapon is our togetherness...
The square says: "No to the oppressors!"