So that the "fortresses of free thought" do not fall…

The late Cemil Meriç described journals as "the fortresses of free thought," comparing them with the other forms of publication, the book and the newspaper. According to him, "the book remains too serious, the newspaper too irresponsible." The book is like excitement in a tuxedo, like mummified thought. The book is outside of time, whereas the newspaper is the moment itself. The book lives together with you, grows together with you. The newspaper ends once it is read. The journal, though perhaps a vagabond, is fresh and warm thought. The book is, more often than not, the work of a single person, the echo of a single thought; the journal is that of a community of minds. A journal is the testament of a generation; its testament, or rather its message. A journal that closes is a lost war, a rout or a suicide.

These are probably the most beautiful descriptions ever made of the spirit, nature and function of these forms of publication. How beautifully he expresses them, how beautifully he reflects their states. "The fate of journals is a sad one," he says in Bu Ülke. "Most live a season, like flowers. The luckiest address a generation. Old journals are a cemetery that no visitor visits. A drawer whose key is lost. No one wonders which memories have seeped into their pages, which hopes, which excitements are hidden there," he goes on.

I dove into the relevant section of "Bu Ülke" just to take a single sentence of his, and could not stop myself from quoting more. Let those who can say something more substantial about the place or condition of journals in our cultural and intellectual life, or say something beyond this, step forward.

In fact, my intention was to talk about the International Journal Days, held for the 12th time this year. One of the most meaningful events of last week, in my view, was this fair, held for the 12th time at Sirkeci Station. Since it has reached 12, we can now say that it has become sufficiently traditional and has formed its own routine. Moreover, Asım Gültekin, who pioneered this event, passed away last year. So this time the Journal Days event was carried out, for the first time since the day it began, without his organizing, as a task handed over to others.

Still, it was a very auspicious and very meaningful event that this year's Journal Days was organized exclusively in the name of Asım Gültekin.

We thank both the World Federation of Journals and the Fatih Municipality for this.

Of course, we are very familiar with book fairs, and these books meeting their readers together with their authors is today like a routine of our cultural life. But we are not yet familiar with journals meeting their readers collectively in this way on special days and in special venues. That is why, when the late Asım Gültekin first invited me to one of the events, I could not refrain from expressing my astonishment and appreciation to him, and I accepted not merely out of courtesy but with the curiosity and excitement such an idea aroused in me. I remember very well that my excitement was kindled at every stand I toured with Asım.

Exactly as Cemil Meriç described, journals are like schools of ideas. They are schools that train their writers before their readers, and truly the venues in which ideas flourish most freely, and like independent personalities that meet their readers by a certain appointment. They have to come out when their time comes, because, to a greater or lesser degree, they have an appointment with a certain readership. Between the group of readers and writers who meet at this appointment there is also a tacit contract about what is to be written and what is to be read. Two-sided loyalty to this contract is one of the important factors that also determine the lifespan of journals.

Since my childhood I have experienced following journals, as much as books, as one of the important channels of my intellectual life. With the journals of thought, politics, literature and humor that I followed, I have always felt this tacit contract.

The day came when, in 1991 in Ankara, together with our friends, we began publishing the journal Tezkire. Still bound to a promise we made there, I try to contribute to and support its publication. The promise we made was to try to close the deficiency of continuity and depth that we identified in the field of Islamic thought. For 30 years the journal Tezkire has been published feeling the responsibility of closing that deficiency. In the meantime the journal is truly like a fortress of our free thought. I have contributed, and continue to contribute, to many other journals as well, such as Milel ve Nihal and Sivil Toplum.

Setting out from Beyan Publications with Professor İhsan Süreyya Sırma, we learn that 315 journals were exhibited at the fair grounds. 315 journals, each functioning in its own right as a separate school, as a separate fortress of thought. Does the mere thought of it not excite you? Of course each journal also has its own story, its own world.

Some come out in very difficult conditions with serious financial hardship; others are published with a quite professional approach and resources, having received public support. Difficulties and impossibilities are included in the sum of journal publishing, of its experience. Those who choose journalism generally also take on its difficulties, and the sacrifices made on the way to overcoming these difficulties give journals life. Actually not much comes out of journals that are published only with a professional approach and are well supported. At the end of the day, no one remembers the messages of the journals that withdraw from publishing life as soon as that support is withdrawn, or, even if they are remembered, the nature of the support that touched them has seeped into their pages.

We went into the fair thinking we would drop by for an hour and could not get out in 4 hours; you cannot pass any of the stands perfunctorily. The dialogues Professor İhsan struck up at every stand, his sharing of the excitement of every veteran of the journals he met, were in themselves worth seeing.

I found especially meaningful the journals put out by some high school students, which give no impression of amateurishness. The multiple journals in different languages of Kartal Imam Hatip High School, and especially the Siyer Gazetesi of the students of M. Emin Saraç Imam Hatip High School, proceed from a very clever idea. It is a very original method of bringing the Siyer (the Prophet's biography) to the present day as far as possible. For the students who put effort into these, there must surely have been priceless instructive and nourishing experiences.

It seems that the fortresses of free thought will not be left without guardians.