Akif and the Independence March

Today is the 85th anniversary of the death of Mehmet Akif Ersoy, the great poet of our Independence March, and, in his continuity from the Ottoman state to the Republic, a great man and thinker of the cause of Islam. As is well known, since it was also the 100th anniversary of the adoption of our Independence March, the year 2021 was declared by the Presidency the Year of the Independence March and Akif. On this occasion the year was used as a pretext for understanding both the Independence March and Akif, and many events were held.

The Independence March is without doubt a poetic expression that sets forth the purpose, meaning and philosophy underlying the National Struggle movement that Turkey waged against the British, Greek, French, Russian and Italian occupying forces. It is the manifesto of the National Struggle movement. It is a covenant concerning what those who took part in this movement aimed at among themselves and what kind of world they wished to build.

What was aimed at was an independence that is the right of a nation that worships only "the Truth," not this or that servant, and is resolved never to worship anyone else, and with this poem this covenant was affirmed with a standing ovation in the First Assembly. It is a covenant that leaves room neither for the mandate of any country nor for the establishment of any order in which any human being makes himself a god, an order with which the Truth would not be pleased.

On the occasion of the Year of Akif, this is where we must begin in order to understand Akif. On this occasion, the Akif film, produced by Baran Mayda and directed by Sadullah Şentürk, for which I served as concept consultant, is still in theaters. Yavuz Bingöl plays Akif, and Fikret Kuşkan plays Mustafa Kemal.

One of the most important conceptual points of this film is that it focuses on one year in which this social contract was made, that is, the one year in which the Independence March was written. Neither before it nor after it. The components of the assembly that affirmed this contract had various disputes among themselves beforehand. The same assembly also entered into various disputes afterward. In fact, the reference text that will act as arbiter among them, deciding who is right and who is wrong, is the Independence March.

The film therefore limited itself to the context in which this reference text came into being. It focused on Akif's passage from the Capital under British occupation to Anatolia and on the hardships, the drama, and the historical and spiritual context of the struggle being waged there at that time. Although there were debates between Mustafa Kemal and his comrades-in-arms who were conducting the National Struggle during this time, there is no serious dispute. The politics and fight that the sultanate, which under occupation did not have the possibility of acting with free will, waged against the National Struggle occupy an important place, but in persuading Anatolia, which was under the influence of the Capital, Mehmet Akif, Hüseyin Avni, perhaps Said Nursi and similar religious opinion leaders played a very important role. It is very famous that Mustafa Kemal himself said to Mehmet Akif, "A war is not won only at the front; it also has a spiritual dimension," and that Akif was running from mosque to mosque and square to square, motivating people to resist the occupation on religious grounds. And the grounds with which Mustafa Kemal himself motivated the people at that time were nothing other than the welfare of the sacred things of Islam, the Islamic homeland and the Muslims, even the caliphate. These principles are the grounds of the National Struggle, agreed upon with the Independence March.

The criticisms regarding Mustafa Kemal being more prominent in the Akif film are not very important from this standpoint. Perhaps the film and the actors' performance also play a part, but it must not be forgotten that in this one-year period Mehmet Akif and Mustafa Kemal are companions on the road and in the cause and serve the same cause, called by its right name. In the years of the National Struggle, Mustafa Kemal was, in discourse and perception, an Islamist to the end; what he became afterward, and why, is an altogether different matter and of course can be discussed separately. What matters is to remember, to remind and to refer to the basic reference of our quality as a nation resting on the National Struggle and the atmosphere based on this reference. This field of reference will also tell us what we lost, and where, afterward as a nation.

With its ten stanzas, the Independence March is the text that best reflects the spirit and meaning of Akif behind the fight waged at the front. Salvation is not only salvation from dying in body, but also that the light of this country's people, which will revive humanity with all the dimensions of the cause they represent, not be extinguished. If the vitality of this country does not show this light to the oppressed of the world and does not illuminate them, it would not be possible to speak of salvation either.

That Turkey has today reached the point of illuminating the horizon of the oppressed nations that the single-toothed monster called civilization is trying to strangle is also part of the story of the Independence March.

It is well known that Mehmet Akif and the mentality he represented were liquidated shortly after the National Struggle was accomplished, and that, unable to endure the life that was narrowed on them more and more, they were either executed, or shut themselves up in their homes, or, like Akif, were forced to leave the country. To reverse this story today and present it, like Akif, as "conservatives or Islamists did not take part in the National Struggle" shows that the abracadabra desire for annihilationist-purgist action, carried out through a fait accompli in precisely this process, has still not ended.

Let us go on examining this mentality that cunningly finds writing history and inventing history more profitable than making history and writing an Independence March. But first let us ask God's mercy for the late Akif. I congratulate everyone who contributed to the Akif film, from its director to its actors and its producer, and I hope it reaches a wide audience, especially young people.