Paying the price of mindlessness

Unfortunately, all the well-intentioned efforts, statements, and intentions displayed following his murder do not change the shamefully bitter reality that Turkey failed to give the deserved response to the despicable treatment Hrant Dink was subjected to while he was alive.

The grief that broad segments of this country's people showed they felt in the deepest parts of their hearts as soon as the bullets that hit Hrant were heard proves, of course, that thankfully none of those showmen or clowns sufficiently represents this country. The emotions displayed, the protests and reaction demonstrations overflowing into the streets, and what was written, drawn, and said in the print and visual media from the minute the attack was learned show how isolated and marginal the fury Hrant was exposed to during his lifetime actually was. Broad segments took the attack directly personally, whether as a Turk, a Muslim, an intellectual, or an ordinary citizen. Yeni Şafak's headline was even more heartfelt: "They Murdered Our Hrant." Most of the writers of Yeni Şafak had close or distant personal friendships with Hrant Dink. In particular, the Eastern Conference was a very fine ground where these relationships turned into a travel companionship yielding the highest quality forms (I, too, like Hüseyin Hatemi, wholeheartedly congratulate those who expressed this headline on behalf of Yeni Şafak).

Even before Hrant's funeral was removed, through the firm political will displayed by the government, the painstaking and feverish pursuit applied by the security forces, and above all, as a result of the sincere efforts of the public on this matter, the perpetrator was caught. We hope that by tomorrow, when the funeral will be held, this event will be thoroughly illuminated in all possible dimensions. Although these efforts cannot bring back a victim lost to murder, they are among the most sincere and minimum debts that can be paid to him. The sincere display of these efforts is undoubtedly a great consolation.

However, my mind is still fixated on the fact that we cannot pull ourselves out of this matter so easily. We all remained spectators while three and a half brainless individuals showed off in the open with all their loud noise, using the authority to speak on behalf of all Turkey irresponsibly and recklessly. We just stared at the antics of a few vagrants incapable of understanding what Hrant Dink wrote when they read it. As if the life of a great value had to be targeted for the gravity of this matter to be perceived.

Tomorrow we will embrace Hrant's body. Perhaps we will nationalize this grief by wrapping it in the Turkish flag. We will lament his dead body in our language, in his language, in the language of the oppressed, and tear our hair out. With all this, we will simultaneously curse the violence and aggression he was subjected to.

Yet unfortunately, I know that none of these will free us from the responsibility of this matter. We will never remain innocent of what the brainless among us have done.

This foolishness arose from among us, and we will all pay the price together. "Will You destroy us for what the fools among us have done?" Prophet Moses asked his Lord. If the brainless acts emerging from within a society are tolerated and met with silence, the price will certainly not distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. Because essentially, no one can remain innocent of a guilt that wanders so recklessly and freely.

Turkey's image will supposedly be shaken. Turkey will supposedly suffer a major blow in all the international relations and promotional activities it has entered into. The attack will supposedly weaken Turkey's hand regarding the Armenian issue. If this is still our calculation, it means we already deserve to pay a much heavier price.

Do not the most heroic speeches suffice to spark a storm of applause in this country? Are not those who instill more hatred, spite, and estrangement rather than reason and dialogue given more of a premium? Instead of showing that those who think differently are wrong with evidence, do not third-rate conspiracy theories regarding their "treason," "selling out the country," or "ethnic origins" make more of a market?

Let it not be perceived as bad-omened speaking, but we all have to pay this price. Turkey will continue to pay this price until it copes with the foolishness within itself. We cannot turn a blind eye to the feeding of this foolishness and then pretend not to recognize it when its consequences emerge.

The price of the brainlessness that took our Hrant is very heavy.

How painful it is that as we bid him farewell to eternity, we can only express our shame.