The mental colonialism behind 28 February

Was it entirely so? That is, was 28 February carried out by native people whose minds had been colonized, that is, made colonial subjects, or was that coup carried out directly by colonial "outside powers"?

Was the command center of 28 February, which worked by making enemies of the children, values and way of life of the Muslim people, unaware of how colonial it looked as it carried on its activities under the name "Western Working Group"? When, at what point, had a mental change, a transformation, taken place in Turkey that would make it proud of this?

When Çevik Bir, one of the mighty pashas of the process, who headed for the US right after 28 February, said with a grin from ear to ear, "we gave democracy a balance adjustment," was he speaking from a very native, very national place?

Today is the 29th anniversary of 28 February. Of course one must not get stuck on that day.

The power relations that process represented and the colonial mind that enveloped Turkey neither began within that one day nor were going to remain there. The colonialist will that set 28 February in motion had haunted this country long before that day, and today too the powers that hold that will have not given up their appetites over the country. Yet while a great deal has been said about the perpetrators, appetites and victims of 28 February, whether as a day among days or as a historical process, very little has been said about the colonial mind and colonial relations in its background.

Yet, together with all the filth they perpetrated, the fact that the perpetrators of 28 February did not belong to this land, and their looking at and behaving toward this country as occupiers, was a far more essential side of the matter. The subject was of course not a political debate or a struggle for power inside Turkey, among Turkey's differently thinking people. The subject was that, from positions that some had captured, they waged war against the values that make this land a homeland.

A mind, a personality or a military force that wages war against the headscarf, a symbol that motivated this nation to defend the homeland, could have no tie whatsoever to this land. From the moment it dared to fight that symbol, it attempted to occupy this country and represented a power hostile to this country.

Today, in the world, every act and discourse against the clothing of Muslim women, the headscarf, at every level, is accepted as Islamophobic. No Muslim who knows himself carries out, or can carry out, an act or discourse against the headscarf. When he does, his place is directly in the ranks of the enemies of Islam, of those who hate Muslims, and therefore of those who are enemies of this country as well.

No one who is not an enemy of this homeland, who is not a stranger to this country, would so much as think of restricting the reading, teaching and hearing of the Qur'an. Those who dare do so are not only Islamophobes and enemies of Islam but also enemies of this country. Because the Qur'an is the value that gives the spirit and philosophy that make this country a homeland for those who live in it.

Unfortunately, those in Turkey who targeted the nation's essential values became representatives of a victory unseen anywhere in the world; by force and deceit they seized the fortresses of the dear homeland, entered all its shipyards, and attempted to occupy every corner of the country. In one of those shipyards they did not hesitate at all to call the command center of the war they waged against this nation's values, identity, beliefs and people "the West."

That the command center of 28 February was a "Western Working Group" was a complete colonial attempt at occupation against this country. This occupation of course had not just begun. It began by occupying minds step by step since the Tanzimat, and over time they penetrated every corner of the country with all their material and mental presence.

28 February was tried and convicted as an attempted military coup, but it was something beyond an attempted military coup. It also needs to be uprooted from the places where it has taken root in minds. For this, its colonialist-occupier and colonial dimension must be seen very well.

Those who dared to wave recklessly the imperialist "Western" flag against the people and values of this country have occupied the mind of this country's people, once and for all. It is worth recalling here Malik bin Nabi's famous saying about colonialism: for colonization to take place, a mind and personality ready for colonization are needed. A personality open to being colonized, that deems itself deserving of it, that sees its enemy as superior to itself.

They write histories of victory against the enemy and console themselves, but in the end they do nothing but make themselves resemble the enemy. The famous saying of the sage king Alija Izetbegović, whose mind and conscience remained free even in dungeons, was in fact like a warning that describes much better the situation the country went through: a war is lost when you come to resemble the enemy. If we have come to resemble the enemy, if we have tried to resemble or been made to resemble it, at what point could we be deemed to have won this war? If we have come to resemble the enemy, who in fact won the war? If we won the war, what was the reason for this zeal in resembling our enemy?

28 February was only a reflex in favor of a colonization order that neither began nor ended in a single day. It was not a reflex of the state or anything of the sort, but a reflex displayed in the name of our colonizers by the elements they had recruited in the country.

That the perpetrators of that process said "28 February will last a thousand years" at the times they felt most powerful was an expression of their vengeful ambition and ignorance over this land. Islam has provided the entire map of meaning that has made this land a homeland for at least 1000 years (in fact 1400 years). Did they perhaps need 1000 years to uproot it from here?

Of course this is a calculation of time with raging arrogance within it. A tyranny that imagines they will live forever, that they will be sovereign. They were embarking on a struggle far beyond their lifespans, over which they did not even own a single breath. With whom? They were not even aware.