A testimony from Bingöl to Gaza

Gaza is a great trial both for Muslims and for all humanity. This trial takes place in a field opened by the epic struggle of the valiant people of Gaza. The valiant men and women of Gaza have caused it to be exposed, all over the world, that the brigand has become sovereign of the world.

GAZA: THE LAST FREE LAND OF THE WORLD

The brigand who has become sovereign in this world under the masks of civilization and democracy now continues to rule with all its brazenness and shamelessness, without hiding its true face. But this situation has no sustainability, neither for the brigand nor for the world the brigand has put under tribute. The order that the US-Israel built in the Gulf is creaking. We have reached the stage where the Gulf countries will question and reject the tribute order established in the name of protection against Iran, which was shown as a threat.

GAZA IS NOT A DRAMA, IT IS THE LAST RESISTANCE OF HUMANITY

In short, Gaza is not a story of helplessness, wretchedness, or drama, but a story of resistance, revolt, and a new hope for all humanity. But on one side it is also a story in which Israel's entire inhuman face, its savagery, its fraudulence, its hypocrisy, and its untrustworthiness have been exposed. While the war was officially continuing as a live genocide before the eyes of all humanity, the world's attention to Gaza and its aid were continuing at full speed. However, as might have been expected, the signing of the ceasefire did not stop Israel's attacks, its genocide, and its savagery, but it is as though it largely stopped both the attention paid to Gaza and the aid.

WHAT I SAW IN BINGÖL

Yet attention to Gaza must not be stopped. Gaza is not only fighting for survival on its own behalf; it is fighting a struggle of honor on behalf of all humanity. Only Gaza is free, while the whole world is captive under the brigand order. It seems that if that place too falls, no saving hope will remain against the brigand sovereignty. That is why we must talk about Gaza and keep it on the agenda.

This week in Bingöl, for Gaza, we were at an event organized jointly by the Bingöl University Development Foundation (BÜGEV), the Bingöl Municipality, and the Office of the Mufti. The intense interest of the people of Bingöl in the Gaza Panel, in which we took part with Prof. Dr. Mahfuz Söylemez and Prof. Dr. İhsan Süreyya Sırma under the chairmanship of the Foundation's President, Prof. Dr. İbrahim Çapak, and especially the questions and assessments that came after the talks, bring the news that the waves of the Al-Aqsa Flood rising from Gaza will by no means subside, and that these waves will sooner or later turn the world upside down and change it. We can announce this news from Bingöl too, to those who wish to hear it or do not.

I have come to Bingöl many times before. On every visit, especially on account of the Short Film Festivals, we tried to note the city's visible development and progress. Frankly, I can say that I observed that in this development the city has covered a much greater distance in the same direction than a few years ago. But what stood out most was the people's level of political consciousness and culture, perhaps all the more so because it was in the context of Gaza. The questions asked, the comments made, and the contributions of the many people who took the floor in the panel each conveyed a serious intellectual level and deep political awareness. The panel was not at the university, and the great majority of the participants were ordinary people.

The dialogue that began here after the panel continued with the same fervor in the evening at the Cevdet Yılmaz building of BÜGEV, built right at the entrance of the university campus. The conversation, in which a volunteer from Bingöl who had just returned from the Sumud flotilla, still with the dust on his feet, also conveyed his impressions, continued without letting up until late hours.

A PEOPLE STANDING FOR PRAYER

Truth be told, when the noon call to prayer was read and we entered the city's Grand Mosque, which we happened to be passing, in order to perform the prayer on time, the scene I saw engraved the image of Bingöl in my mind deep into my heart as well. A congregation that filled the whole mosque, in a way not much smaller than a Friday prayer congregation, rushing to the prayer, lining up in the rows with devotion, and standing for a beautiful prayer. This is now Bingöl for me. What a beautiful people a people who stand for prayer are. I felt like calling my dear Bingöl-born friend Turan Kışlakçı and saying "I am now a man of Bingöl too." A joke had been going around among us for some time, after all, that "one day everyone will be from Bingöl." That is, of course, a joke. Being from Siirt does not leave one, to be sure.

FROM HÜDAVEND HATUN TO GAZA: THE CONTINUITY OF HISTORY

The new governor of Bingöl, Dr. Cahit Çelik, also gave a brief and very fine speech at the beginning of the panel and followed the panel to the end together with his esteemed wife. A graduate of METU with a doctorate in political science, the governor, when previously Governor of Niğde, had put his name to a very valuable work toward the discovery of Niğde's historical-cultural treasure.

He had brought out the story of Hüdavend Hatun, known as the first woman governor of Anatolia, by excavating it from historical archive records and manuscripts with the meticulousness of a veritable archaeologist. The story that emerged from these excavations became a treasure in terms of Niğde's urban history and identity. Çelik crowned this story with a book and published it. Hüdavend Hatun, whose tomb, which she herself had had built in the city but which fell into ruin over time, has been restored today and brought into the city's cultural heritage, is an extraordinary woman who left a mark on the political and cultural history of Anatolia: the daughter of the Seljuk Sultan Kılıç Arslan IV.

When she was asked for by Arghun Khan, the Ilkhanid ruler who held hegemonic power over Anatolia in that period, serious debates took place within the family over whether she could go to him, since he was not a Muslim. Whatever Islamic jurisprudence may say, the political power asymmetry decided that there would be a public benefit in this marriage of hers (even if out of necessity). She then married Arghun Khan, but after a marriage of 16 years, with Arghun Khan's death, she used the iqta right that accrued to her in favor of her own city, Niğde, and spent the whole of the remaining 41 years of her life here as governor.

Hüdavend Hatun left her mark on history not only through her diplomatic and administrative side but also through the magnificent architectural legacy she left behind. But this mark, which had been on the verge of being erased, Governor Cahit Çelik has virtually made visible in our day.

That we saw in our conversations that he has also subjected the city of Bingöl to a close reading is further promising for Bingöl.

During our trip to Bingöl, news came of the martyrdom of the son of Hamas's political leader Khalil al-Hayya and of how he received this martyrdom. Hayya was giving thanks to God, who had honored him as the father of a martyr.

An attitude exactly in keeping with the spirit of Gaza that we expressed at the panel. Gaza is not a story of helplessness and wretchedness; it is a story of hope and defiance.