As I was going home last night, looking at the police barricades around Taksim Square, I felt proud of our country once again. The state was standing, the police were determined and competent to eliminate the enormous threat to our existence, and our survival was guaranteed. The enemy could never come here, shout, march, threaten the present and future of this beloved nation. If they thought about it, they would see what would happen to him.
And of course, most importantly, our esteemed citizens who did not participate in those heinous acts - that is to say, the residents of this place who think that they are worth something in the face of state institutions - should not only feel the state's determination to prevent subversive, divisive, immoral activities that disrupt national peace and family order, but they should also be aware of the damage done to them by those who engage in such acts, and they should be enemies to the enemy just like those who govern us.
The atmosphere of terror created on the occasion of March 8th, International Women’s Day, is now directly similar to that of May 1st, Labor Day, and is slowly becoming institutionalized. What if there is a women's march in Taksim, on Istiklal Street! It would be horrible, God forbid!
Here we see another application of the famous and traditional story of the cauldron. The story of the frog in the slow-heating cauldron.
Turkey's opposition culture - due to its known structural weaknesses - unfortunately, acts as if this story began with the AKP government and the issue of "religiousness." Although this restrictiveness is contrary to the truth as well as to the history of the country, and perhaps first and foremost to its own history. Moreover, this method of slow boiling has a peculiar form that resembles the way the hammer side of a drill works, not the steady ascending curve. There was no slow heating of the boiling cauldrons into which unwanted individuals and groups were thrown. The fires were suddenly stoked, and whoever was unwanted was thrown into the boiling overflowing filthy water. And then, you know, taking the example of the cauldrons in hell without demons - except the pleasure of special torment - those who threw people into the cauldron ruled without difficulty, as the ones in the cauldrons pulled each other down, without the need to put anyone - police, gendarmerie, private security - in charge.
Besides, the water has already become dangerous enough to peel off your skin on first contact with the poison of centuries. Even if the one thrown into the cauldron shows signs of life, it is not seen any harm in keeping them there. Because the cauldron cannot reach the rally grounds, television studios, Ankara, etc. Even if someone accidentally manages to get out of the cauldron, since it will be obvious from their every appearance that they were thrown into the cauldron at some point, they are rendered unapproachable, unlistenable, and, above all, un-walkable together. (And this is exactly how this mechanism works in our opposition universe, as well.) Moreover, it is almost impossible not only to get out of the cauldron, but even to reach the surface of the poisonous melt and breathe, because others in the cauldron will pull you down. It's a well-known traditional issue: even in hell, there is no need to put demons, private security guards, etc. on top of the cauldron we are thrown into, because those who are thrown there prevent each other from going up. The demonless cauldron form of governance of the country has replicated itself, produced small clones of itself, as artificial intelligence will do in the coming periods, and has settled in all the necessary limbs of social life and in its cells in sensitive areas.
Nevertheless, it should not be assumed that the boiling cauldron always follows procedure. Because in our country, first of all, the rulers do not have the patience for such a long time. There is no time to wait for the cauldron to heat up, and boil, and for others to pull each other down... These things are sometimes unnecessarily tiring, and someone from the level of power orders, the officials come and overturn the boiler, crush and destroy the vermin scattered around with ladles and mallets.
When it comes to the execution part, things are easy. It's familiar, experienced, repeated over and over again...
But what about the taming of society?
What is the real goal of this whole operation, the police barricades lined up around Taksim, the state of emergency created by so many police, the closure of many streets and avenues, the obstacles that cannot be easily overcome, the official entrance-exit gates at street corners that can only be crossed by begging to prove that you want to go home, the measures that are guaranteed to make life difficult especially for those who live there, to disrupt the normal mobility of this crowded, bustling area, to make even those who are at home uneasy when they look out of the window? Preventing the women's march? No way!...
There is a serious case of the boiling cauldron here. At the same time, we all have a lesson to learn about when to show the necessary patience for the boiling cauldron and when not to.
The state's attitude on March 8 can be compared to May 1. May 1, which should have been Labor Day, was first banned for years by the "founding philosophy" - that is, the ruling ideology - which some of the leftist opposition today declare to "embrace", then tried to be erased by turning it into a "Spring Day", and then, when it was deemed likely that the state would not collapse with the celebration of one day a year by laborers, it barely regained its identity. But May 1, which was immediately attacked and massacred when people dressed in color and celebrated in a truly festive manner, has consequently been stigmatized in the eyes of the public as a "day of trouble", and the widespread unease felt as it approaches has become an element of local-national culture.
In today's environment, cloning a new May 1, 1977, from March 8 is probably not what the powers that be would prefer. Can't they try? They can attempt anything. It is a matter of calculation. But why take risks if you can get a more fruitful result with less effort? The measure of inconvenience and fruitfulness here is certainly not human life, nor is it the right and law of the citizen. In our current regime, there is no such thing as a citizen, nor is it envisioned to be one; let's not fool ourselves. What we can see, for now, is that it is enough to terrorize the environment, to make participation a risky venture that requires a little more courage each time, to create scenes that will turn those who do not participate against those who do. Gradually, they are turning March 8 into a date that everyone will feel uneasy as it approaches, that everyone will say, "I shouldn't go there, I shouldn't go up there." However, it could very well pass like a festival too.
Unfortunately, this is the real threat and danger. This is how it is seen. And since crushing and destroying is not feasible in the visible term, there is a tendency to sideline and marginalize.
Because the upheaval caused by the women's movement in the world - primarily because it is "natural" and based on reasons that no one can object to without being disgraced or - if they are politicians - without risking the contraction of their mass support - has shaken the foundations and pillars of orders and ideologies. In Turkey too, even among those who support the current ruling coalition, we see clear expressions of the many transformations brought about by the women's movement. The position of women is a critical problem for governments, orders, wars, and the ideologies of inequality that plaster the inner walls and color the outer walls of all these. And there have been irreversible changes on the part of the rulers of the world. As in our country, the shrieking attempts of unconscious assholes who still think they can get results are producing the opposite of what they desire. That's why, in our ruling culture, the method filtered through vast experience is preferred: "Caution, hazardous substance!".
So if you didn't have a chance to observe the area around Taksim Square before March 8, relax; I saw it and I'm passing it on: the enemy will never be allowed into the heart of the city!