Becoming blind with hate

A commentator on social media says, “Sadly we do not live in Finland. If we lived there, I would say even it was the devil himself let him be sentenced in a court where he will be tried fairly, and justice is important for all of us,” and adds:
“But, this is Turkey, and in its newest of versions! And I cannot think objectively. For this reason, it is good to be rid of the Altans who for years have engaged in character assassination not authorship or journalism, run headlines like “Fatih Mosque was to be bombed,” “Thanks Zekeriya Öz” etc. in their paper and applauded the detaining of innocent soldiers and academics! I understand you. You speak of the need to be in an ideal country, there must be a fair trial even if standing before us is a writer we do not care for and justice and transparency must prevail. For sure you are right!
But... we do not live in that ideal part of the world. This is the Middle East. And now even more Middle Eastern than it used to be! I do not pity these character assassin Altan brothers for what they did to Türkan Saylan and the dozens of innocent people they have targeted!
However much you are right and even if I consent to the importance of justice, we have become so exasperated over the years that I say knowingly and willingly to these guys, ‘Serves you right’.” (Ekşi Sözlük)
Members of the opposition like this who knowingly and willingly applaud the Altans’ and Nazlı Ilıcak’s aggravated life sentences surpass regime supporters in their rancour and rage.
I have included the extract as it exemplifies what I frequently encounter in my opposition circles whose hearts harden against Ilıcak and the Altans.
 
Revenge in place of justice
 
The author of the above lines is aware that “justice” and “revenge” are different things. In short, he said, “If we were in Finland I would want justice. But this is the Middle East. We are after revenge!”
Why?
Because he thinks this is how it has always been and always will be. In an order in which the powerful are extremely powerful and the weak are extremely weak and unprotected, he presumes that an independent judiciary and justice will never come about. “So, we will make do with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” he says, “If this is how it is, so be it!”
Just like it was at the time of Hammurabi in 1700 BC.
The modern world, however, following the passage of long centuries, has moved beyond the “retaliation” constantly touted in holy books, too. Acquired practices that separate justice from revenge have emerged along the way on the fight for secularism, democracy and human rights. These “acquired practices” at the same time sum up modernisation – in juxtaposition to primitivism. When we reject the acquired practices saying, “It is not for us, give it a miss!” we have also fundamentally rejected modernisation.
It is not an issue of a “Finland utopia” in short.
Was Gandhi, who said, “An eye for an eye only serves to make everyone blind!” Finnish?
Can we not be guided by an Indian sage who said this virtually a century ago?
 
It’s gone before you know it
It reminds me of the question, “Which came first? The chicken or the egg?” I do not know if there is so much hate because come what may justice will not come about here, or there is a thirst for revenge to this degree because there is so much hate. But, even TV series here are based on “revenge”. Hate, in turn, knows no bounds. It does not distinguish between one neighbourhood and another. Pitfulls of hate empty out on us from all neighbourhoods with a lasciviousness that says “your death is my life/mors tua vita mea.” Mesut Yılmaz’s 38-year-old son Yavuz Yılmaz commits suicide, for example. After this, they write, “His father had a lot to do with it. He created a lot of bad karma.” Baykal has an embolism operation. They say, “He only has himself to blame for what happened. It is nothing to do with us.”
Kadir İnanır has cerebral hemorrhage. They spout out, “A former intellectual. We see how much intellect he has. What a man. It’s gone before you know it.”
It makes no difference if it is illness, adversity, incapacity, disaster, death or the distinction between father-son.
They choke on hatred for Kılıçdaroğlu’s son off to do his military service, “Let him go and fight in Afrin. An Alevi cannot be a martyr. He can only hope for such status. We will get rid of one Kılıçdaroğlu!”
There is a race to do the dirty.
Levent Kırca, Tarık Akan...
Whoever is in sight gets their share of hate speech.
A society that is polarised and dislikes tolerance reaches a point at which hate will virtually gush out of the ground on receiving the order, “Have no pity! If you do, you will end up in a pitiable state.”
Somebody must call a halt and say, “Let us take a breather and bandage our wounds a little before we all go blind!”
But, alas, we are very far from that.