We’re on our last legs - enough now!

They said, “This is where the talk stops.”
“Be careful”, we said:
“Talking is the language of peace. If it stops, what language are we to speak?”
Did we not see what happened when the talking stopped and arms came to the rostrum?
Did we learn nothing from the loss of forty thousand lives?

***
They said, “Immunities must be lifted.”
“Be careful”, we said:
“Parliament is the cradle of democracy. If it is deprived of its protective armour, who is to speak?”
Did we not see what happened when parliament was circumvented and the people were deprived of their will?
Did we not see that throwing Kurdish MPs behind bars for years sparked off even more powerful resistance?
Did we learn nothing from the collapse of the mentality that put them there?
 
***
They nabbed all our newspaper’s managers, our dear friends, in a dawn raid and carted them off.
They searched our homes and spouted ridiculous allegations about people who lacked the opportunity to defend themselves.
Just like those who stage coups.
Before the ban visiting them had been lifted, they bombed parliament the midnight before last.
Like the perpetrators of 15 July did.
They attacked the voice of the people and the will of the nation, in one swoop.
And they cut the internet at midnight so that the world would be no wiser of their bully-boy antics. They cut off all channels of communication fearing that people would interact, show solidarity and resist – as if that was all it took to cloak tyranny.
***
I do not know, but are those who were campaigning for the lifting of immunity, those who placed the neck of parliament in the oppressor’s guillotine, now sorry? Do they contemplate the plot they were complicit in and gripe?
It is a little late to talk about this now.
What is incumbent on us in the aftermath of the 4 November coup is to think about what comes next.
We lack a single fire engine to counter a Nero who is intent on burning the country in the quest for presidency.
There are detentions, there are attacks, there has been loss of life and there is the threat of imminent civil war; but there is nobody in possession of their senses to call a halt to this calamity.
However, some people, watching with horror as one by one others are jailed and coming up with a string of excuses in sentences starting: “But, they, too, ...”,have seen that their turn is coming
They have felt the heat of the fire at their door.
Nobody is now “immune”.
We are all together on the very brink of a precipice.
Either we will stand together and resist or land up at the bottom of the precipice.
***
 
Let me set out in an example what needs to be done:
When we were in jail in the 80’s, a young man on his own came out in front of the prison with a wooden chair. In the middle of winter, he sat down out there with a book in his hand and waited.
He just waited. He waited for hours.
This was his “Wake up” call; his “We’re on our last legs” unease; his “Enough now” cry.
It was heeded.
The next day, there were hundreds of wooden chairs in front of the prison, hundreds of brave people.
One wooden chair sufficed to overthrow the rule of a golden throne.
Mete Akyol taught us how to resist and left us to it.
What about those chairs in front of Cumhuriyet, now?
We bow to the memory with respect and draw our example from it.
We’re on our last legs. Enough now!