Four languages or the national anthem

I was watching the news on TV about Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu''s visit to the grave of his father''s friend, Mehmet Akif Ersoy, on the eve. I thought it was ''such a beautiful gesture'' and I was congratulating Ihsanoglu because of his faithfulness to his father''s friend until he ascribed the lines of the national anthem that was inscribed on the Martyrdom Monument to another Akif poem, the Çanakkale Martyrs. He said, ''This is perhaps taken from the poem of the Çanakkale Martyrs.''

Well before everything, let us agree on one thing: I am not one of those, who as soon as he/she catches his/her political actor opponent''s fault, bashes the person with somewhat mockery and criticism or uses it as black propaganda in order to label the person''s ideological-political tendency. This type of defect is regarded as an opportunity by a great number of people who are waiting to score a triumphant goal against their rivals. People know me well; it''s not my habit. Just as I am not one of those who claim ''since we support Erdogan, all the mediums and conditions to hit his rivals is legitimate'', nor do I think that in the middle term such means of support would wear out the supported political figure crying out like ''Oh my… Ekmeleddin! What have you done?''

However, I have to stress one point: Even if we consider the incident as a result of his tongue twister of mistaking the lines of the National Anthem for his Çanakkale Poem, it still shows his inability to win the elections despite the flattery concerning ''his knowledge of 4 languages, international prestige and academic decency and religious background''.

Let me put it this way:

During my schools years, without memorizing the national anthem''s entire 10 stanza really well, you wouldn''t be able to graduate from secondary school, let alone high school. In other words, the national anthem was the completing part of the republican team''s selectivity and the established secular education system. The policy makers of that era, beyond rejecting the entire Ottoman heritage, attempted to purge all the objections and suspicions that questioned the regime.

In this regard, Mehmet Akif Ersoy had to leave the Anatolian soil but the National Anthem he wrote was innocent from this in the eyes of the republic founders. While these teams were sending detectives to follow Ersoy in the streets of Ankara and causing him to be concerned about his life, they carved his poem on high mountains and rocks and had his poem recited everywhere from one end of the country to the other.

That''s why secularists, nationalists and the Kemalist elitists attempt to raise the national anthem like a flag in every opportunity, pretending to be ignorant of what happened to Akif, as though they are sweeping Akif''s personality aside compared to his poem.

The national anthem has the utmost esteem in view of the conservative-religious people, who compose a large part of the community. Given the combination of patriotism and faith through the lines of the national anthem, it inspires a deep respect for the presentation of heroism. While his personality translated the feelings of this community, which perceived him as almost being a saint, it also portrayed the sympathy and respect and thus gained popularity for his confinement, poverty and the oppression he was subjected to as a religious author.

This is a means of objection to the founding philosophy of the republic, because its founders adopted the national anthem but never liked Akif. Thus, in view of the conservatives, the independence of the country is as precious as in the eyes of the secularists; however, the conservatives consider reading and chanting the anthem enthusiastically as a late atonement for the persecution by the republic against Akif.

In short, the major part of the community with contrary motivations consider knowing – and more importantly – loving the national anthem as significant.

Since this is the case, even though he is originally Turkish, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu came to Turkey when he was 27. As you can understand, he is not local, but more so a stranger. The truth is that I would rather want him to know the national anthem accurately, because its author was his father''s comrade and friend in destiny. After all, he wrote the anthem for the independence of this nation. No matter what, I cannot blame someone just because he does not know the national anthem of a country he visited for the first time when he was 27, unless that person is nominated for the presidency of that country.

The conclusion: As I have said previously, while comparing the candidacy of Erdogan with Ihsanoglu, Erdogan would win because the issue is not about being religious or not, but about being local. I think I should add one aspect to this. Erdogan will win the presidential elections because it''s not about being religious; it''s more about being local, belonging to this soil, being from here.

So, I wanted to clarify one point: this election is not about knowing four languages or the national anthem.