My heart is filled with shards of glass

Written on 21 February 2022.

I thought long and hard about how to begin this sentence.

But no conclusion came to mind.

Because my heart is filled with shards of glass.

Even my letters are rebelling, let alone my words.

Humanity is in one valley, we are in another.

Mehmet Akif Ersoy says:

They call poetry ‘tears’; I don’t know about that, but

I believe all my works are the tears of my helplessness!

I cry, but I cannot make others cry; I feel, but I cannot express;

My heart has no tongue, how weary I am of it!

In the Holy Qur’an, Surah A’raf, verse 179, it is said:

“Verily, We have created many of the jinn and humans for Hell. They have hearts, but they do not understand the truth with them. They have eyes, but they do not see with them. They have ears, but they do not hear with them. They are like animals, or even worse. They are the very ones who are heedless.”

Among the hundreds of cries for help I have seen on social media, just one is named Aynur:

“I am the wife of Yusuf Özmen, a prisoner with stage 4 cancer. Raise your voice for my husband so that he may live!”

May Allah forgive us, for we could neither raise our voices nor find a solution.

More of these and similar stories can be found on the social media accounts of HDP Kocaeli MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu.

Every day he shares cries that reach the heavens.

Nusret Muğla was 84 years old.

He passed away in prison, his hands shackled.

Less than a week later, news came of the death of another patient.

Yusuf Pekmezci, aged 82.

Mr Gergerlioğlu fought hard for Pekmezci too, but he was not released.

He also left us, leaving the burden on us as a society.

These names are unlikely to be the first or the last.

For example, Aysel Tuğluk, who has been diagnosed with dementia, meaning permanent memory loss.

She is not being released despite persistent efforts.

She is also expected to die.

A similar situation applies to the architects of the 28 February postmodern coup.

Excuse me, but you cannot hold people over 80 who have lost their mental faculties accountable or deliver justice by keeping them inside.

That is not justice; it is revenge.

DEVA Party Spokesperson İdris Şahin raised the following questions regarding Nusret Muğla, who lost his life in prison:

“Uncle Nusret, who was imprisoned for depositing money in a legal bank and being a member of a legal association, was unlawfully kept in prison while ill. O members of the ruling party, how can you justify this situation to your conscience? Does the statute of limitations only apply to you in such crimes? You put Nusret uncle in prison, how can you justify this cruelty in your hearts? Where does this situation fit into your belief in the afterlife?”

The ruling party responds to these questions only with silence.

As a famous writer once said about Tarkan’s song ‘Geççek’:

‘This society cannot bear this.’

A society that bears the above will forget this in the blink of an eye.

Just as it has forgotten the sick people awaiting death in prisons.

Just as it has forgotten the more than 800 babies and children lying behind iron bars with their mothers.

Just as it abandoned Gazi Bilal Konakçı, who is 98% disabled, to his fate in prison.

Just as it forgot those dismissed by KHK decrees, who were left to social death.

Just as former Parliament Speaker Bülent Arınç forgot Nusret Muğla, whom he met in high school, in prison.

After his death, Arınç wrote:

‘Nusret Ağabey, forgive me, I was unable to be of use to you and your friends, just as I was unable to be of use to myself.’

Who has this society not forgotten?

So why do we forget?

Pir Sultan Abdal said in the 16th century:

They beat iron with iron;

One was hot, one was cold.

They broke man with man;

One was hungry, one was full.

Now they are doing the same thing.

First, they divide and fragment society into camps by labelling them ‘Ocu,’ ‘Bucu,’ ‘Şucu,’ and then they eliminate them one by one at the corners.

Because everyone has an opposing side, people just watch each other being destroyed, playing the game of ‘You’re one of us’ and ‘You’re not one of us’.

They don’t just watch, they secretly say ‘Good riddance’ and applaud.

They say, ‘Let the snake that doesn’t touch me live a thousand years’;

They don’t know that one day, the snake that lives a thousand years will come and bite them too.

The same film frame keeps repeating.

Let the final words come from Sezen Aksu:

I have a complaint about all the prohibitions

Even if you tie my tongue, judge, it won’t stop

Let the gendarmerie come, the police from the station

My mind is on the run, it won’t fit in prison, oh dear

It won’t fit in prison, oh dear

The day will come when I will be levelled to the ground

The day will come when my reign will end

Even if they make law upon law

Words fly away, writing remains in two worlds, alas

In two worlds, alas

If you stay silent, it won’t work; if you don’t stay silent, it won’t work

If the tongue stays silent, Your Honour, the soul won’t stay in the body

If you write, it won’t work; if you don’t write, it won’t work

Don’t put a stop to the pen, it won’t stand alone