The Ottoman Empire is your lineage, the Mehter is the epic anthem of the Turkish journey from tribes to empire. The lightning flashing in the chest of the drum, the steppe wind blowing in the breath of the zurna, every step taken in the rhythm of the kudum... It is not just music; it is the Turkish cry of “We have arrived!” on the stage of history. It is the melody of lands conquered with swords, horizons waving with banners, minarets rising with the cry of “Allah Allah Allah”. Mehter is the common voice of the Turk rising from both the nomadic tent and the throne of the empire of the world.
However, this epic anthem was once again met with a “modern” embarrassment during the April 23rd National Sovereignty and Children's Day celebrations in Gaziantep. CHP Gaziantep Provincial Chairman Vakkas Acar and the provincial administration turned their backs to the stage during the performance of the children's mehteran team. While the children kept the Ottoman heritage alive with their mehter outfits, sweat and pure excitement, the adults preferred to turn their backs in the name of “protest”. Provincial President Acar defended this as follows: “We are protesting that our children are still being indoctrinated into the palace culture.”
So what is this “palace culture”? It is the name of a Turkish empire that stretched from Europe to Africa, from Asia to India for 600 years. Fatih's conquest of Istanbul, Yavuz's Ridaniye, Kanuni's Mohaç... They are all the work of that “palace”. Mehter is the rhythm of these victories. To make children love the Mehter is to connect them not to “palace culture” but to their own history, their ancestors, their roots. Turning your back means cutting those roots.
The worse part was that there were those who called this image “normal”.
Journalist Can Ataklı commented on the incident as follows: “They are playing the mehter in Gaziantep... A lot of idiots say ‘Mehter is Turkish’. Mehter is not Turkish, it belongs to the Ottomans. And the Ottoman Empire has nothing to do with Turkishness. Did the Ottomans ever say ‘We are Turks’?”
These words are the product of ideological blindness, not historical awareness. The Mehter is rooted in the war music of Central Asian Turkish tribes. It is the legacy of the Turkish principalities from the Seljuks to the Ottomans. Osman Gazi and his descendants who founded the Ottoman Empire are Turks; their language is Turkish, their customs are Turkish, their flag, their banner and their army are Turkish. “Ottoman” is the name of a dynasty, but the civilization carried by that dynasty is the summit of the Turkish-Islamic synthesis. Although the sultans sometimes used the word “Turk” in a condescending context, the founding element of the empire was Turkish. To deny this is to deny “the Turkish national identity underlying the Republic founded by Atatürk”.
Denigrating the mehendi as “palace wannabes” is no different from telling children on April 23rd, “This is not your history”. Tomorrow those children will take the oath “I am Turkish, I am right, I am hardworking”. But if you tell them “Mehter is not yours”, in what spirit will they grow up? With what pride will they say “Atam”?
They say history repeats itself. In the first years of the Republic, the Mehter was tried to be forgotten for a while. But the nation's memory is strong. Mehter returned to the squares again, again puffed up the chest, again shouted “O veterans”. Because the Mehter is not just a march; it is the symbol of the Turkish self-confidence, the will to establish a state, and the claim to dominate the world.
Those who turned their backs in Gaziantep actually turned their backs on their own history, their own children, their own nation. Millions of Turks, whom Can Ataklı calls “unintelligent”, embraced the Mehter, beat the drum and blew the zurna. Because we know: If you look back while the Mehter is playing, you will see your ass. But the Mehter continues to play. Because it is the eternal anthem of the Turks.
Give Mehteri... Even if someone turns their back... The epic of the Turks will not be silenced.