Sometimes a single correct sentence disturbs an entire order.
Those who write in this country have paid the price. So did those who read poetry and played the saz. Journalists were killed. Writers were put on trial. Poets went to prison. Artists went into exile. Books were confiscated. Folk songs were banned. People were labeled because of a sentence, lost their jobs because of a verse, targeted because of a song.
This is not book knowledge. It is recent history.
A single word from a teacher can sometimes change the direction of a student, between classes, in the corridor, between two words spoken standing up. Without realizing it, one starts to look at oneself differently. His profession. Life.
And sometimes a single correct sentence disturbs an entire order.
Societies do not change overnight. First sentences shift, words change places. What was called wrong yesterday is called something else today. One first changes one's thinking, then one's direction.
Order is not afraid of a shouting crowd. Noise is easy to drown out. It fears a clear thought. It is afraid of a sentence in its place. That's why words are not taken lightly. Not ideas.
The word wakes people up. Awakened people ask questions and object. That's why sleeping societies are easy to rule, thinking ones are difficult. That is why they play with words first. They call wrong by another name. Injustice “order”, poverty “fate”, precarious work “flexibility”, and shut up “harmony” as a way of life.
This is where writing comes in. Writing is memory. Writing is objection. Writing is man's “I don't agree with it” is a way of saying.
The state is not bothered by noise. It is disturbed by quiet but clear sentences. Because slogans are temporary. Writing stays. Poetry remains. The folk song remains.
The gun shows power. The pen produces memory. That's the point.
Today is no different. An article. A poem. A sharing. It seems small, but it accumulates. Somewhere it breaks the silence inside someone. “That's how I felt” to say.
That is why a person who writes is not just a writer. He bears witness. He makes the invisible visible. He names injustice.
We read poetry because sometimes straight sentences are not enough. We write because we have to remember against those who want to forget.
And yes.
Sometimes just one right sentence can disturb an entire order.
We write knowing that there is a price. By risking to be alone, to be targeted, to be ostracized. Because silence also has a price. That price is being alienated from your own conscience, normalizing injustice and being a bystander.