There is something that I have noticed for a long time.
In this country, academics are not allowed to speak. Especially if they talk about politics, it creates even more discomfort. People only want to see you in the operating room, on the bench or in the laboratory. As soon as you express an opinion about society, some of them immediately get uneasy.
I am a citizen of this country even before I became a surgeon. I live in this society. I see the same economic problems, I feel the same injustices, I try to breathe in the same polarization.
I really don't understand why there is so much surprise when an academic expresses his/her thoughts.
Because knowledge does not only give people a profession. It also brings responsibility.
Can a physician see a patient deteriorating and remain silent? Can a lawyer recognize blatant lawlessness and turn a blind eye? So too, an academic cannot see wrongdoing in society and remain completely silent.
Because it is not a question of putting yourself above the people. On the contrary, it is to remember that you are a part of this society. An intellectual is not someone who stands outside the public, but someone who is in touch with the conscience of society.
If democracy consisted only of the ballot box, there would be no governments in history that came to power through elections and drove their societies away from freedom. Because democracy is not just about voting; it is about law, freedom of expression, pluralism and critical reason.
At the point we have reached today, most people no longer look at what is said, but who says it. If you stand in the same place with a political figure they don't like, they try to erase years of work with a few labels.
This is a very unhealthy situation.
Because when a society starts to waste its own trained people so easily, it actually erodes its own memory.
Some people ask me today
“How did you become a professor?”
“Is your diploma real?”
Saying this to a person who has spent years in the operating room, in the hospital, in scientific production is not just targeting a person. It is the devaluation of labor, accumulation and academic effort in this country.
I am not saying that everyone should agree with me. Of course there will be criticism. Of course people will think differently. But as soon as you start to criminalize the expression of opinion itself, society gradually surrenders to a climate of fear.
Today, many people now think before expressing their opinion
“Will I be lynched?”
“Will I be targeted?”
“Can years of work be devalued overnight?”
I think this is one of the most dangerous thresholds for a society.
Because as fear spreads, people first retreat, then they shut up. Then everyone in the country starts to speak in similar sentences. That is when the life of thought becomes impoverished.
I have always believed in the past that to be an intellectual is to carry some discomfort. It means risking to be alone when necessary. It is easy to speak while receiving applause. What is difficult is to speak knowing that there will be a reaction.
Moreover, sometimes the heaviest attack comes from where one least expects it. Not from the other person, but from the people they think they are walking on the same path...
This is why many people in Turkey today prefer to remain silent instead of speaking their minds. Because people no longer discuss; they label. They don't listen; they label.
However, what we call democracy is also the maturity of people with different opinions to live together.
I believe that an academic has a responsibility towards society, because universities are not only institutions that issue diplomas. They are also places that should keep the mind and conscience of society alive.
Of course, the academic can also make mistakes. They can be wrong. But it is a much bigger mistake to see expressing an opinion as a crime in itself.
Throughout history, the people who have moved societies forward have not been the people who kept their comforts. It was people who were willing to pay the price.
Many intellectuals that we honor today were ostracized, targeted and left alone during their time. But they still spoke out.
If I am speaking today, I am not speaking so that everyone will applaud me; I am speaking so that tomorrow our children will not live in a society that is silent out of fear.
Because sometimes what leads a country into darkness is not the power of those who do wrong, but the silence of those who know the truth but choose to remain silent.