Turkey's recent history is not only a history of political struggles, but also of the clash between enlightenment and darkness.
In these lands, every intellectual who speaks in favor of the people, labor, equality and freedom has become a target of the ruling order of exploitation and fascist reaction.
Because intellectuals in this country are not just people who produce ideas; they are social pioneers who guide society, keep the people's memory of struggle alive and show that a bright future is possible.
Therefore, the real aim of those who want to silence them is to destroy society's ability to think.
Ümit Kaftancıoğlu is one of our most important intellectuals subjected to this historical attack.
He brought the colorful stories, unrelenting pain, folk songs and resistance of the peoples living in Anatolia to millions. He made folk culture visible with the programs he produced on TRT; he carried the voices of laborers, peasants and the poor to all corners of the country.
With his broadcasts on Istanbul Radio, he made the silenced people speak and made the invisible visible. This is precisely why he was targeted. Because his pen was lifting the veil over the order of exploitation.
The April 11, 1980 murder was not just an attack on one person.
This attack was a political message directed against the enlightenment accumulation, populist cultural understanding and public values of the Republic.
With the liquidation of intellectuals in society, society was disorganized, intellectual life was impoverished and the way was paved for reaction.
Today, if we have lost many of the social values that the country gained with the Republic in a hundred years; if the parliamentary system has been disabled, if poverty has increased, if the economy has become like this, if secularism has been weakened, if education has been marketized and pushed out of science, if cultural degeneration has become commonplace, one of the most important reasons for this is the systematic attacks against intellectuals who will carry society forward.
Because darkness does not come by itself; light sources are first extinguished. We can better understand why Ümit Kaftancıoğlu and similar intellectuals were targeted by looking at today's social picture. They were the defenders not only of their time but also of a modern, democratic, pro-labor and non-exploitative order of the future.
What needs to be done today is not only to keep their memory alive in ceremonies, but to further increase the struggle for an egalitarian, secular, public and democratic social order. A true commemoration is to be a light against the darkness. .
Ümit Kaftancıoğlu continues to illuminate the darkness...