Today is December 10th. Human Rights Day.
\nHave we ever wondered why this day exists?
\nWasn't what we call rights already innate?
\nSo how did the right become something that needs to be celebrated and constantly reminded of?
\nPerhaps the answer is very simple:
\nBecause as human beings, we most often forget each other's - or rather the other's - rights.
\nAnd often those who say they are most exposed to it...
\nYes, exactly those who say \u201cI have been marginalized\u201d.
\nThose who feel themselves to be the other, who claim to be the other, who say they have been excluded for years, who think they have been wronged...
\nSometimes with a look, sometimes with a disdainful smile, sometimes by making fun of a dialect, sometimes by making fun of a belief, a name, a sect and declaring someone else the other...
\nI mean ordinary people.
\nIsn't it sad?
\nThere are few things in this world as tragic as the transformation of the oppressed into the oppressor.
\nRecently, Prof. Dr. Ahmet \u00d6zer's words were on the agenda:
\n\u201cWe fought together against Shah Ismail at Chaldiran.\u201d
\nNow let us pause and think:
\nIs this just a historical reference?
\nOr does it revive a great wound, a collective trauma that Alevis still carry?
\nThe irony starts right here:
\nBecause this is coming from the mouth of a person who for years has been belittled for his accent, ridiculed for his accent, and despised for the language he speaks, and with that despised accent... How sad...
\nOf course, \u00d6zer's sentences are just one example - the tip of the iceberg.
\nBecause it is not only him; many people who are expected to speak about rights and justice with their titles, knowledge and positions can unwittingly - or quite consciously - become the perpetrators of a new marginalization.
\nBecause even being the other in this country has classes.
\nSome are born other, some get closer to the powerful to make them forget their otherness, and some look for opportunities to create more others.
\nIn this multi-identity, multi-painful geography, everyone has touched someone else's history; sometimes they have wounded, sometimes they have been wounded.
\nBut the most dangerous is the one who forgets his own wound and walks with a spear into someone else's wound.
\nThe ancient truth of political history is this:
\nWhen the other merges, it becomes dangerous; when the other merges with the powerful, it first disappears in its own mirror.
\nIndeed, there are countless examples of this in the world.
\nMany politicians who took refuge in the shadow of power, who sided with the government by denying the suffering of their own people, ended up alienating both their own base and the government and sunk into the darkness of history.
\nOf course, it is not destiny to be the other, but it is a responsibility to remember.
\nIdentity requires not only belonging but also confrontation.
\nThe one who cannot face his own pain denies the pain of others.
\nHe who does not understand his own otherness condemns others to a harsher otherness.
\nBecause the marginalized often turns into a bigger marginalizer when they gain power.
\nThis is not a story unique to us. Geography changes, language changes, clothes change, but the weave of pain remains the same color and tone.
\nSometimes even the same language, the same history, the same culture is not an obstacle to being the other. When power and authority take over, excuses are created to create the other. You take away the rights of those you walk together with, you try to silence their voices, you consider their existence a threat; because power first makes us forget, then it separates us, and finally it breaks up the \u201cus\u201d and creates a new \u201cother\u201d out of it.
\nIndeed, how many revolutionary movements, born to be the voice of the poor, the miners, the farmers and the peoples, did not suppress their own opposition and comrades when they took power?
\nThose who sang the same anthem yesterday first silenced those closest to them when they gained some power.
\nThose who set out for freedom began to produce oppression not when they achieved freedom, but when they tasted power.
\nBecause the greatest irony of history is this:
\nThe hand that resisted the oppressor yesterday can even drown its own voice when it meets power today. A little power first targets criticism; it considers even the slightest objection within itself as a threat.
\nThe evolution of the demand for freedom into oppression when it turns into power is the never-ending cycle of humanity.
\nThose who seek justice when they are oppressed are often the last to realize that they are oppressors...
\nAnd today is December 10th. On this day of human rights, we must ask ourselves the biggest question:
\nCan we, who yesterday were right-seekers, become right-grabbers today?
\nHistory has shown that oppression reveals the character not only of those in power but also of those who approach power.
\nThe real issue is not to ask for rights, but to be true to them when you have them.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bug\u00fcn 10 Aral\u0131k. \u0130nsan Haklar\u0131 G\u00fcn\u00fc. D\u00fc\u015f\u00fcnd\u00fck m\u00fc hi\u00e7? Bu g\u00fcn neden var? Hak dedi\u011fimiz \u015fey zaten do\u011fu\u015ftan gelmiyor muydu? Peki ne oldu da hak, kutlanmaya ve s\u00fcrekli hat\u0131rlat\u0131lmaya ihtiya\u00e7 duyan bir \u015feye d\u00f6n\u00fc\u015ft\u00fc? Belki de cevap \u00e7ok basit: \u00c7\u00fcnk\u00fc insanlar, en \u00e7ok birbirimizin \u2014 daha do\u011frusu \u00f6tekinin \u2014 hakk\u0131n\u0131 unutuyoruz. \u00dcstelik \u00e7o\u011fu zaman buna […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":280370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[286],"tags":[15,78,288],"class_list":{"0":"post-280369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-yazarlar","8":"tag-chp","9":"tag-kemal-kilicdaroglu","10":"tag-ozgur-ozel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280371,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280369\/revisions\/280371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}