I was at the Istanbul Palace of Justice yesterday.
\nIt's not like a wedding invitation. It is an \u201cinvitation\u201d that if I don't go, I will be taken to the next hearing by police force. As a witness.<\/p>\n
Court has started. The main cases have been taken inside. We three witnesses were waiting at the door. First they called someone, then me.<\/p>\n
Identification is done. It was time for the oath. Everyone stood up. I put my hand to my chest, as I had done since I was a child. In the Christian tradition, when you take the oath.<\/p>\n
The judge looked:
\n\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d
\n\u201cI swear.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy is your hand on your chest?\u201d
\n\u201cI'm a Christian, I'm used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Response:
\n\u201cThis is a secular country. You can't do such things here.\u201d<\/p>\n
And a smile under his mustache. As if to say, \u201cWho sent this lunatic?\u201d.<\/p>\n
That's when I thought.<\/p>\n
What does secularism mean?<\/p>\n
It means that the state is not affiliated to a religion.
\nIt means that the state stands at an equal distance to all beliefs.
\nIt means that the individual can freely live his or her faith.<\/p>\n
Secularism is not about suppressing faith.
\nSecularism means that the state does not impose faith.<\/p>\n
Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk, who systematized this principle when he founded the Republic of Turkey, did so not to erase religion from public life, but to free the state from the tutelage of religion.<\/p>\n
But over time we developed another reflex:
\nInstead of remaining neutral, the state has become uncomfortable with religious visibility.<\/p>\n
But I wasn't imposing anything on anyone there.
\nNor was I disrupting the court order.
\nNor was I interfering with someone else's freedom.<\/p>\n
I just wanted to swear in the way I was used to.<\/p>\n
In many secular countries, a witness can either put his or her hand on a holy book, say \u201con my honor\u201d or simply make a statement. It is not the form that matters, but the legal bindingness.<\/p>\n
In our country, freedom is often served like a hamburger menu.<\/p>\n
There is a choice.
\nBut it is limited.<\/p>\n
You're this free.
\nThis is too much.
\nYou can do it.
\nBut don't make it visible.<\/p>\n
Secularism is not about ignoring faith.
\nSecularism is not about controlling faith at all.<\/p>\n
The state should not stand in front of society with a stick in its hand like a lion tamer.
\nThe state becomes neutral.
\nCitizens will be free.<\/p>\n
If there is a \u201cbinge\u201d, a tension, a feeling of being stuck in the country today, perhaps this is at the root of it:
\nFreedom measured and measured within rules.<\/p>\n
But true freedom is this:
\nYou are as free as you are born to be, not as I give you.<\/p>\n
The duty of the state is to secure that freedom, not to curtail it.<\/p>\n
That small moment in the courtroom was actually a tiny frame in a big picture.<\/p>\n
And in that frame I saw this:
\nWe still use secularism to draw boundaries, not to expand freedom.<\/p>\n
Perhaps what we should really swear to is this:
\nTo be a country that can tolerate each other's existence without fear or hesitation<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In our country, freedom is often served like a hamburger menu. There is choice. But limited.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":282655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[286],"tags":[289],"class_list":{"0":"post-282654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-yazarlar","8":"tag-manset"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282654","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282656,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282654\/revisions\/282656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}