Today, let us not concern ourselves at all with Article 175 of a constitution that has been put out to tender through the sealed-envelope method. Let us also not speak of the selfish hearts and mortgaged minds that ignore the shackles fastened to people’s hearts and minds for years, while concerning themselves only with Provisional Article 4 of the Constitution.
Let us look at the horses flowing from Avni Arbaş’s brush, seemingly galloping within that riot of colours. In the words of Nazım Hikmet:
“These horses are Avni’s horses,
The horses of the National Forces...”
Let us look at these horses.
Neither Article 175, nor constitutional surety, nor Provisional Article 4, nor this, nor that...
“These horses are Avni’s horses,
The horses of the National Forces,
Beneath the black felt cloak, their white rumps full,
Their nostrils tremble,
These horses are Avni’s horses...”
Even if these people, who produced artists such as Abidin Dino and Avni Arbaş, are placed in debt of billions to the IMF and the OECD by certain state administrators, they will always remain creditors of humanity.
“The National Forces will come again,
Their falcon horses overtaking the wind,
Trampling both the infidel and Anzavur,
The National Forces will come again.”
Politicians who carry ballot boxes in their heads will be forgotten; those who imposed the most merciless punishments upon intellectuals and artists will be forgotten; the bandits who blocked roads in the name of the state will be forgotten; those who wound barbed wire around minds will be forgotten; heads of state will be forgotten; prime ministers who climbed into cars with red licence plates will be forgotten; ministers will be forgotten...
Through their paintings, the Dinos and the Arbaşes; through their novels, stories and writings, the Yaşar Kemals, Aziz Nesins, Rıfat Ilgazes and Sabahattin Alis; through their poems, the Nazım Hikmets, Ceyhun Atuf Kansus, Hasan Hüseyins and Ahmet Arifs will always live on!..
They will live on even if ban after ban is imposed; they will live on even if their names are removed from school textbooks; they will live on even if not a single word is spoken about their poems and works on state television or radio!..
“As long as folk songs are sung in the Turkish language,
As long as ‘I love you, my rose’ is said in the Turkish language,”
these painters, these writers and these poets will always be remembered!.. They will be remembered even if they are banned... They will be remembered even if they are not banned... Today, they will be remembered in halls... Tomorrow, they will be remembered in public squares...
The grandees of state will be forgotten and, one by one, will pass into oblivion without leaving any trace for tomorrow other than their primitiveness. Avni’s horses will remain for tomorrow...
“My rose, the horses of the National Forces,
My dear, the horses of the National Forces...”
Today, neither Article 175, nor the wheels within wheels, nor the arabesque games, nor Provisional Article 4...
“These horses are Avni’s horses,
The horses of the National Forces,
Beneath the black felt cloak, their white rumps full,
Their nostrils tremble, these horses are Avni’s horses...”
