Page - 128 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1

128 | www.limina-graz.eu hande Birkalan-Gedik | muslim | martyr | masculine couraged them to die—to become martyrs for Turkey.11 The reason for this call was to take action against an apparently deadly coup attempt, which marked a turning point in Turkey’s history, yet added another layer of complexity to the conundrum that is Turkish politics. The attempted coup was organized by a fraction in the Turkish military, through several opera- tions in various Turkish cities, to topple the government led by R. Tayyip Erdoğan. Most national newspapers, as by 22:37 o’clock, announced that the coup was prevented because the public stood against it. A few days after the attempted coup, Erdoğan called the struggle against the coup a “war” and declared the casualties as “martyrs,” regardless of their ethnic origin or gender: “Kahraman şehitlerimize Allah’tan rahmet diliyorum. 15 Temmuz dar- be girişiminde 62’si polis 179’u sivil, 5’i asker olmak üzere 246 şehidi- miz var. Rabbim onları şefkatiyle, merhametiyle kuşatsın, Peygamber Efendimize komşu eylesin. Yaralılarımızın sayısı 2186, yaralılarımıza Allah’tan acil şifalar temenni ediyorum. Şehitlerimiz ve gazilerimiz, 15 Temmuz gecesi cesaretleriyle, dirayetle- riyle, kararlı ve dik duruşlarıyla tarih yazdılar. Hiç şüphesiz şehitlerimiz kalplerimizdeki mümtaz yerlerini daima muhafaza edeceklerdir. Bunun- la birlikte artık her yıl 15 Temmuz Şehitlerimizi Anma Günü’nde kendile- rini hassaten yâd edecek, hatıralarını gelecek nesillere aktaracağız. Değerli kardeşlerim; Bugün 81 ilimizdeki, ilçelerimizdeki meydanlarda ve tüm Türkiye’de coşkuyla, gururla söylenen özgürlük türkülerinin asıl bestekârı milleti- mizin bizatihi ta kendisidir. 15 Temmuz gecesi sokaklarda Sünni-Ale- vi yoktu, Türk-Kürt yoktu, Çerkez-Roman yoktu, o gece meydanlarda sağcı-solcu, zengin-fakir, iktidar-muhalefet yoktu. 15 Temmuz’da tıpkı Çanakkale’de, İstiklal Harbimizde olduğu gibi tüm fertleriyle tek yürek, tek bilek olmuş, iradesini bir avuç darbeciye çiğnetmeyen büyük Türkiye vardı, Türk milleti vardı.”12 [“I wish God show mercy to our martyrs. In the coup attempt on 15 July, we have 246 martyrs, 62 of whom are civilians and 179 are civil serv- ants. May the Lord keep them there [in Heaven] with His compassion and mercy and grant them to be neighbors with Prophet Mohammed. The number of our wounded is 2186, as I wish that God grants a speedy recovery for them. On the night of 15 July, our martyrs and veterans wrote history with their courage, dignity and determination, and upright postures. Undoubtedly, our martyrs will always keep their special places in our hearts. However, 11 CNN news report on Erdogan using FaceTime can be found here: https://edition.cnn.com/ 2016/07/18/ opinions/ erdogan- face-time-social-media-ed-finn/ index.html [accessed 2 November 2018.] 12 The speech was obtained from the Turkish president’s official website: https://www.tccb.gov. tr/ konusmalar/353/49742/15- temmuz-darbe-girisimi-ile-ilgili- meydanlara-yaptiklari-konusma [accessed on 28 October 2018].