Turkey’s Agenda and Conflicting Social Values Discussed by Prof. Hablemitoğlu
BY İSMAİL UYANIK (EEE/VI)
Prof. Dr. Şengül Hablemitoğlu, spouse of historian Dr. Necip Hablemitoğlu, gave a talk at Bilkent on December 16 in a conference organized by Atatürkçü Düşünce Topluluğu (ADT). In her presentation, scheduled to commemorate the eighth anniversary of her husband’s death, Prof. Hablemitoğlu discussed the current agenda of Turkey in the context of conflicting social values. She also talked about the values for which her husband and other patriots sacrificed their lives.
In the first part of her speech, Prof. Hablemitoğlu presented some pictures reflecting the current agenda of Turkey such as photographs of some singers, artists, and authors. She criticized them for their insincere attitudes and excessive copying from the others' works. She also talked about the wide variety of contest programs such as song and talent contests and discussed how these programs affect our way of thinking. Additionally, she discussed some TV series and how they manipulate our behaviors by using our own values. She solidified her assertions by giving the example of a famous TV series Aşk-ı Memnu, which was based on an old novel written by Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil. She said, "We all witnessed how a different representation of the same story can manipulate people's thoughts about a social problem."
After that, she talked about how such manipulation makes us question our own values. "We start to ask who Ulubatlı Hasan was, what kind of person M. Kemal Atatürk was," said Prof. Hablemitoğlu and stated that such uncertainty will break the bonds between us and our values. She mentioned how we use movie lines to change our language and in our daily conversations. She also mentioned how people start to dress or eat like the people they see in the movies. Most importantly, she pointed out how people start to act like the characters presented in the movies. She said, "We are living with the values of a different culture and we are facing a social transformation which is far away than our original values."
Finally, she related all these changes in our social and political values to the people who sacrificed their lives to prevent that from happening, including her husband Dr. Necip Hablemitoğlu. She said that such changes will cause bigger problems than we may foresee today and that these people tried to ensure that we do not face the acute effects of those transformations. She concluded her speech by saying that "Please, do not forget what for they sacrificed their lives and work accordingly."