The sleeping giant awakens

Tuesday, May 15, 2007
TDN
By Mehmet Ali Birand

The secular people are usually silent. They prefer to remain spectators.

There is even a part that, no offense intended, the members of which have assigned the duty of looking after their interests to the military for years, instead of seeking their rights by democratic means. They do not leave their homes, they only complain, and when things take on a sharp turn, they cry to be saved by the generals. We have seen examples of this throughout history. They embraced the Republican People's Party (CHP) at times, treating it roughly at others. They neither totally identified with it nor excluded it in entirety.

Now it appears that this attitude is changing. This time around, with the declaration of April 27, the secular people took it to the streets for the first time. For the first time, they became active to have their voices heard. Even those that called on the military for duty got out of their homes to protect their interests, even at the expense of being disturbed.

The elections will be very different this time around.

For the very first time, I witness the secular people become so conscious. For the first time, housewives urge each other to vote. For the first time, the people who spend their summers in Bodrum plan to return back to their home towns on July 20-21 just to be able to vote. They have reserved their tickets already.

There is a general tension among the public.

We used to see this tension among the religious section of the Turkish society. But this time, the secular people are preparing. The “let's not let our votes go to waste” logic is gaining strength.

The latest rallies are clear signs of this.

Why did Kenan cry?

We, as spectators, view the Eurovision Song Contest differently than those involved in the organization and those that participate by giving points.

For us, Eurovision is no different than a national soccer game. We turn it into an issue of honor. We see those that we have not received points from as enemies, and cheer for those that gave us points. We see one as a friend of Turks, the other as an enemy of Turks.

However, Eurovision is a commercial event. It is both an attractive show and a mechanism to produce raw material for the music industry.

It is for this reason that countries that do not receive points blame not the others, but their own songs. For example, I have checked the newspapers of the following day in both Ireland, which received the least number of votes, and in the United Kingdom, which was once the champion but now gets very low points. I saw that no one cared.

Another fact about Eurovision is that Balkan states and ex-Soviet republics support each other. Greek Cyprus and Greece exchange points and the Scandinavians look after each other. But then, there are still those that act non-politically. The most characteristic example for this was Turkey's 12 points to Armenia. Turkey keeps surprising everyone on these issues.

Kenan Doğulu managed the mise-en-scene very well since the day he was elected to participate in the contest. He organized a very clever PR campaign. If he had not become fourth, he would have easily won third place, and even second had he been lucky.

However, when he could not get what he wanted, he cried in the hotel room with his mother. I was surprised. I thought he had worked out what Eurovision was all about. He should have been happy. He became more famous than ever. He also became known abroad.

Is it not what we call Eurovision anyway?

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