‘Murted’ is an Arabic word, which translates to ‘Apostate’.
The term ‘Murted’ has gained a conceptual meaning due to some events in Islam: its meaning in Islam is one which turns or leaves religion. Murted, derived from the word Ridde. Ridde means ‘to turn, to refuse, not to accept’ in the dictionary. In Islam, men who come out of religion by their own will are labelled Murted. This is exactly the meaning of Islamic jurisprudence.
The emergence of the word Murted, arrives after Hz. Muhammad passed away; the people did not give zakat (alms) and said, ‘We had made a deal with Muhammad, and since he died, our agreement with Islam is over.’ Abu Bakr, the caliph of the period, fought against them and lost many of his companions in this war.
Turkey, within the limits of itself, wins a reputation before the July 15 coup attempt. It was claimed that the military airbase ‘Akici’, in the district of Kazan, was the place where the alleged coup was coordinated. Erdogan had later changed the name of the airbase to ‘Murted’ to mean the location of those who returned from the path of righteousness.
There is no doubt that the Muslim man aims to create a perception in the minds of those who know Islamic culture by defining those who oppose him or reject his regime with an Islamic concept, as an apostate.
Those who belonged to the predecessor of the Erdogan regime said: “our military service and loyalty is not with you and your regime, it is with the Kemalist and western regimes.” The handful of people who dared to speak those words were rained bombs upon by the paramilitary forces shouting “bismillah ya Allah, Allahu akbar.” The best part is that those people were later given the status of ‘hero martyr’ after they died. Recalling the resistance of Maraş as heroic, one cannot stop thinking about how much individualism, manhood, and free-standing the Erdoğan regime is.
This is the life of the Mürted airbase, where the S-400’s now live. I’m not going to get into the S-400s because it’s been an issue for a while -but I can’t help but say that it is a strange coincidence, that the Mürted airbase is witnessing a refreshed Mürted event. As a result of Erdogan’s policies, it seems that this time the Mürted is the Turkish state itself. As the last stop of the Turkish sovereigns on the path of westernization, the strategy of the last two hundred years, TC is turning to this Mürted which is oddly being implemented at this Airbase.
The Republic of Turkey was founded on the legacy of the Ottoman’s seeking change. which is ongoing throughout the recent hundred years. The apostate here is westernization.
Over two hundred years of history, the West has received more than it deserves. It didn’t understand the concept of alms, but it took too much anyway. So if we compare this to the term Murtedism, as declared by Erdogan himself, we may see strong similarities. In other words, Erdogan leaves a regime or system because of his addiction to dictatorship. Those who feed on Kurdish hostility share the same blood and ship as him, on the journey of the Murteds.
It’s quite serious. In Turkey, the traces of good and bad have been so distorted because the truth is not spoken, that everyone is confused. For example, nobody says that the best defence weapon is democracy and peace. Because they cannot. All of them are mennish men talking either about war or plotting the purchase of bigger, more exciting weapons. Big men and big women, when they talk, they talk with the mindset they have inherited from great grandfathers whose remains do not fill the palm of a hand; they speak as if “one Turk is worth the whole world.” You’d think the world turns per their demand.
The reality remains that no one is by their side, and in fact, they are the Murteds they accuse everyone else of being.
They took the title of an apostate from Islam and adapted it to those who attempted a coup. But they do not bother to think about what happened to the apostates in Islam. They cannot even think about what happened to the ‘Akıncı’ before it became an apostate.
What could possibly happen to Erdogan and his men? Because these are the apostates of the whole capitalist system; do you think the whole system leaves its apostates alone? In order to understand this, we should look at why. Why and when the AKP and Erdogan moved to power. More important than these questions is who put them in charge. The AKP and Erdoğan are the dummies of the moderate Islam project of the capitalist system.
Turkish Kemalist author, Merdan Yanardag, has released a book titled ‘AKP as a Project of US.’ This book contains some very serious allegations, but strikingly neither Erdogan nor the AKP has objected a single sentence. In other words, the AKP also accepts that they are the product of the US, and the system in a wider sense.
This US-Turkey Project attracts Turkey to the so-called Western criteria. Erdogan-Bahceli, the Kurdish massacrers, allow for it and wants its support. The Kurdish massacres are a difficult issue; the US tries to provoke Turkey against the Kurds, and vice versa.
The US is a force responsible for the system, it does not have the luxury of acting like Turkey. Erdogan’s Turkey sees this as an opportunity for itself and makes its own moves accordingly. Interestingly, these moves resemble those who entered World War I alongside Germany, thinking that it would recapture the lands lost by the Ottomans.
Without further ado, it seems that Turkey has reached a stage where even the capitalist system would say it has reached the limit of the concept of apostate. The words “you have gone too far, that’s enough,” may not be spoken today or tomorrow but let’s not forget that the corpse of the apostle’s ancestor was not buried for decades in the Ottoman Empire. I specify more clearly, Erdogan’s Turkey is prolonging its shrivelled, to extend Sevres. I, myself, don’t know if this is good or bad.
Mehmet GÖREN/Kürdistan Stratejik Araştırmalar Merkezi
