Don’t wander around these mountains, gazelle

Then, some three months ago two citizens called Omer Cakir and Vedat Kayg?s?z, came across the baby and mother deer on their way back from a mawlid [Mawlid is the birthday of the Prophet] community in Bollu village.
The deers had mistaken these two men with other people and didn’t escape…
What happened after I can’t bear to tell.
The baby gazelle was left orphaned, shall I just say. The rest you can guess.
Animals also belong to the community.
The murderers were found out and brought to court.
They were probably released after paying a 11,000 Turkish Lira penalty.

I am most interested in knowing what these murderers were listening to at the Blessed Birth prayer.

I tried to understand how could these men commit such a murder after leaving such a spiritual environment. And on top of that, how could they do it in front of the baby deer’s eyes.

The Holy Quran names the animals, the essential members of the ecological system, as “community”.

The 38th verse of the Surah 6. Al-An’am on Quran says; “There is not an animal living on earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but (forms part of) communities like you. Nothing have we omitted from the Book, and they (all) shall be gathered to their Lord in the end”.

I thought about how they could manage to perpetrate such cruelty after listening to a prayer which suggests that everybody, from the bird in the sky to the ant on the ground, bears rights in the universe.

Another Ceylan [in Turkish, gazelle] was killed on these lands. She was 12 years old .

How could we expect to hear a sound about this cruelty from hearts that don’t cry out about Ceylan Onkol who was killed in the village of Senlik in the province of Diyarbak?r? Killed by a mortar round fired from the Tabantepe Battalion.

Kaygusuz Abdal [Alewi Bektashi folk poet known as Alaeddin Gaybi who lived between 1341 –1444]

Gaybi is the son of the Lord of Alanya, much interested in hunting.

One day he hunts a deer.

The deer escapes and seeks refuge in Abdal Musa Sultan Convent in Elmal?.

Gaybi asks the dervishes in the convent to hand him the deer he has hunted.

A quarrel begins as the dervishes say they have seen no deer.

When Abdal Musa comes out and asks what is wrong, Gaybi tells him the story.

Abdal Musa rises his cloak, shows the arrow on his side and asks ‘Is this the arrow you have shot?’.

That was the day Gaybi started to serve the convent.

For all the things he abandoned, he was given the name “Kaygusuz Abdal” [Lighthearted Dervish].

He writes the most beautiful satires of these lands.

Some people ask me: “Why are you on the side of the Kurds ? You are an artist, you were a columnist and everyone loved you…”

No doubt we cannot be compared with Kaygusuz Abdal but we have enough humanity to feel every arrow that hit Ceylan on our body.

Confusing this responsibility, which only consist of pressure, penalty and tiredness, with power, some people write articles saying “Oh poor S?rr?!”

There are also some who make themselves ridiculous trying to criticise.

If necessary I will answer all of them with one sentence:

Do not force yourself to understand; this is not a situation you can understand.

The only thing you must know is what is your place.

And this proverb: Aqlê sivik barê girane! (a small brain is a heavy burden)

To all of you, I say hello…

Note: I want to thank with my heart my brothers who give us a place in their hearts and consecrate all they have, in particular the Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac and Armenian people.

Editor’s note: Ceylan is Turkish for gazelle. It is also a female name. The Ceylan the writer is referring to is 12 years old Ceylan Önkol. On 28 September 2009 Ceylan Önkol, went out to tend the family sheep as her mother prepared lunch for her. According to villagers there was a sound in the air followed by an explosion, shortly thereafter Ceylan was found dead with her midsection shredded. Body parts were scattered over 150 m with some landing in the branches of nearby trees. Despite the massive damage to her midsection witnesses say her legs and feet as well as her arms, hands and head were relatively uninjured.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

S?rr? Süreyya Önder was born in Ad?yaman in 1962. He works as a scriptwriter, story constructor and consultant for feature films and television series.

Beynelmilel (International) is his first feature film as both a writer and director. He also adapted the script for “Bliss / Mutluluk”.

S?rr? Süreyya Önder was a secondary school student in 1978 when he was arrested for attending a protest demonstration against the Mara? massacre. After coming out of prison he went to Ankara and enrolled at the Faculty of Political Sciences. He was in Ankara when the 12 September 1980 military coup happened. Önder was arrested and sentenced to 12 years in prison and served 7.

Beynelmilel is set in Ad?yaman. Here the business for a group of local musicians hits rock bottom due to curfew laws implemented in 1982. The solutions they seek end up with the group in jail. The region’s martial law commander puts a twist to the story when he decides to create a ‘modern orchestra’ with the local musicians. The orchestra is asked to prepare a welcoming ceremony for the military council’s visit to the town. There is yet another group who is eagerly waiting for the arrival of the council: the activist university students lead by Haydar, a political science student, and Gülendam, the daughter of the new local orchestra chief plan a protest during the welcoming ceremony. The military law and the local orchestra on one side and the protesters on the other, unexpected events are about to unfold during the ceremony.

SIRRI SUREYYA ÖNDER / ISTANBUL

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