It is hard to find words facing the ongoing genocide in Gaza since October 2023. Tens of writers, scholars, journalists, historians and other enlightened people have written and talked extensively on the current massacre, its antecedents and background going back many years to 1948, the Nakba. Their testimony also mentions the complicity of the British Empire in the last half century of  the Ottoman rule and after the Great War. As far as I can follow, the most informed commentary comes from American intellectuals and investigative reporters, and from Palestinians in exile or still in the occupied territories, and from few Israelis still living in their own country.  These people are mostly drawing from the leftist point of view and they are in many instances Jewish. Their writings and interviews are mainly published through websites like Counterpunch, Scheerpost, ZNetwork and others, whose circulation (in the old parlance of publishing) may possibly be in the thousands only. In addition to these, DemocracyNow is especially commendable in bringing out the real faces of the tragedy by interviewing Palestinians of Gaza: Doctors, poets, writers and journalists. Some of them lost their lives since, and almost all lost relatives and loved ones. Not being able to follow other material from the continental European languages, I should expect to be lacking in some crucial commentary. But then, the worthwhile contribution to the critique (and condemnation) of an ongoing massacre one can expect to be translated into English and circulated on the web. In my opinion, mainstream media and newspapers in the western world can be excluded from this  list for various reasons. Even the ‘left-liberal’ ones, like The Guardian that I follow for news everyday fail to deliver an ethical and just account of the carnage: balanced journalism is not about pitting one’s grief to the other’s in consequent photographs on the main page, or distant-reporting on a ‘war’ as though there are two compatible sides, or relying mainly on the Israeli propaganda machine. Even a simple glitch in language is telling: This is not a war in Gaza, but a war on Gaza. Meanwhile, except for Al Jazeera, true journalism with witnesses on the ground has failed in this instance, following incredible number of casualties and deaths among the brave Palestinian reporters under Israeli fire.  As a lot of people agree, among wars of the past century this has been the deadliest assault  on a small territory in which no one is spared, including (and deliberately) the journalists.

My modest contribution to these can be told through my experience and reminiscences as an academic and an artist living in Turkey. It is by no means a kind investigative research, but what I have observed over the years in instances that relate to the struggle for Palestine as seen from the Turkish side.  This also should recount the official view as the political power in Turkey in the past fifty years has changed hands from center-left democrats, to semi-secular right wing  opportunists, and finally to a kind of  authoritarian political Islam. As a footnote: The policies that bind these political actors together are the denial of Armenian genocide and refusal to make peace with the Kurdish population of Turkey and its neighbors. In certain instances, this narration also includes episodes of utmost agony that the Jewish community in Turkey had faced in a number of deadly attacks in the past. I try to understand what a lot of scholars worldwide observe as extreme confusion in the employment of  the concept of antisemitism, and in labeling multiple facets of racism, including Islamic fundamentalism and Zionism. It should be clear for a socialist (or for that matter for any person of conscience) that worldwide any fascistic, or an authoritarian, or an apartheid government should be labeled as such and fought against regardless of the foundation myths and extenuating circumstances, period. At the same time to hold the populations responsible for voting and electing these governments and to discriminate along these lines is the worst mistake an intelligent person can make, as we have observed time and again in Turkey. Peoples of the third world had frequently been punished by their oppressors for democratically electing the wrong guys, as the people in Gaza know very well. This is the stuff of military coups and following atrocities in 1953 in Iran, in Chile and in other instances in south America, Africa and Asia

Most of Edward Said’s books have been translated into Turkish with considerable delay. In the 1990’s the first and the most influential one among scholars and social scientists was Orientalism. Unfortunately the first date of publication for most of his translated books are somewhat lost among the multiple publishing houses in Turkey that circulate data. As the original English version was first published in 1978, we can assume that part of the Turkish academia had picked it up early. The book is still influential in scope, not because Said mentions the Turks as an object of study for the field of Orientalism, but because the historical subjects of the Ottoman Empire were in the focus of the debate, and the literature of post-colonialism had some relevance in the developing Republic of Turkey. In 1990’s the Turkish academics in the cultural field, including myself, thought that the book answered some of the questions that we faced. For me they surfaced looking at photographs from 19th century Ottoman Istanbul. Somehow, representations of Islam was not among these questions. Meanwhile, Edward Said’s specific identity as a Palestinian public intellectual in exile and as the enlightened scholar of Palestinian struggle was a little lost. His later books came late into Turkish, like The Question of Palestine and Covering Islam and I suppose they had a lesser circulation. By this time, the left in Turkey was in disarray after the 1980 military coup, like in most other countries after the Berlin wall came down. And so was the solidarity of the global left with the Palestinian cause which by this time was picked up by the rising militant Islam.  I think it was in late 1960’s and 1970’s that a worldwide internationalism of socialists connected the struggles in the Middle East, South America, East Asia and Turkey. As an adolescent, I remember that there was a lot of debate on Palestine, and for the left militants PLO set an example for an armed national struggle. Meanwhile, the majority of the Turkish governments of the time, from social democrats to the right, and the combination of both in coalition, but always the enemy of socialists and communists in Turkey, had welcomed Arafat in many occasions. As far as I remember, PLO was the legitimate representative of the Palestinian cause, and Arafat its spokesperson both in Turkey and occasionally at the UN. And again as I recall, he never started his excited public speeches with (in) the name of Allah. For the official Turkish stand, the solidarity with Palestine was supposedly less about a brotherhood in Islam, but then it looked good during the elections among the pious voters. Later on in 1993 it was again Edward Said that harshly criticized PLO and Arafat’s concessions, their embrace by western media and centers of power, and their offsetting of the gains of the Intifada.

In late April in 1998 I was in the West Bank for around ten days as a photographer. I was commissioned by the Aga Khan Award for architecture to photograph in El Khalil (Hebron) and Nablus, both nominees for the award for the rehabilitation of the old town centers. Together with an architect-historian colleague who prepared the report for the jury, we stayed in East Jerusalem and were well received by a team of Palestinian architects and restoration experts. They were very proud of their achievement and hopeful for the recognition by a very prestigious institution. That year, Hebron had received the award in restoration. This very brief visit had left its impressions. It was a relatively quiet time in between two Intifadas and on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel, for which thousands of flags were visible everywhere. From my experiences in Turkey, I sense that the extreme visibility of the national flag in the public realm refers to both the degree of fervent nationalism and to a kind of emergency situation that requires vigilance, rather than being a symbol of simple patriotism. For Israel, this was possibly understandable. In my country one should beware. Unlike Jerusalem old city, on the street level in Hebron and Nablus there was not the presence of Israeli soldiers on patrol, and the tensions this aroused. But once I was on the rooftops to photograph, I could see that a network of other rooftops were occupied by Israeli military, in clear view of each other, heavily armed and fortified. I remember being closely watched from a distance, together with my guide, a sensation that Palestinians faced in everyday life together with a number of settlements and checkpoints on the daily trips. The Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron was a forbidden zone, guarded by Israeli soldiers. This is where in 1994 Baruch Goldstein, an American-Jewish settler had murdered 29 Muslim worshipers and wounded 125 others. In the early 2000s, on the TV screen I have recognized exactly the same few buildings that I photographed in Nablus. They were turned into rubble and dust by the Israeli tanks and bulldozers in an occasional assault.

On the morning of November 15, 2003, a Saturday, I was at home in Istanbul, where I lived for ten years. My apartment was in Galata district, in the heart of the city about twenty meters distance from the Galata Tower, a Genovese landmark and tourist attraction that stood there since 1348. It was also about a hundred meters away from Neve Shalom synagogue, which is around the corner from the tower down on the busy main street. When I felt the huge explosion, the first thing that came to my mind was that an lpg tank had accidentally went off in one of the restaurants. I was too shaken to go out. In a few minutes, I understood that it was far more serious when the bodies were being carried in the arms of men down the street to the two nearby hospitals as I watched from my window. A couple of minutes later another bang was faintly heard coming from the other side of the city.  The car bombs that exploded in front of two synagogues (the other one in Şişli district) almost simultaneously have killed 29 people and wounded 600 others. All casualties were Turkish citizens, and most were people of Muslim faith going about their daily business as the stores and businesses were open. Less than a week later, two more car bombs went off one after the other, one in front of the British consulate and the other one near the HSBC Bank in Levent, again killing tens of people passing by and wounding hundreds. All attacks were carried out by al Qaida. The mass in Neve Shalom was mainly spared possibly by the help of  hidden fortified walls and a fake facade. What prompted these precautions was a prior atrocity that happened on another Saturday, September 6, 1986, when members of the Abu Nidal organization attacked the temple and killed 22 Jewish citizens of Turkey.

In 1986 I was studying in New York and all through those years Benjamin Netenyahu’s face was on prime time broadcast news every other day, interviewed by the anchors of  the three networks as the representative of Israel at the UN. It was the time of the first Intifada. By then this fast talking man was being primed for what he would become today.

A condemnation should go for any indiscriminate terror attack on a civilian population anywhere in the world, be it in Europe, in Turkey or in Palestine. This is almost tautological. A humanist take on the proposition should attribute a decent moral position to every obedient Muslim of conscience, to every other faith and all decent folk who do not follow a faith. But when it is uttered by the highest political authority, it rings hollow. This is not a problem of political speech writing. It is about the long term policies being followed and other public utterances (demagogy) to satisfy a certain publicum (and the mob) that lead to moral corruption and cracks through which these vile acts can flow. Through these cracks, hundreds of  Turkish people had been bombed and gunned to death and hundreds maimed for life in Ankara, in Suruç and in Istanbul in the last ten years, by the members of Isis and its Turkish affiliates. Meanwhile, the Jewish community in Turkey is not leading as precarious a life as the Armenian citizens of the country, even though they did not enjoy the best of times in the last one hundred years. But today when the highest authority in the country engages in something close to a hate speech against ‘Israel’ (a nondescript entity on the receiving end) some of his followers are ready to engage in racism of the vicious kind. In return, when an Israeli cabinet member labels all Palestinians as ‘human animals’ there are consequences all the worst for the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

On June 28, 2016 Isis militants carried out an attack in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport that killed 48 people and wounded 236. On October 28, 2023, the ruling party in Turkey (AKP) held the ‘Great Palestine Meeting’ in the currently dismantled airport’s runways. Thousands of people had to be bused to the relatively remote location: a party organization. As far as I have seen from photographs, among the thousands of national symbols waved in excitement, there was approximately one Palestinian flag for every one hundred Turkish flags. This was an AKP rally, an occasion for the president to publicly voice his rhetoric before the oncoming local elections. Meanwhile, it was all in the family, all acted for the national crowds.  

The fate of the people of Gaza and the West Bank has been sealed by the most toxic circumstances that the global world had seen for a very long time. On one hand, the claim on the Palestinian struggle by varied militants of Islam since 1990s left them facing the more murderous Zionist regime and the settlers as its paramilitary wing. The violence spirals out of control and finally the apartheid government sets the conditions for revenge in each instance. But equally tragic is the fact that another toxic-macho combination of men rule the corrupt regimes that occupy and surround the Holy Land in concentric circles on the map, South Africa being an exception. They might have had some sincere empathy for Gazans (or might have had the power of sanctions) to alleviate the plight of Palestinian people, but they stayed put. These men range in a spectrum from members of the Palestinian Authority to the sheiks, owners of the oil wells (and countries) in the Gulf; and to the king (and his son) guilty of the most gruesome murder of a journalist, a citizen, inside a foreign mission (the body snatchers); to the new Persians, the clerics that accelerated the public hanging of the most joyful and innocent sons and daughters of Iran; the butchers of Damascus and Tahrir Square; and gradually to other men of  (some) power.  Enter the European countries and the United States in this act of the tragedy. Few people in a sane mind expect that through the ‘corridors of power’ and ‘the delicate balance of trade and supply chains’ or through the fog of history or simply through the long term allegiences and support for Israel, that neat distinctions could be made by men in power along the following lines: What is Antisemitism? What is racism? Holocaust denial? White supremacy? Apartheid regime? Annihilation? Genocide? These distinctions are being made with a clear conscience and mind by the majority of peoples of the world, and acted upon by gathering on the streets in Europe, United States and to a lesser degree elsewhere, demanding first a ceasefire, then dignity and a decent existence for the Palestinian people. Facing the innocents of Gaza covered in blood, our only hope lies in the decency and the power of this multitude.

February 2024

In early 2024 I have stayed a relatively longer time in Chicago since many months and years I have spent in the United states in the past: close to five years that I had been in New York in the second half of 1980’s and several months in late 90’s in California. In between there were several shorter visits to New York, Vermont and to Chicago. In all these years, my impression of the country and its people came and went in cycles of recollection and amnesia. Every time I come back I recognize that certain things and places do not change much, including details and routines that regulate everyday life. This is rather comforting for someone coming from Turkey where the pace (and in a sense, violence) of change (in the cities, streets, architecture, in countryside, and certainly in attitudes) is immense. My country is the site of continuous destruction and re-construction on a land with many thousands of years of history. The debris that this leaves behind is not only of anything that has historical value, but in a sense it is also of the remains of human lives and of the entire biosphere. I am not suggesting that everything stays the same in this part of the world in urban America, but that change comes gradually in the physical realm that people can accomodate with some memories intact.

One thing that changed gradually is the face (or the interface) of the corporate USA in the cities. What fascinated me as a young man coming fresh out of architectural school was the Manhattan skyline, first faintly visible in the distance when coming in from JFK airport, later imposed in all its might from Brooklyn. After almost forty years, I still remember the awe that I felt in this first encounter. As a student of photography in New York, I was attracted to its architecture, and I made most of the photographs and graduate work in downtown Manhattan. In fact, in a significant part, the history of the art of photography is closely intertwined with the history of urban architecture in America, roughly up until 1970s. And not so much with Chicago (except for Harry Callahan and possibly others) but with New York. Those photographers were my heroes. Meanwhile, for a few years, I remember spending time in Midtown Manhattan and Central Park over the weekends, possibly lured by the crowds of tourists and locals, and free access to MoMA, by then lacking its own glass tower. It took a while to understand that the variants of the international style skyscrapers, rather than being the interface through which you interact with some content, are opaque facades unless you are spending your working hours inside one. They form the décor for enthusiastic tourists and their selfies and for the urban shopping experience. Trump was already present. For now, these buldings represent other things rather than the power of the biggest corporations: offices, luxury residences and ‘retail space’, their names switching from Sears to Willis. The business of banking and finance is fluid enough to fit in any space, then and now. On the other hand, the ebb and flow of corporate presence in the cities were taking place even then as manufacturing moved overseas, culminating in the ‘campuses’ around Palo Alto and Cupertino and thereabouts which are infinitely more opaque in their inner workings. Today, in the time of distant working and precarious jobs, the true architectural representation of late capitalism are the interiors of Amazon fulfillment centers out there somewhere, and the large google sign on the lawn in Silicon Valley headquarters, a drive-thru selfie point and a backdrop for TV news on tech companies.

As in evolutionary biology, the (first) Chicago School of Architecture represents the link in between Paris, ‘The Capital of Nineteenth Century’ and Mies van der Rohe of Illinois Institute of Technology, as form followed function. More than a case of adaptation, this presented a kind of mutation, later to shape American cities like nowhere else in the world. From the architecture education in Ankara, what got stuck to my mind were black and white photographs (lecture slides reproduced from books) of Chicago buildings, very neatly photographed by professionals using view cameras, large format, perspective correction and all. As a chapter in architecture history it must have lasted several weeks articulated by very knowledgeable professors. And the names also stuck: Le Baron Jenney, Burnham and Root, Adler and Sullivan, and young Frank Lloyd Wright, together with buildings, like Carson Pirie Scott, Reliance, Marshall Field and Co., Marquette, Robie House and others. Other bits of this brief academic survey that remained with me involves legendary innovations in building technology that later enabled the skyscrapers, which co-existed with the daring use of older techniques: that the tallest building in masonry (Monadnock) had walls thicker than 1.5 meters on the ground floor, tapering off towards the top floors. For us in the early 1980’s, the latest chapter in history of architecture in lecture form ended with examples as I selectively remember now: Seagram Building in New York City, late Corbusier and Louis Kahn, Sears Tower, Robert Venturi’s house for his mother, and the last, AT&T building in Manhattan which represented a transition into something new that fortunately lasted only a decade or so. It took a relatively short time for the pastiche employed by Post Modernism in architecture to fade into oblivion, leaving few (and mostly regrettable) traces in American cities, including in Chicago as I realize now. The marriage of the high rise glass facade and the pseudo-historical form in 1980s and 90s was a disaster. This does not mean that the examples from the last twenty or so years of steel, concrete and glass skyscrapers are all better. The computer generated (and enabled) design, convoluted forms, deviations on the plumb line and individually produced facade and structural elements do not always yield better results. And rather than in the American cities, the worst examples of this escape from the boredom of the glass box are to be found in the Gulf states and in fact in Istanbul. When the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire meets the floating global capital to be parked in real estate, another disaster strikes. Meanwhile, Trump’s name also glorifies Istanbul’s skyline, this time not with one but two leaning towers, the siamese twins.

I had briefly worked as an architect-draftsman in New York and since 1990 had very limited contact with the profession, except occasional reviews of student work and lecturing on the very basics of art history. As an enthusiast, I try to follow what is new in debates on architectural practice. This opens a broader view that surpass matters of form, aesthetics and the star architect, and brings issues that are increasingly more recognized (in limited circles) which surface in examples of affordable housing, in the examples with the use of local materials and technology in the developing world, and in the examples that aim at a minimum carbon footprint both in construction and in use. Occasionally, these examples are circulated in architectural magazines and mainstream media, which appear a little like a lip service on major problems including inequality and the climate catastrophe. And today, they are also largely outside of the economy and the speculative value of land in the cities. Thus, one can think of the practice of architecture in the city to be largely knitted into the requirements of big money and wealthy clients, and the architects to be always suspect to selling out and comfortably residing together with the moneyed class when possible. Indeed, this negative view and  broad generalization does injustice to many practicing architects and it possibly applies to every other profession that requires a ‘professional degree’ from an institute of higher education. But for me, one of the reasons that lures a young person into architectural school is the promise of a creative job with the possibilities of becoming a creative semi-free spirit, just short of being an artist. It took a while to understand that the architectural education is also specifically good in educating one’s ‘taste’, bringing in topics from the periphery to boost it. Business can go along with this. That is why the architect drop-outs, for example in Turkey, make good galerists, restaurateurs with taste, impresarios of cutting edge night clubs, and run fashion design stores. Some become artists and musicians.

So, as architecture is always context bound, I am trying to find my way in the South Loop in Chicago admiring the legendary buildings that I saw in slides. For now, I am hoping to be more informed in the historical context that made them possible. Should I think that more than one hundred years is enough to negate this chapter in the history of capitalism in America as part of the context? Maybe. The buildings are there on their own for a long time like individual characters, co-existing with later additions up to this time. Seemingly, new materials, steel skeletons and other the structural innovations in building design form one of the strongest component of the context. But for me the most revealing are the transformations that can be observed on the facades, from Gothic influences to other historical references in ornamentation and towards less and less ornamentation and finally to a whole new interpretation of proportions, windows and tectonics in architecture. Started by architects with École des Beaux-Arts education in nineteenth century, Chicago today presents the most concentrated lesson in the history of urban architecture of roughly 150 years, ready to reveal the evolution of structures and forms from one building to the next.  I am still inspired.

January 2024

Cem Hepdeniz’i 29 eylül 2023 günü nasıl olduğu anlaşılamayan bir motosiklet kazasında kaybettik. 56 yaşındaydı. Neredeyse 1980 yılından beri çektiğim bütün fotoğraflarını gözden geçirdim, kendisini ele veren az şeye rastladım. 80’lerin başında, annesinin ölümünden bir iki yıl önce muzipçe gülen yüzü tam da Cem’e uyuyor. 14-15 yaşlarında olmalı.

Diğer fotoğrafların çoğunda kendinden fazla emin tavrı naif kişiliğini pek de yansıtmıyor. Kendinden emin olması herhalde anlaşılabilir bir durum, zira kafasına koyduğunu büyük maharetle yapabilen biriydi: Tam anlamıyla kendini varetmiş bir otodidakt. Ölümünden birkaç ay önce uzaktan girdiği bir sınav ile ortaokul diploması almış olması benim için de bir başarı oldu. Zira vaktiyle bu ele avuca sığmaz çocuğun özellikle matematik dersinden geçebilmesi için ben de çok çaba sarfettiydim, ama aklı başka yerlerdeydi.

Çocukluğumuza ait anılar bölük pörçük, aramızdaki yaş farkı 1975 yılında İzmir’den ayrılana kadar tanıdığım haşarı bir çocuğun maharetleri dışında pek bir şeyi hatırlamamı mümkün kılmıyor. Cem’in askerden döndüğü 89 yılına dek biraz uzak kaldık, dünyanın farklı yerlerindeydik, haberleşme imkanları zayıftı. Ancak son otuz küsur yıllık muhabbetlerimizde çocukluğundan kalan olayları ve detayları anımsama konusundaki becerisi karşısında  hayretten hayrete sürükleniyordum. Sadece kendisi, annesi, kardeşi ve dayım ile ilgili değil, benim ve ağabeylerimin de içinde olduğu geniş aile çevresi, Karşıyaka’da çok yakın oturduğumuz ve neredeyse her gün görüştüğümüz teyze, teyze kızları, enişte ve diğer mahalle sakinleri ve onların çocukları, akranları ve arkadaşları hakkında anlattığı şeyler “acaba bir kısmını kendisi mi yazıyor?” dedirtiyordu. Birçok insan gibi anlatırken süslemeğe meyilli idi, geçmişten bahsederken gerçekliğin ve fantezinin sınırları adeta birbirine dolanıyordu. Sanki hatırladığı imgeleri kullanıp kendini tekrardan o geçmiş sahnenin içine koyuyor, oradan da ‘olması gerektiği gibi yaratıcı’ bir öykü çıkarıyordu. Bu arada öykünün mekanı pek de farketmiyor, insanlar Münih’te, İtalya’da, Yunanistan’da, Uzakdoğu’da Türkçe’yi anlayıp hep Türkçe cevap veriyorlardı. Kısacası kendini ortaya koyup mekanı, kişileri ve diyalogları dinleyenlerin hayal gücüne havale ediyordu.  Bu arada kendisi de naif bir kişilik olarak bu yarı-rüya alemini tekrardan yaşıyordu.

16 yaşında annesini kaybettikten sonra hayatını tek başına, tırmalayarak kazandı, kendini var etti, adam oldu. Babası ile yıldızı uzun süre barışmadı, yine de Demir Dayı’nın erken emekliliğinde, yaşlılığında ve son günlerinde en büyük destekçisi Cem idi. Cem’in son zamandaki sponsoru da kardeşi Kerem. Karşıyaka’da okul öncesinden başlayarak yelkenci oldu, okul, eğitim ve kitaplarla çok da fazla işi olmadı. Sanırım bu konuda da önündeki ilk örnek kendini çıraklıktan yetiştirmiş çok becerikli bir teknik adam, tornacı ve makine imalatçısı olan babası idi. Cem’in deniz üstündeki kariyeri sadece yelken ve seyir bilgilerinin bir hayli üzerinde, motor, tekne aksamı, tekne imalatı, elektronikler ve deniz üstündeki uygulamalı birçok beceriyi kapsıyordu.  Görünürde herhangi bir işin nasıl yapıldığını görerek edindiği nazari bilgi yoluyla beceremeyeceği hiçbir şey yoktu. Son beş altı yıl içinde bu gözü kara cesaret onu taşındığı Muğla’nın yayla köyünde kendi evini (herşeyi ile, tek başına), kendine ve kardeşine birer adet motor-karavan (yine herşeyi ile) ve başka çeşitli (ve karmaşık) işleri yapmaya muktedir kıldı.  Parayla da çok fazla bir işi yoktu, neredeyse çocukluğundan beri isteyebileceği, sanayi tipi dikiş makinesinden ahşap tornasına, gelişmiş bir drone’dan çapa makinelerine kadar bütün oyuncakları etrafına toplamıştı. Köpeği Yanni uzun süre onun yoldaşı oldu, bütün iş, gezi ve diğer planlara o da dahildi, yaklaşık iki yıl önce yaşlılık sonucu göçtüğünde kuzeni kedere ve hıçkırıklara boğmuştu.

Cem’in anlattıklarını dinledikçe önümüzdeki yirmi-otuz yılı dolduracak kadar plan ve projeyi hayal edebiliyordu insan. Bu yüzden de ölümü çok erken oldu. ‘Rönesans adamı’ deyimi bir klişe. Cem’in edindiği bilgelik, malzeme, alet, makina ve insan yetisinin uygun birleşimi ile yapılabilecek olan herşey üzerineydi. Yaratıcılık kısmı ise ‘tasarım’a ilişkin olan tarafta kendini gösteriyordu. Ondaki yaratıcılık daha çok mühendislere özgü, eldeki imkanlarla verili bir işin tamamlanabilmesi için çözüm üretmeye dayalıydı. Örneğin her türlü kaldıraç, palanga, vinç, halat, makara, zincir ve diğer aracılar vasıtası ile tek kişinin (çok) ağır ve hantal  şeyleri yerinden oynatması, kaldırması, yönlendirmesi ve olması gereken yere yerleştirmesi onun uzmanlık alanıydı. Aynı zamanda amatör telsizcilik (citizen’s band), yamaç paraşütü, snowboarding, arıcılık ve diğer birçok şey de elinden geçti. Bütün bunlara bakınca insanın aslında azimli bir meraklı/amatörü  gözünde canlandırması mümkün olabiliyor. Değil matematik, basit aritmetik bilgisini dahi es geçen, ticaretle işi olmayan Cem için, pek azını gerçekleştirebildiği onlarca ‘ticari’  projenin zaten bir getirisinin olmayacağı aşikar idi. Onun özellikle son yıllardaki meselesi maddi kazançtan çok gidişat üzerineydi: sabahtan itibaren günü bölen çalışma planları; yakın, orta ve uzak vadede bitirilecek işler; elleri ve bedeni ile çalışmanın getirdiği bir tefekkür, meditasyon hali. Başkasına kaptanlık yapmadan, işverensiz, mürettebatsız, gerilimsiz. Bir de yeni karavanı ve Derya ile dünyayı dolaşmak istiyordu. Olmadı. Kardeşimdi…

Küçük teknesini elden geçiriyordu, ismi Cool, lakabı ‘Bit’, 1974 model Jeanneau Sangria. 2006 yılında güney Fransa’da Bandol yakınlarında bulduğu hali ile…

Onu kaptanı olduğu şu 33 metrelik guletin arkasında çekerek Marmaris’e getirmişti. Gulet (Akhaneton) İstanbul Tuzla’da bir Fransız armatör için inşa edilirken Cem başındaydı. Bugün de onun sayesinde yüzüyor olabilir.

Denizden yaylaya, rakım 800 metre. 2019 yılında inşaat başlamıştı. Kabataslak önerdiğim ve ölçülendirdiğim ayaklar, kirişler, ahşap elemanlar üzerine Cem harekete geçti. Prefabrik iskelet hariç her şey kuzenin eseri: tesisat, elektrik, ısıtma, yalıtım, finishing, mobilya, marangozluk ve diğerleri. Bir dönüm arsaya biraz büyük gelen 70’lerden kalma International traktör Akhisar’dan transfer. Su, odun ve inşaat malzemesi taşımaya yarayan, arada vinç vazifesi gören, bazen de köyün işlerine bakan traktör bir dönem Cem’in haso oyuncağı idi. Onun üzerinde kendini hakiki çiftçi sanıyordu…

Yerkürenin bugünkü hali birbirine sıkıca dolanmış olguların yol açtığı  bir yakın ve belirgin felaket durumuna işaret ediyor. Doğal olarak herkesin katılmadığı bu görüş, bazılarımız için bir uyurgezerlik halinde uçurumun kenarına doğru yaklaştığımızı söylüyor. Durumu tarihte defalarca ortaya atılan ‘dünyanın sonu’  ve ‘kıyamet’ gibi esoterik ve uhrevi termin’lerin (deadline) dışında seküler ve rasyonel(!) bir zeminde irdelemek gerekse de,  insan muhayyilesini aşan karmaşıklık son darbenin nereden ve hangi parametrelerin baskısı ile geleceğini öngörmekte yetersiz kalıyor. Ayrıca bu son aşamayı da bilincin dışında kurgulayamadığımız için, belki de “insan soyunun sonu diğer herşeyin kurtuluşudur” diyerek avunuyoruz. Bütün bunları enlemesine kesen tehlike ise nükleer savaş gibi duruyor.

Gazete, televizyon ve diğer çevrimiçi haber kanallarının genellikle haricinde bulunan birçok eleştiri felaket yolunda iki ana vektörün dolanıklığına odaklanıp dolaylı veya dolaysız şu sonuca varıyor diyebiliriz: Sosyalizm ya da barbarlık. Bu vektörlerden bir tanesini kapalı ve sınırlı bir gezegende yaşamsal olan herşeyi sarmalayan iklim krizi, ekolojik çöküş, ve türlerin yokoluşu oluşturuyorsa, diğerini de ekonomik büyüme, kaynakların sömürülmesi, küresel gelir eşitsizliği, ve dolayısıyla neoliberal kapitalizm belirliyor. Ayrıca bu iki eksene farklı noktalardan bağlanan binlerce gösterge, teşhisin ve tedavinin sınırlarını bulanıklaştırıyor.

Bu iki vektörün etkileşimi, yani genelde ana-akım ekonomistler için her ikisinin de neredeyse tanrı tarafından bahşedilmiş ‘tabiat’ olduğu, gezegendeki her şeyin kaderini belirliyor. 19. yüzyılda türlerin kökeni, evrim, ve adaptasyon gibi terimlerle anlam kazanan biyosfer, piyasanın görünmez eli,  bireylerin ve şirketlerin kar güdüsü ve güçlü olanın ayakta kaldığı sözde bir ‘ikinci doğa’ tarafından gasp ediliyor. Öte yandan Gaia teorisinin (James Lovelock) birkaç kısa kitap ve bunların etrafındaki literatür ile elli yıldır anlatmaya çalıştığı sibernetik yerküre sisteminin, ekonomiye giriş derslerinde emeğin, sermayenin, serbest piyasa içindeki aktörlerin, dolayısıyla da bütün bireylerin rekabeti üzerine kurulu elektronik etkileşim ve geri besleme döngüleri tarafından nasıl istila edildiğine tanık oluyoruz.

Jonathan Crary ‘Scorched Earth’ (Yanık Ülke?) (1) isimli kitabında günümüzde felakete gidişin en belirgin müsebbibi olarak ‘internet complex’i gösteriyor. 7/24 çevrimiçi yaşayan çoğunluk, küresel kapitalizm ve yokoluş için gerekli geri beslemeyi sağlıyor. Bunun ötesinde yanlızlık, bağımlılık, yalancı umutlar, gaddarlık, aşınmış bellekler ve sosyal çözülmeyi üsteleyen zehirlenmiş sosyal medya ve elektronik iletişim, kötücüllüğün ve edinilmiş çaresizliğin tabana yayıldığına işaret ediyor. Kitaplarında 19. yüzyılın ikinci yarısından itibaren ‘izleyen’in (observer) (2) teknolojik aygıtlar (fotoğraf, sinema ve kitle iletişimi) tarafından nasıl kurgulandığını ele alan Crary, o zamanların aksine günümüzdeki tekno-evrenin ele geçirilebilecek, el değiştirecek veya iyiye kullanılabilecek birşey olmadığının defahatla altını çiziyor: “… çevrimiçi devrimci özne yoktur!”  Tamamen finansallaşmış bilgi teknolojileri, yedi gün yirmidört saat boyunca anlık talebin arza ve paraya dönüştürüldüğü, her türden tüketimin katlanarak arttığı, enerjiye ve kaynaklara aç ölümcül bir döngüyü bütün dünyaya yayıyor. Bu esnada üstünde durulması gereken şey, Shoshana Zuboff’un “gözetim kapitalizmi” (3) (surveillance capitalism) dediği, ve aynı madenlerin çıkarılması ve işlenmesinde (resource extraction) olduğu gibi çevrimiçi bireylerin davranışsal verilerinin madenciliğinde vücut bulan yeni bir olgu. Yazara göre bireyler olarak bizler değerin gerçekleşmesinde birer özne de değiliz, veya Google’ın sattığı ürün de değiliz. Sadece şirketin tahmin üzerine kurulu fabrikasında hammaddenin çıkarıldığı ve işlendiği birer nesne olarak iş görüyor, başkalarının amaçları için araçsallaştırılıyoruz.

İtiraf etmek gerekir ki 1990’ların ikinci yarısında hepimiz okuduklarımızdan etkilenmiş ve heyecanlanmıştık. Benim gibi mimarlık eğitiminden gelenler için “City of Bits” (William J. Mitchell)(4) yeni mekanların kapısını aralıyordu. Kitaptaki analojiler sadece modern kentin ve kamusal mekanın yeni anlamlarını değil aynı zamanda mimarlığın klasik formlarının (agora, forum, tiyatro, meclis, okul) sanal alemde nasıl vaatler ile yer alacağını müjdeliyordu. Sanki sonunda maddiyatından arınmış uzamda yatay ilişkilerin ve eşitlikçi bir toplumun ilk nüvesi gerçekleşiyordu.  Tabii bu okuduğumuz kitapların çoğunluğunu neden amazon.com adresinden ısmarlandığını o zamanlar pek de denkleme yerleştiremiyorduk. Kısa süre sonra bizim gibi bilgisayarının başında ders veren hocaların, yaratıcı kadroların ve evinden çalışan beyaz yakalıların, işçiler, emekçiler, Amazon personeli ve diğer bütün ‘tırışka meslekler’ (David Graeber)(5) ve ‘gig economy’ çalışanları ile beraber nasıl sömürüldüğünü, maddesel olmayan emeğin 150 yıllık Kapital’e ne şekilde eklemlendiğini anlamak için Hardt ve Negri’yi (6) okumak gerekti. Bugün gelinen noktada maddiyattan arınma bir yana, milyonlarla sunucunun, bitcoin madenciliğinin, binbir çeşit elektronik gözetleme mekanizmasının, telefonların arayüzünden yedi gün yirmidört saat ‘davranışsal veri’ toplayan şirketlerin nasıl bir kaynak ve enerji açlığı doğurduğunu ve dünyanın dört yanındaki kanlı madenlere ve fosil yakıtlara nasıl yol verdiğini izliyoruz. Yanık ülkeyi görmek için şöyle bir etrafa bakmak yeterli olabilir. Üretimin, tüketimin ve paylaşımın paradigmalarında radikal bir dönüşüm olmaksızın yeni yeşil düzenin, rüzgar jeneratörlerinin, güneş panellerinin, elektrikli ulaşımın ve diğer ‘temiz’ teknolojilerin ve tekno-çözümlerin derdimize çare olmayacağını söyleyebiliriz. Böylesi bir acil durumda da teknoloji karşıtlığı (Luddism) ve tekno-fetişizm karşıtlığını birbirinden dikkatlice ayırmak gerekir.

Beri tarafta Türkiye’deki (en) ilkel kapitalist birikim halihazırda bir kısım üretim araçlarının, eğitim ve sağlık hizmetlerinin, ve de  denizin, toprağın, ağacın ve diğer müştereklerin (kendilerinin veya uzun süreli kullanım/tahrip/tasfiye haklarının) özel mülkiyete devredilmesi üzerinde duruyor. Şiddet kullanma tekelini elinde bulunduran devletin (sıklıkla bu ayrıcalığı özel güvenlik şirketlerine aktararak) bu mülksüzleştirme esnasında görünürde rıza üretmesi, vatandaşlarının olurunu alması gerekmiyor. Veya yüzde elli artı bir çoğunluğun farklı rüşvetlerle başını öte yana çevirmesi yetebiliyor. Bu bayağı/adi soygun (simple robbery) Türkiye gibi ülkelerde toprağı istila edip sömürgeleştirirken teknoloji şirketleri de dünyanın her yerinde ‘bakir topraklar’ olarak gördükleri mahremiyetimizi, ilişkilerimizi, davranışlarımızı ve bunların fiziksel mekanını, sokakları, kentleri ve meydanları araçsallaştırıyor, bütün bunların bilgisini madenler gibi işleyip pazarlıyor.  

Galiba sonunda şunu anlamak gerekiyor: Felakete gidişin sorumluluğunun tabana yayılması için dayatılan koşullara itiraz etmek gerekir. Çevrimiçi ‘kabul ediyorum’ diye her tıklandığında toplanan ve işlenen verinin akibetini sorgulamak gerekir. Öte yandan herkes kapısının önünü süpürdüğünde ortalığın tertemiz olacağına inanmamak gerekir. Çöplerimizi ayrıştırdığımızda ve dönüştürdüğümüzde sorunun çözülmeyeceğini bilmek gerekir. Teknoloji şirketleri, çokuluslu şirketler ve fosil yakıt devleri karşısında ekonomi 101 tuzağına, arz-talep argümanlarına, alanın ve satanın memnuniyeti üzerine kurulu bir dayatmaya karşı durmak gerekir. Her taraftan kuşatılmış öznelerin özgür iradesinin olmayacağını, talebin de farklı yöntemlerle yaratıldığını bilmek gerekir. Direnişin örgütlenmesini zor kılan, dayanışmayı sönümlendiren, insanların fiziksel mekanda biraraya gelmesini engelleyen stratejileri ve teknolojileri deşifre etmek gerekir…

Ağustor 2023

(1) Jonathan Crary. “Scorched Earh: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Kapitalist World” Verso, London 2022

(2) Jonathan Crary. “Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the 19th Century” MIT Press, Boston 1992

(3) Shoshana Zuboff. “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” Public Affairs, NY 2019

(4) William J. Mitchell. “City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn” MIT Press, Boston 1996

(5) David Graeber. “Bullshit Jobs: A Theory” Simon and Schuster, 2018

(6) Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri. “Empire” Harvard Un. Press, 2001