Theoretically, we cannot define what is shown to the powerful as respect

Kırmızılar, 15 June 2025

You may recall that the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris suffered a major fire on the evening of April 15, 2019. Caroline Bruzelius, a professor of art history at Duke University, said that such a fire would most likely start in wooden roofs like the one on the Notre Dame cathedral. She explained that “most people don’t see this when they visit the cathedral, but there were about sixty thick planks supporting the roof of the cathedral. So there was a forest of timber between the vaults and the roof. They were old, dry and porous.” France is also very sensitive, old, dry and porous. Charlie Hebdo, the truck attack in Nice, the white caps, the yellow vests… Liberté, égalité, fraternité are things of the past. There is a fear that someone will change the name of Paris... As Lenin who changed the name of Petrograd to Leningrad and Stalin who changed Volgograd to Stalingrad. 

While doing research on Proto Slavic languages, linguists noticed that the words used for “pine” and “oak” were taken from other languages. This gave them a clue about the Slavs, whose origins were a mystery... They developed a theory that the Slavs’ origins were where these trees do not grow. What is there for France instead of “pine” and “oak”? How will we define the French? With a forest of timber that cannot be seen between vaults and roofs? With a large minority that belongs to another place and culture? In the past Goethe praised the prophet of Islam by comparing him to a river in his poem, “Mahomets gesang”. Victor Hugo also has a poem called “L’An neuf de l’Hégire” which is an elegy to the prophet of İslam. The Europeans may view Islam with the sympathy of these great writers.

Elena Chudinova wrote a novel about the conversion of Notre Dame Cathedral into a mosque. In fact, the structure had been threatened in the past, but it had not come from Muslims. After the French Revolution, Notre Dame Cathedral was dedicated to the Cult of Reason in 1793 and then to the Cult of the Supreme Being in 1794. During this period, most of the cathedral’s treasures were destroyed or looted. The heads of the twenty-eight statues of Judah and the kings of Israel on the western facade, which were thought to be statues of French kings, were cut off. The Virgin Mary was replaced by the Goddess of Liberty on several altars. Except for one or two, all of the large statues on the facade were destroyed. The cathedral was used as a storage area. Today, there is a famous bell called "Emmanuel" in Notre Dame. Only this bell has survived from medieval times to the present day because the others were melted down to be used as cannons during the revolution. In other words, revolutionaries had damaged the cathedral. 

History is a tremendous event, we actually read it like a story... The Balkan Wars, World War II... Around 80 million people died in World War II. What we call history is the accumulation of humanity's great pains, something so intense that it can drive a person crazy... We read it like a story. We watch documentaries like watching a movie. Actually better... Knowing the events properly can cause us to scream. We prefer to place a simple, harmless caricature of reality in our minds. That is why the gargoyles in Sacré-cœur or Notre Dame are not scary, they do not move, do not breathe fire. Ironic monster forms... At most, they leak water. For example, Casper - The Friendly Ghost cartoon can show us death in an ironic form. It creates a new layer of meaning. Gargoyles, Casper... These are presented as the special model of aestheticized reality... We place a harmless caricature of reality in our minds.

After World War II, Russian, then American and French soldiers, raped around 1 million women in Germany, 240 thousand people died for this reason. A Christian could not have done this. What about the massacre of 20 million people during Stalin's era... Of course, it was not possible for communists to do this either. But such events took place in the 20th century. And history is full of such things. It is possible to reach a conclusion from here, we are not sure that people really have a thought or belief. There is a giant magnet and it can move people from here to there, everything changes in an instant... It can be said that there is a kind of illusion in people's respect for the founding fathers or leaders. Here, participation in power may be at the forefront. Theoretically, we cannot define what is shown to the powerful as respect. We established a republic, also influenced by the French Revolution. But we are handling some things wrong. For example, although there are twenty Atatürk statues around the parliament building, one more was built. Such repetitions indicate a departure from modernism and rationalism. For example, there are four cultural centers in Ankara named after Nazım Hikmet. A significant portion of society defines itself as modern, but there is no such thing. Haus Steiner or Villa Savoye are called modern, and so is the poorly constructed apartment we are in now..