Since 2015 until Now: Reflections of State of Emergency

Republic of Turkey lived through a horrible chain of events starting with the June 7th Election and proceeded with several conflicts in Kurdish cities especially centering in Diyarbakır, with emergency curfews in several cities proceeding for weeks / moths/ with major loss of citizen lives and large numbers of injured behind.

While the effects of those events were still fresh, July 15th military coup attempt happened. After the attempt, the state of emergency and decree laws followed. Hundreds of people lost their jobs or were suspended; several CSOs were closed due to those laws.

We talked about the process that followed these events until 2015 and their individual and social effects with psychologists Leyla and Gülistan from Derunas and Mezopotamyaye (Mesopotamia Psychologists Initiative) and also with peace academician Düzgün Uğur who also lost his job in Dicle University because of the a decree law.

The state of emergency has been going on for a pretty long time now. Could you please tell us about the individual and social effects of it on the people of Turkey? What kind of effects do you observe?

Leyla: Just as you asked that I thought about the people who lost their jobs due to decree laws. Those people had to change their daily routines and also their economic standards changed a lot. Many of my friends from several different cities asked for psychological help.

What about the kids? What do they envision about the future?

Düzgün Uğur: Today I talked with a family and these were the exact words of the mother: “My kid can’t stand even to a little strange noise. She startles immediately and asks if a bomb went off again”. As you can see that is one aspect of it… So there is a populace who went through that trauma and will feel the effects of it all through their lives, because they experienced those negative events in early ages, this will affect their whole life and future. Also another undeniable effect is people’s feelings anger and abusement.

Could you please tell us about the effects of the state of emergency on art, literature and on press?

Düzgün Uğur: I can’t say that the press has affected at all. It was and still is a manipulating device for ruler ship and the state of emergency.

You are saying that there is an undeniable trauma. What do you think can be done to get over this şt?

Düzgün Uğur: There is this famous saying “the best way to treat depression is to fight, to protest.” We can get over this trauma by being active and protesting. Protest is not just about going out the streets or is not about being an activist. For example, being with people who experienced the same or similar situation is also a protest, in my opinion. Also, trying to help those people is again a kind of a protest. It is clear that even while experiencing a traumatic event; if you fight back, you can get over it easily or after that trauma you don’t feel PTSD. Also right now we cannot talk about a post traumatic situation because the trauma is still going on for us. That is why, we should embrace the “present ” time frame and feel its importance.