Dil - İsmet Özel

Ismet Özel's interview with Serdar Akinan. (Tenha Ada program, SkyTürk TV, Year: 2007) ---------- [02:42] "If the origin of humanity is a matter of debate, then the origin and manner of language's emergence is also a matter of debate. In other words, it's impossible to explain language without explaining humanity, and impossible to explain humanity without explaining language." [07:17] "At what level of relationship do we demand? That is, our place in the realm of language will always be the determinant of all your other choices." [09:07] "The higher your language, the more human you are." [11:46] "In the animal kingdom, what regulates relationships is eating and being eaten. That is, which animal eats which animal; in the animal kingdom, relationships are regulated by eating and being eaten. Relationships between humans are regulated by defining and being defined. Whoever defines whom ends up being eaten." [14:50] "First of all, the lack of knowledge about what Turkish is has led to its disappearance. Currently, Turkish is at a critical point; it will either join the ranks of the world's disappearing languages ​​or make a start toward regaining its former strength. If it doesn't do this, Turkish, and consequently the Turkish nation, will be erased from history." [15:34] "Just as we colonized ourselves, we destroyed our national existence with our own hands." [18:54] "If Turkey can regain its power of expression, it will also have seized inviolable areas regarding its national existence. That is, Turkey will possess certain immunities if it can regain its language." [21:52] "If we compromise with any authority in the world, it will result in being swallowed up. In other words, no one will ever inform you of your rights." [23:21] "The reason we initiated a process that destroyed the Turkish language is because we were convinced that we were changing civilizations. That is, we abandoned Islamic civilization and, by adapting to Western civilization, we inflicted certain damages on the Turkish language." [30:18] "This only shows us that everything possible is being done by enemies of Turkey and the Turkish people to eradicate the roots of a nation in Türkiye." [32:43] "In my opinion, a text in Turkish cannot be produced by considering its equivalent in other languages. In that sense, the deterioration of our language is related to this process." [33:23] "Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar's prose and novels are not texts that fully conform to Turkish syntax. They are more like texts written in French. The language used appears to be Turkish, but they are texts written by someone who thinks in French." [40:31] "The title of one of my books is: Remember What You Lost. As a society, we don't remember what we lost. So, we lost something, but what was it?" [40:57] "There is no chance of anything improving in Türkiye without understanding what Islamic thought represents." [43:16] "Because they became Muslim, they became Kyrgyz, Azeri, Uzbek, Tatar; they didn't become Turk. We are the Turks. That is, we became Turks by creating the Turkish language in these lands."