“Revolution consumes its own children.” G. Büchner 

I am a tail-end Baby Boomer. I became familiar with that term in my later life as its implication bonded many of my generation, regardless of our origins, in a life time's worth of nostalgic reminiscences or sad memories which, to new generations, may as well be hijacked from the tales of Arabian Nights.

How could my world of a temporary post World War peace and the hopeful, bright eyed look into a peaceful, prosperous future, shared among my generation's parents, last forever? Conflict is the essence of human nature and it propels the present into the future so that we can study it in retrospect and call it history.

When I was learning history in grade school myself, I bemoaned having been born too late and missing out on the exciting period when wars were lost and won; empires were built and crumbled; nations were challenged and conquered; emperors and sultans who became slaves to intrigues no longer existed - except in history books. All that was left was to memorize names, dates, events, battles and outcomes!

At that time I was in grade school, living in Edirne, (a city on the European continent of Turkey). Little did I know that I, like my peers, was about to live through history in the making, as my revolution was just around the corner.

1960 brought on a major event in Turkey which I could finally say happened in my lifetime and that I would celebrate its first and subsequent anniversaries. The military coup of May 27, 1960 toppled over the government of Adnan Mendérés, Prime Minister of the incumbent Democratic Party, and opened the floodgates to many more historic events whose anniversaries have become part of my life.

Yet anniversaries are just that- anniversaries. July 20, 1969 man stepped on the moon; November 22, 1963 JFK was assassinated. January 20, 2009 Barak Obama became the first black American president. December 17, 2007, I had my personal heart break and epiphany.

One never forgets the circumstances and one’s whereabouts when such events happen. Ask anyone: “Where were you when Armstrong took his first step on the moon?” Or “What were you doing on September 11, 2001?” Your question will not be left without a clear, detailed reply as the memories of the world shaking incident return to the narrator. I am no exception. I remember my whereabouts and what I was doing down to its minutest detail when these and other history changing moments like them occurred.

Yet it is not in remembering the dates and lingering details of such events one usually finds one's personal revolution. For me, the dates have stayed as landmarks, points of reference to which I attach emotions and colors associated with my own personal revolution.

It is along my private revolution that I also began learning to pay more attention to my force of peripheral gravity. So I should admit at this point that I view myself in a state of evolution rather than a revolution, because an evolution is alive, less defined, more open and dynamic. Revolutions are close-ended with their ramifications to be studied for generations; whereas an evolution, be it personal or societal is an on going process of learning, synthesizing and internalizing from the examples of personal or collective history.

Adnan Mendérés had been Turkey's prime minister since 1950, and while on one hand he was for reform and industrialization of the nation on the other hand he also promoted ideals which went against Kemal Atatürk’s secularization of Turkey. Such appealed mostly to the illiterate and the rural population who sought Islam as their salvation.

The government's outward progressiveness excluded the military and the intellectuals of the country, possibly because their vote did not add up to much in the party’s political agenda. Ironically, this was a time when the Turkish armed forces were being revitalized through an American aid program which provided modern weapons and training for the officers. Gaining more respect and recognition internationally, yet being unable to have a say within their ranks and in the government at home frustrated the military as well as the intellectual elite.

It is claimed that, when, during the final years of his regime, Mendérés received a cold shoulder to his credit request from the US; he turned his overt friendship towards the USSR for financial aid. These were the years of the Cold War between the US and the USSR. Flirtation with a communist superpower was naturally viewed unfavorably by the United States of America, a capitalist superpower itself. Some historic documents suggest that this flirtation was initiated by Turkey whose geographical position was of utmost strategic importance for positioning of missiles and navy ships.

Mendérés’s envious mention, as was noted in 1960 by Sir Bernard Burrows, British Ambassador to Turkey, of how much easier it would be for a totalitarian regime such as Russia to carry out measures of economic development in a short time, may foreshadow a possible dangerous liaison between Turkey and USSR, and justify the US for their support of a military intervention.

In any case, the military coup of May 27, 1960 is recorded in the history of the Turkish Republic as the first intervention by the Turkish Armed Forces. It was a successful, bloodless, smooth takeover of the existing regime which was not only driving the country into a financial crisis but was also compromising the safety of its citizens.

Adnan Mendérés was tried and executed at the gallows on September 17, 1961. He was a child of the nation. He wanted to serve his country in his own way. He was consumed by the revolution he caused. The jury is still out on whether he should have been singled out for such a punishment, or whether he did indeed deserve it.

I wish I were older and more aware of the political scene rather than the naive eight year old, who lived through history in the making, without actually understanding its full impact at the time. When I think of the first historic event in my lifetime, I feel as if I were watching an epic on a wide screen in full color, rather than being one of the actors embroiled in the action itself.

To me, the young and the ignorant, these historic moments were nothing more than a few days of unexpected school closures added on to the nearing summer holidays. Outside of radios blaring out from every open window and people talking only about the revolution, life was the same. Even the Marshal Law put into effect meant nothing since it had no bearing on my day to day living. May 27 became a national holiday thereafter and I was happy that finally I would celebrate the first anniversary of something historic which happened in my lifetime.

Since then many historic events have taken place along my personal journey - some may even qualify as personal revolutions. When the dust settles down and I look back at the date which initiated the revolution, I mark it as the anniversary of another tangent of learning and growth, which I call my personal evolution. There's much to ponder, share and take from revolutions which have affected the world. Even if they may have no right or wrong, clear or satisfactory answers, the questions they raise help our learning to navigate through our own journeys.

Today, when I look back at the many milestones in my personal lifetime, particularly to those history making events whose subsequent anniversaries are noted even as a footnote as they fade in time, I realize that I am no longer behind history. I have been in the making of it in whatever small way - whether that history had been personal or global.

As we remember the tenth anniversary of 9/11 in many ways that it affected each of us, I hope we also understand what's important now is in examining the past so that we can make sense of our present, determine what we must do to avoid the same mistakes in our future, to let go of what is not ours and to unite under what has always been ours.

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Füsun Atalay ~ Copyright © Will of my Own - 2011