[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Cautionary note: The country, events and characters in this piece are all real. I am not kidding at all.
Is it possible to build a machine that will work forever without having any energy input? Many mechanics were fascinated by that idea during the Middle Ages, well into the 19th century. But at last, thanks to the discovery of the laws of thermodynamics, the zeal for such a “perpetual motion machine” died out. The scientific community decided that it was impossible to build such a marvelous device — at least in the universe we live in.
But wait a minute… Perhaps the scientists got it wrong. Maybe they did not employ the correct principles that would allow for the creation of a perpetual motion machine. They, particularly, did not take into account the most important guiding light that the Turkish nation has ever seen.
No, I haven’t gone nuts. I am only reporting about the wonder machine that a group of faithful Kemalist Turks claim to have built. They, in all seriousness, herald a perpetual motion machine that works “according to the revolutions and principles of Atatürk.”
A Machine With an Ideology
The story goes back to a year ago, when Turkish newspapers ran sizable advertisements of a device called “Erke Dönergeci.”A company called Erke Research and Engineering Inc. was announcing the promotion event of its new discovery, which was defined as a “motor that continuously produces energy.” This “100 percent Turkish” product would, the ads added, “serve all of mankind.”
A native Turkish speaker could smell some Kemalist tone in this endeavor simply by looking its name. “Erke Dönergeci” means “Power Motor,” but none of these words are used in daily Turkish. They are among the many other generic words produced during the Turkish Cultural Revolution (1924 -…). When Kemalists decided to cleanse the Turkish language of all “foreign” influences, they started to make up such artificial words in order to replace Arabic, Persian or Western ones. This “language by design” still lives on, as an alternative to language by society. Instead of using the term “fax,” for example, the Kemalist ideologues say “belgegeçer,” which literally means “document transmitter.” Trying to invent things such as the fax would probably be a better idea, but the masters of our regime have been preoccupied with renaming phenomena, not making them.
Apparently, the “Erke Dönergeci” was a bold step to break with this dreary tradition. On Nov. 22, 2006, the wonder machine was introduced to the public in a fancy ceremony at Istanbul’s Swisshotel. What made the event headline news was the celebrities who joined it: A little less than a dozen top generals of the Turkish military were present at Erke’s launch, along with the retired Chief Prosecutor Vural Savaş, a self-defined “militant” secularist.
The majority of the Turkish media greeted Erke with suspicion. The announced device, which was “still in progress,” was a violation of the laws of physics. But the presence of our top generals in the promotion of this eccentric motor to which daily Yeni Şafak referred by its witty headline, “General Motor” was persuasive enough for some. “If our generals are behind this,” proclaimed Chief Prosecutor Savaş, “this cannot be a fiasco.”
Yet, to date, Erke’s creators have done nothing to prove that their ambitious enterprise is not a fiasco. The device was promised to be completed and marketed by the end of this year, but the wait goes on. Last week, it was announced that Erke had been delayed, and the Turkish media has taken on the issue once again. No one with a faintest knowledge of physics takes the general motor seriously, and quite many people are questioning the breathtaking logic behind this Kemalist machine.
The Web site of Erke’s producers, www.erketurk.com, make sure that you don’t miss the ideological secret behind this miracle. The biggest thing on the site, after its name, is a quote from Atatürk: The nation itself is the source of inspiration and power. Under the equally huge signature of the Eternal Leader, the principles of Erke are listed, which include independence, universalism and peace. These are political concepts, to be sure, and it is not clear how they will make any motor work, let alone a marvelous perpetual motion machine.
Just Like Proletarian Science
What we see in this case is a belief in an all-encompassing ideology, which enlightens not just politics but also all aspects of existence, including the scientific realm. And although the devoted Kemalists might be thinking that they are unique in this total devotion, they actually fall into a well-known modern category called political religion.
A more globally acclaimed political religion was communism. Its devotees believed that the principles of their ideology would redefine the rules of science. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union officially accepted proletarian science, which was supposed to work on unique principles that the followers of capitalist science had failed to grasp. Accordingly, Trofim Lysenko, Stalin’s favorite agronomist, tried to restructure Russian agriculture. After many disastrous trials, which all ended with loss of productivity and thus tragic famines, Lysenkoism was finally abolished in early 60s. In 1964, physicist Andrei Sakharov smashed Lysenko for being responsible for the shameful backwardness of Soviet biology.
Of course Kemalist science is not a totalitarian and violent project as proletarian science was. Turkey is no Soviet Union. But the dogmatisms behind these eccentric experiments are similar. And, for their countries, they are similarly shameful.
One must not forget
http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feydamid
and the political circles that has encouraged this movement.
Looking at their Web site I see … nothing. I imagine the generals will look at what they have to offer, and if it doesn’t deliver they will go home and put these people on a blacklist. Any fool can say “we support our country”. You’d better if you want to get a military contract!
If Mr. Akyol wants to be an investigative journalist he could get us the scoop on the company and their machine’s supposed design. Some photographs would have been nice. The article above has no content. Perhaps the machine doesn’t either? I’ll be waiting for Mr. Akyol to keep us appraised of developments.
@emre
Investigative journalism? Are you joking?
Akyol’s only aim is to make fun of “Kemalists”. Like “Darwinism”, “Kemalism” is one of his major enemies. But indeed it is no more than a straw man. Akyol loves to make straw man arguments. You should ignore his articles about “darwinism” and “kemalism”, unless you like reading articles full of straw man arguments.
I’m only commenting to point out his mistakes so other people won’t be mislead. If this place was my first stop for information I’d be in trouble!
Let’s maintain a civil tone.
Brilliant article Mustafa.
Kindest
Hans
Very good article. Very amusing.
Apart from kemalists being Turkey’s handicap and embarassment, we should not neglect the comical value they bring to our country.
If the AKP does manage to rid our civil service and institutions of the kemalists, the latter should find comfort in knowing that they are fully qualified for Clown jobs at the Circus.
I have an alternate view of this “phenomenal” development.
With Ozal’s government, Turkey underwent a seemingly irreverseable transformation from “preaching Kemalism” to a “capitalist market”. This brought along the money speculators, which is an indispensable part of that. (Nicolai Tesla had attracted a lot of investor money by claiming that he could distribute electric power without any wires)
We are now witnessing the successful(!)embracement of venture capitalism (often hard to distinguish from fraud)in Turkey.
A team of “smart” inventors have managed to fool the Generals, who knows by promising them what; a place in the board of the company after they retire, significant shares of the company…? Who knows (and cares?).
Essentially, they have “successfully” exploited the gullibility of these Generals. As part of the ploy, they seem to have disguised their (mal)intent with “Kermalism”, palatable to the Generals.
In summary, my interpretation of the event is different. I see that the people have embraced the principle of capitalism: there is a sucker born every minute; or, a fool and his money are soon parted.
I also see that the military, being by nature inert, has not kept up with the changes in the country.
What I do not see is that how this in anyway relates to “Kemalism”, whatever that may be.
Before the 1950 elections, not a single Kemalist proposed the brilliant idea of nominating Mr. Nuri Demirag (Marcel Dassault of Turkey) in order to collect the ballots of nationalists! From which consultancy firm does Mr. Baykal purchase the brilliant idea of nominating Mr. Emrehan Halici (Bill Gates of Turkey)?
Mr. Akyol, you are using an intellectually dishonest debating tactic called Irrelevant Conclusion. In this article, you have argued that because there are some lunatics out there who think they can build a machine, and that because of the loose connection that they somehow respect Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Kemalism), that somehow that makes Kemalism or Kemalist thinkers: “stupid”.
The story you told about this weird unverifiable and unrelated “machine”, that supposedly is incoherent with the laws of physics, and you have provided no source to the actual machine, I never heard about it. But anyway, what does this machine have to do with Kemalism? Why would you apply such a loose connection to Kemalists?
Like as if Kemalists created this machine for Kemalism rather than the millions of other possible reasons.
Your attack on Kemalists and subsequent comparison to Communism, makes me wonder about what political motives you have for questioning it.
Rather than using ad hominem attacks and beating around the bush, why don’t you cut to what you really want to talk about, why you think Kemalism is wrong. Kemalism has simply inspired Secularist thinking and modern Western philosophies mixed with patriotism of one’s country, but you’re not even arguing about it, instead you are using logical fallacies to make people believe Kemalists are “bad”.