Isolation E-MAGAZINE
by Carlos Cochรณn
I dedicate this story to my aunt because she helped me bring this story to life.
Table of Contents About the Author
Page 4
HN Packet
Page 5-8
Historical Narrative Page 9-11 Bibliography
Page 12
About the author Carlos Cochรณn is a 12 year old boy that was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He has lived there his entire life. He is a student at IICS and has been for 9 years. His hobbies are playing football and hanging out with friends. Although he also likes reading and writing. He speaks English, Spanish, Turkish and a bit of French.
On the night of 11th of September 1980, I went to bed. The night was brisk. All I wanted was some warmth to go to sleep. Suddenly, at around three or four o’clock in the morning, my mother barged into my room, turned the lights on, woke me up and slowly said “There is a coup happening.” I thought to myself, what is a coup?. I had no idea what effect a coup could have on my life, because I didn’t know what it was. So I went back to sleep. The next morning I pushed my blanket off of me and lazily walked into the living room. The TV was on and there was a message playing repeatedly. It was an announcement from the army explaining the intention of the coup. “Mom, what’s going on?” I asked. “The army has taken control in the country,” she replied hesitantly. The prime minister and the leaders of the parties were imprisoned and the parliament was no longer in charge. Most importantly the Turkish people were not allowed to go out of their houses until further notice. But I didn’t want to stay home, I wanted to go outside and see it for myself. We were living in an apartment surrounded with a big garden with a small tree in the center of it. I slowly tiptoed my way to the entrance of the garden from where I could see the street. I peered over into the street and looked as far as I could see. That’s when I saw it. The massive machine was just there, but it was big enough to terrify me. I never saw a tank in my life before. It was a gray day, with nothing to hear but the breeze and the occasional cat or dog wandering around. I came home running and my mom said we had little bread for breakfast and nothing for lunch. There was no way to find bread and our basic needs because we weren’t allowed to go outside.
Then I heard a man with a loud speaker addressing everyone on the street to go outside if they needed bread. I ran back outside and I saw a small, red truck. It wasn’t a military truck. But there was a soldier on top of the truck distributing bread to those who wanted it. He gave out two or three to each family. They might have been small pieces, but those pieces in that moment were like gold to me. The bread was warm and freshly made to my biggest surprise. It seemed that although everything was closed the bakery would still fight for our needs. I came back home running, a bit more relieved. I saw my grandparents, who were staying with us since the summer holiday started, were sitting in front of the TV in the living room. Their faces were clouded with worry. It was probably this very moment when I started to realise what a coup was about and got worried. I remember that my younger brother, who was then only nine years old, started to cry. My father tried to calm us down and said that he would find a solution. We had breakfast in silence, the TV being the only thing disturbing the silence. My father was watching TV together with my grandparents trying to get some more news on what was going on and discussing the possibilities with them. My grandfather was from a small town near Bursa. He had seen the days of the Turkish Independence war and of course had a lot more life experience. But he was a traditional country man who was a little conservative. He was very much convinced that the military officers of the army loved their country much more than the politician and bureaucrats but we were not sure who they really were and who had started the coup. So it was a better idea to be patient and wait.
I heard my grandfather telling my father that he should keep away from all sorts of political comments. I remember him saying that we do not know who is who and what could happen if people would spread out our words differently. He said that it is a better idea to keep quiet and wait until we clearly understood what was happening. The days following that day unfortunately proved that my grandfather was right. We heard that many innocent people were accused for preposterous reasons. Either for being terrorists or supporting the terrorists. No one really knew who to trust. A dark and shameful period in the history of democracy in our country had started. I remember my parents repeating the words of our grandfather to me to keep away from all sorts of political discussions and not to make any comments on political issues even with closest friends. This is how the depoliticization of my generation started. The days following the coup we started to see military officers everywhere. The country was controlled and governed by some military officers. The coup was different than I thought it would be. I didn’t think it would go this far. I hope that this coup will end before it gets worse...
Bibliography Letsch, Constanze. "Leaders of 1980 Military Coup in Turkey Are Jailed for Life after Showcase Trial." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 18 June 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2016. Rothman, Lily. "A Short History of Modern Turkey's Military Coups." Time. Time, 15 July 2016. Web. 02 Nov. 2016. Sadar, Claire. ""I Only Remember Fear": The Legacy of the 1980 Coup in Turkey." Muftah. N.p., 11 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Nov. 2016. "Timeline: A History of Turkish Coups." News from Al Jazeera. N.p., 16 July 2016. Web. 02 Nov. 2016. "Turkey." Hürriyet Daily News. N.p., 4 Apr. 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2016. "Britannica ImageQuest." Britannica ImageQuest. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.