Microsoft Word 1 Arif thesis cover final doc

CHAPTER 7 – ERGENEKON 
217 
Kadın explains to him some pages further on that she is so busy with her everyday 
chores that there is no time left for her even to wash her face
33
.
This indifference naturally extends to an inability to understand the reason for their 
troubles and in particular its source in the action of the enemy. In ‘En Büyük 
Düşmanımız Cehalettir’ (Ignorance is our Greatest Enemy) of 28 August 1922
34
Yakup Kadri is struck by the depth of ignorance of the village people and how they 
could not understand that they were the victims of the enemy. In 
Yaban
this is a 
recurring motif: the villagers simply do not comprehend the danger from the 
approaching enemy because their only concern is their daily survival
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; little Hasan 
does not even know the meaning of the word “battle”
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. In both the article and 
Yaban
it is made clear that the villagers are kept in ignorance and that their ignorance is 
exploited by the forces of obscurantism in the persons of false spiritual guides. In 
‘En Büyük Düşmanımız Cehalettir’ the apostle of ignorance is an imam and in 
Yaban 
the imam preaches on behalf of the Caliph against the “Kemalist bandits” 
who will shortly be destroyed
37
.
But why are the common people in this state of ignorance?
The article ‘Halka 
Doğru’
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(Straight to the People) of 5 December 1921 puts the blame squarely on the 
educated classes and deserves to be quoted extensively: 
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Karaosmanoğlu 2006, 112 
34
Karaosmanoğlu 1973, 212-214 
35
Karaosmanoğlu 2006, 147 
36
Karaosmanoğlu 2006, 146 
37
Karaosmanoğlu 2006, 150
38
Karaosmanoğlu 1973, 94-97. The title had been a catch phrase for at least a decade and even the title of a 
journal. 

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