İsmet Özel's Views on the Independence March

One of the most fortunate things we have as citizens of the Republic, in terms of truly understanding who we are, is having a national anthem like the İstiklâl Marşı. The İstiklâl Marşı is a poem. This makes it a precious mirror, showing us both how vital poetry is in embodying a society’s beliefs and cultural heritage, and how our ancestors were in harmony with art as a nation whose national anthem is a poem.

Sometimes, when I show people my poems, some tell me they do not understand poetry well. It is precisely for this reason that I remind them that we are a noble nation whose national anthem is the İstiklâl Marşı.

For many of us, the first poem we encountered in childhood was perhaps the İstiklâl Marşı. Our anthem, both as a poem and through its meaning, spirit, and essence, is a fine fruit that reminds us of who we are, showing how our faith and identity have been woven with art through struggle and position. It is such a work that, even those who do not understand poetry deeply sense that it contains our very essence and conveys something meaningful worth understanding. It is a recipe that tells us who we are and a litmus test that tells us who we are not. To understand the İstiklâl Marşı is to understand why we are called Turks and what is meant by that. I believe it is meaningful to offer an interpretation of the İstiklâl Marşı’s meaning through our living, esteemed poet İsmet Özel, who has devoted years of his life to this cause.

The İstiklâl Marşı was written by the poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy in 1921 and selected from among 724 poems in a competition organized by the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye to choose a national anthem. The İstiklâl Marşı reflects the totality of our nation’s struggle during the War of Independence, our national resistance, our martyrs, our flag, and the very soul of our people.

Certainly, as a nation whose ancestors fought for homeland and honor, the concepts of “homeland, honor, and essence” are vital elements of our identity, and it is our duty to understand these concepts correctly and live by them appropriately.

In this context, I believe it is important to view our İstiklâl Marşı through the lens of our poet İsmet Özel, who founded the İstiklâl Marşı Association to remind us of our identity and essence through his works, stance, and explanations—choosing to publish his works in Ottoman Turkish rather than Latinized Turkish, thereby preserving the authentic Turkish language that belongs to us.

İstiklal Marşı (İstiklal Marşı Derneği)

About the İstiklâl Marşı Association

İstiklal Marşı Derneği^【1】 The association was founded on 6 February 2007. Its founding general chairman and general president is the Turkish poet İsmet Özel. At its fourth ordinary general assembly meeting, a change in the bylaws established the position of honorary general president. This change was adopted unanimously, and the association’s founding general president, poet İsmet Özel, became its honorary general president.

The association has summarized its purpose under three main headings:

1. To establish the foundation necessary for living and enabling others to live in a manner befitting human dignity, both in Türkiye and around the world,

2. To accept as a guiding principle the values expressed in the İstiklâl Marşı and to promote these values everywhere and on all platforms,

3. To preserve and encourage the continuation of local traditions and customs that are compatible with the principles outlined in the second point.

About İsmet Özel

İsmet Özel is a living writer and poet of the Republican era. He is renowned for his poetry, books, and ideas. He was born on 19 September 1944 in Kayseri. He completed his primary and secondary education successively in Kastamonu, Çankırı, and Ankara, graduating in 1962. In 1963, he began studying at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Ankara, where he devoted himself to efforts and struggles he believed to be right, amid the prevailing social and political events and ideas of the time. According to a recent interview, he deliberately severed ties with his studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences because he rejected what the department intended to make of him, and in 1972 he began studying French Language and Literature at Hacettepe University, graduating in 1977.^【2】

Özel’s ideas and stance are notable for refusing to utter things that can be easily defeated or swallowed. His definitions of Turkishness and freedom are also significant. He defines freedom as “to be rich in essence”. His definition of Turkishness is "Kafirle çatışmayı göze olan Müslümana Türk denir".^【3】

Although Özel’s striking definition has occasionally been debated by different interpretations, it is in fact entirely consistent with his definition of freedom. For Özel, who equates freedom with richness of essence, Turkishness is likewise rooted in essence. It is a historical fact that Turkishness and the imagery on the Turkish flag have been shaped by Islam, and Özel, through this explanation, clearly intends to convey that true Turkishness is possible only through Islam.

About the Melody of the İstiklâl Marşı

İsmet Özel believes that the current official melody of the İstiklâl Marşı does not reflect its spirit or its title, “Independence.” He argues that the current melody was composed precisely to prevent people from understanding what the İstiklâl Marşı is saying. He cites as evidence the fact that the current melody divides the words at arbitrary points, thereby obstructing comprehension of the anthem’s message and hindering the perception of its spirit.

For this reason, the İstiklâl Choir, within the İstiklâl Marşı Association, has taken the lead in raising awareness that our anthem should be performed with a different melody rooted in our own musical traditions and in a mode appropriate to our national values.

İsmet Özel ve İstiklal Marşı Yorumu (Oktay Türkoğlu)

Özel’s view that our anthem must be performed with a melody that enables us to grasp its meaning is of vital consistency and importance for understanding that Turkishness and national identity are not merely ethnic in nature. As is evident through this context, İsmet Özel’s ideas, like his poetry, are equally worthy of deep consideration, despite his uniquely personal stance, shared by few other intellectuals.