On Liberty

It doesn't matter what your nationality is. It doesn't matter what your religion is. It doesn't matter what your politics are. It doesn't matter what you believe was (or wasn't) negotiated or offered for their release. In the name of humanity, it was wonderful to see the Turkish hostages who have spent some three months in captivity walking freely once more.
Just imagine the euphoria and relief experienced by their families and friends the moment they got the news that their loved ones were free! Sadly, opposite emotions were experienced this week by the family of British journalist James Foley when they heard the devastating news that he had been beheaded by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) captors.
Liberty and freedom. In Turkish, the words “özgürlük,” “serbestlik,” “hürriyet” and “istiklâl” all mean freedom.
I always find it interesting to explore the roots and usage of a Turkish word to understand the way the Turkish people think about a subject. The first two words I listed represent the idea of liberty that my homeland America embraces: the freedom to walk freely, to go where you will, to make your own decisions about your life. Özgürlük is used in the Turkish name of the Statue of Liberty, who has held her flame high in New York ever since she was gifted by the French over a century ago.
The root of the word is “öz” -- which means “self.” So, to the Turks, true freedom is the right to be able to be true to yourself.
The second two words are recognizable even to people who have only lived here a short while. Hürriyet is, of course, the name of a daily newspaper. İstiklâl is the name of a famous street in İstanbul which runs into Taksim. Full of tourists and shoppers today, İstiklâl used to be called Grande Rue de Pera. In 1923, following victory in the Turkish War of Independence, the Turks established a republic. As part of this republican fever, the name of the street was changed to İstiklâl Caddesi -- a word for freedom that reflects political freedom and independence.
We saw this week a historic vote when Scotland was offered the choice of staying part of the United Kingdom or going solo as an independent nation. I can imagine the staff of the British Consulate, and even the consul general, walking out of Pera House, and round the corner to İstiklâl Caddesi this week, wondering whether the name of the street held any omens for them. If Scotland had voted for İstiklâl then it would have needed its own consulate somewhere in this great city, and its own embassy in Ankara.
The concept of political freedom in Turkey is regularly linked with the idea of self-rule and liberation from foreign occupation. So there was a lot of interest in the Scottish vote from my Turkish friends, many of whom had watched the film “Braveheart.”
In British history, one of the most famous treatises on the subject of freedom and independence was written by philosopher and politician John Stuart Mill. He was English, but one of his most famous quotes comes, interestingly enough, from a speech he gave at the ancient Scottish university of St. Andrews: “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”
As we celebrate the liberty of the Turkish hostages from Mosul, in these troubled times we would do well to remember the following words of wisdom Mill wrote in his essay “On Liberty”:
· “A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.”
· “It is not because men's desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.”
· “The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”
· “Even despotism does not produce its worst effects, so long as individuality exists under it; and whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called, and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.”

CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON (Cihan/Today's Zaman)