Turkish politics encapsulates many dramas, tragedies, and stories. The multidimensionality of its past in terms of content gives us political scientists great impetus to analyze it retrospectively. On the other hand, filmmakers often recontextualize figures from the past in their works in a different way. Stallone used the fight between Muhammad Ali and Wepner as a form when he created the film Rocky 1, and the character was the direct incarnation of Italian-born Rocky Marciano in the cinema. We can count hundreds of examples like this, but the two names I want to use in my article today will be Anakin Skywalker and Adnan Menders. I was aware that George Lucas did not use Adnan Menderes when he created the Star Wars universe and Anakin Skywalker, but thanks to the absurd coincidences of life, we see a very similar trajectory between the two names.

Ascension

The Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The first party was the Republican People's Party, founded by Ataturk. Until 1950, several parties were opened, but when these parties were closed due to their pro-Sharia propaganda, the Republic of Turkey progressed in a single-party system for 30 years. When Atatürk died in 1938, Ismet Inönü took the CHP power and declared himself national chief. This one-party process led to a search for salvation due to the oppression of the people and their poor economic situation. This light of salvation blossomed with the establishment of the messianic figure Democrat Party. Four names within the CHP, Celal Bayar, Adnan Menderes, Fuat Köprülü, and Refik Koraltan, can be called the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Nevertheless, the most popular name among these four was Adnan Menderes, almost a savior, a chosen one.

The Democrat Party lost the first election it entered in 1947, and the reason behind this loss was, naturally, the fact that Ismet Inönü, who was an experienced politician, had made a snap election. Here I would like to return to Anakin Skywalker. He was born on the planet Tatooine, one of the most remote planets of the galaxy. He was recognized by Qui-Gon Jinn for his superior Midichlorian level (the substance that allows him to use the power of the universe) and asked to join the Jedi Order. Anakin was at a level that no one had ever been before, especially potentially capable of bringing balance to the entire galaxy.

In the 1950 elections, the Democrat Party achieved a huge victory, and Adnan Menderes became prime minister. His popularity soared with the people, invested in agriculture with Marshall Aid, and was humbled by the people everywhere. Anakin Skywalker was being trained by Obi-Wan after being accepted into the Jedi Order. Along with all these, he showed many heroic deeds during the Clone Wars, and together with Obi-Wan, he played a pivotal role in killing Darth Maul, one of the important Sith.

Fear

The two characters were greatly influenced by their fears. Anakin had only his mother and was raised without a father; also, Qui-Gon Jinn was dead, but his biggest fear was the possibility of losing his wife, Padmé. The possibilities related to this scenario were too heavy for him; this possibility was pulling him to the dark side. On the other hand, Adnan Menderes's fear was the military, because his biggest rival, Ismet Inönü, was a soldier, not only an ordinary soldier but also a legend who fought in the War of Independence, so he had the great respect of the army. Padmé's fear made Anakin more aggressive and brought him into Paplatine's orbit, while the fear of the army pushed Adnan Menderes to sanctions against the army.

While Anakin was trying to prevent his fear, the architect of what he feared led to the death of Padme, and Menderes made sanctions on the army with the fear that the army would make a coup and led the army to make a coup. In 1959, Menderes survived a plane crash, and this may have caused him to enter the Chosen One syndrome because very authoritarian sanctions came afterwards. The incredible censorship of the press, the inflammatory rhetoric that would lead to the lynching of İnönü, and, most importantly, he wanted to suppress dissenting voices in the so-called parliament, which he called the parliamentary supervisory board, but more precisely to silence any opposing ideas and to make an arrangement that would lead to execution if not silenced. However, this council was the last straw, and the military carried out the coup in 1960, and Menderes was executed. Anakin, tricked by Palpatine, killed the children in the temple and turned to the dark side until he sacrificed himself to save his son Luke.

Power

I acknowledge that this article is a bit extreme, but we see how both figures are captive to their fears and how they serve to turn their fears into reality, like a snake catching its own tail while running away from them. In Kierkegaard's book Fear and Trembling, he talks about the paradoxical relationship between faith and ethics through Abraham's sacrifice of his son. Abraham behaved unethically for the sake of faith; Anakin was afraid of losing his loved ones; Menderes was afraid that the army would overthrow his regime. These two similar fears pushed both of them to move away from moral ethical norms. However, Abraham's fear is of God, and what he fights for is faith; this struggle pushes him to become a knight of faith.

The fears of Anakin and Adnan Menderes were clear, but what were their aims? The purpose of these two was power; they both inwardly wanted to be at the top; even this desire made them unable to read reality. Anakin may have been influenced by Palpatine's tales of the ability of his master, Darth Plagueis, to resurrect the dead because the dark side was able to do so. He was so poisoned by the Force that even when he was at a disadvantage in his duel with Obi-Wan, he was confident that he would attack and defeat. As for Menderes, he had won the first ‘democratic’ elections in Turkey, but over time his aim was to make his democratic regime even more authoritarian. We can give an example of his struggle to prove that he was stronger than the military.

On 28 April, during the protest of Istanbul University students, he pitted the police against the military, claiming that the military was being soft. In fact, the important thing was not the protest, but the military's realisation of who the dominant power was. For this reason, we can say that both of these names were influenced by the attraction of power and the addictive side. This similarity shows us that a man who was the prime minister in 1960s Turkey and a producer who was born in 1940 in the United States, indirectly live in a similar world and thought.