Yahya Kemal’s Üsküdar and my Üsküdar

The author looks at Üsküdar through what is described as Yahya Kemal’s centuries-old historical consciousness, placing poetry, history, humanity and politics on the side of justice. The piece is dedicated to Sinem Dedetaş and the people of Üsküdar who resist.

Yahya Kemal’s poem presents Üsküdar as the city that saw the conquest of Istanbul. From its hills, the district watched the 53-day campaign, the movement of ships overland into the Golden Horn and the final battle. The poem preserves the scene as a great historical memory, with Üsküdar watching Istanbul and carrying that vision through the centuries.

The author then rewrites that image for the present. This Üsküdar, the article says, is no longer simply the city of a grand dream, but the city of people who see political maneuvering. A council seat changed hands through a transfer, while arrests supposedly recreated a “conquest” in a single night rather than over 53 days. The author says the people’s vote was ignored and that ballots cast at the polls were wiped away overnight.

The new poem depicts the hills that once witnessed the conquest as saddened by the district’s loss. Yet it also describes voices rising in every street against a government that violates the law. The author vows that people will stand upright for justice and says that free mornings will be born again through resistance.