Political or not? Turkey’s megastar broke internet by “Geççek”

You may be wondering why on February 17 Turkish-speaking internet freaked out about a word that has no official translation in the English-Turkish dictionary: Geççek. That is because Turkey’s mega-pop music-star Tarkan released his latest hit with a 4-minute music video on February 17, which became an internet sensation because of its lyrics, as social media users argued if it has a political innuendo or is just a feel-good song about Covid-19 depression.

The video reached 4 million viewers in hours, shared millions of times by many users, from prominent political party leaders to high school students or football club supporters.

We will not make you suffer any longer; the word geççek is a slang version of geçecek, that literally means “it will pass.” You may think of “this, too, shall pass,” which has come to the English-speaking World’s knowledge by US President Abraham Lincoln’s speech in 1850s.

“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!” Lincoln said in the speech, and in Turkey, in 2022, Turkey’s internet broke with a pop music song that tells us “this, too, shall pass away.”

“It will pass, it will pass/You’ll see those days will come that your hope will prevail/ Then we will dance in joy,” the lyrics read of Tarkan’s song. Everybody needed to hear that it appears.

“Everything will be all right” to “it will pass”: opposition or not?

The video opens with a home-office white-collar in an online meeting. It continues with young people struggling with mental health problems or home-schooling; some commuters then show their frustration to traffic, workers working, women enduring domestic violence. Tarkan appears on every digital screen, which prevails the social life for the last two years of the Covid pandemic, more than any other period in our lives. He then sings, “it will pass; we will then dance with joy.” People’s were dancing at the end of the video.

During the 2019 local election campaigning period, a young man approached the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu’s campaign bus and shouted, “everything will be beautiful.” His shout became İmamoğlu’s campaigning motto and had a part in CHP’s victory in local elections in İstanbul, which had been governed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the previous decade.

The similarity of the hopeful outlook of the CHP’s local election motto with Tarkan’s song caught the attention of conspiracy-prone Twitter users, which argued that the song was actually ordered by the opposition for the possible election campaign. Tarkan refuted the claims saying he wrote it for Covid. However the opposition leaders and lawmakers had long claimed the song as a political message against 20-years of AKP rule. İYİ Party leader Meral Akşener retweeted the song with the hashtag Az Kaldı / Soon. CHP Deputy Leaders shared the video one after another, as HDP Deputy Leader quoted the lyrics: “We fell, yes, but we also rise / Didn’t we challenged the life / Hold your chin up/ We have overcome a lot.”

Political or not, internet needed the hopeful

Some people argue that the song is not political; it just offers some relief for the social depression that not just Turkey but the whole world has been going through. Some said that in such a political atmosphere, where pop music artist Sezen Aksu was targeted for her lyrics and artists faced lawsuits for their ideas and arts, Tarkan’s dropping such a song should be taken as an example of opposition and courage in itself.

The words are interpreted differently by everyone, but the fact that it is talked about so much indicates the fact that everybody needs a positive angle to the current affairs and some encouragement in such a time that epidemic, economic troubles, future concerns, political debates left no space for people to hope.

Check the video here:

The lyrics of the song as follows, translation is ours:

You have been cornered before
You have been stabbed from your back
It is not the last blow, not the first
We fell, yes, but didn’t we get up?
Haven’t we always challenged life?
Hold your chin up
We have already overcome a lot.
It will pass; it will, too, pass
You’ll see your hope will prevail
Oh oh we will dance with joy then
Those flower days are very close, believe me
It will pass, it will go as it came
Everything has an end; this ordeal will end
Oh oh we’ll play the bells then
Those flower days are very close believe me
Hold on, most gone, few left
Do not do that! Don’t drown your summer to autumn or winter
The victory of patience is near
We fell, yes, but didn’t we get up?
Haven’t we always challenged life?
Keep your chin up
We have already overcome a lot
It will pass, it will pass
You’ll see your hope will prevail
Oh oh we’ll dance with joy then
Those flower days are very close believe me
It will go as it came
Everything has an end, this ordeal will end
Oh oh we will dance with joy then
Those flower days are very close believe me
You stand there too long, I swear we’re tired
You didn’t stop, you did not let us breath
Come on, that’s enough, we’re exasperated
Give us a break bro! Give us a break
We said there is a good angle in every bad situation
We thought about it and learned a lot of lessons.
But enough is enough, we get it okay
Give us a break bro! Give us a break
if you ask me
I’m not very well either
My old joy is gone
I don’t have much joy in life
my body is too small for my soul
I’m burning all the way
I’m about to turn to ash
I’m in a flow of water
I’m going in reverse
I hope a friend
I am crossed with destiny
But the end of patience is peace, I wait
I know a lot comes before the sun rises.