Ernesto'nun Dağları Quotes

“I suffer not only from what I have experienced but also from what I have not been able to experience; there is no making up for a past that has not been lived.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“The concepts of justice and freedom are universal. They cannot be changed or altered according to any situation or individual. Those who tamper with or hollow out this concept can only be opportunists. Someone who commits injustice once will always do so, and someone who postpones freedom once will always postpone it.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“If you have a secret story that you cannot share with anyone, life then becomes even more difficult.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“He had written, "The world has become cruel, everyone mourns their own dead." He was pointing out that criticizing governments was nothing new. The real task was to explain how opposition groups, which promised to overthrow a tyrannical government and assured a free future, could become tyrannical themselves even before they came to power.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“Those who do not forget the state's losses wanted to forget the children executed by organizations.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“How wonderful are those who leave their stories unfinished, choosing new lives instead of dying and killing.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“Nothing good happens in war, every war is concentrated evil.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“Then tell me, can life be beautiful in a place where people are being killed?”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“But when you set aside your beliefs and become a bit more objective, you realize that many things you didn't want to believe are indeed true.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“We need to create revolutions that call people to their country, not revolutions that drive them away.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“In war, a person does what he is against; since that day, I always say this: war is the thing that makes a person do what he doesn't want to do.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“If you have adopted violence as a form of struggle, you are then accepting all the consequences of violence.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“Most of those who romanticize female guerrillas in my country also pose as feminists and women's rights advocates. It's particularly disappointing and distressing that this is said by those who wouldn't want to spend even two days in the mountains, those who can't even hold a stick in their hands. The struggle maintains its romanticism thanks to those who do not want to be victims themselves but prefer others to be.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“Sometimes on the streets, in neighborhoods and even in luxurious cafes and bars, I come across those who do not know what the mountain, what war is, those who will not spend even a day on the mountain wearing Che Guevara t-shirts, and drinking coffee from mugs with Che's picture. I sometimes reflect on this aspect of the admiration for Che. What is it about Che that attracts these people? Is it a challenge to the existing real order through Che, or is it just a kind of empty romanticism? Maybe it's both, or perhaps it could be something else entirely.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“Be realistic, demand the impossible." When I began reading about Che Guevara, I noticed something. Che said these words, but did he really live by them? It's a bit debatable. After leaving Cuba, it seems he didn't pay much attention to his own advice while continuing the guerrilla warfare in Congo, an African country. Che Guevara's experience in Congo ended in total disappointment from his perspective. The native fighters in the mountains of Congo were superstitious, lacked basic weapon handling skills, and had no interest in the left or socialism. Che tried to force a revolutionary situation out of these people but failed because he was attempting the impossible without being realistic. It turns out that without being realistic, aiming for the impossible does not lead to revolution. After failing in Congo, he then tried his luck in Bolivia, where he encountered different troubles. Again, he demanded the impossible but was not realistic, just like in Congo. In Bolivia, lacking local support, shouldn’t Che Guevara have known that a guerrilla struggle without public support had little chance of success? Yet, this is a question few wanted to ask, and some still do not wish to ask.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları

“Those who do not feel pain always become more radical than those who do.”
― Aytekin Yılmaz, Ernesto'nun Dağları