VIDEO: Poetic prayer makes Erdoğan couple shed tears in Albania

TIRANA

DHA Photo

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife Emine Erdoğan shed tears on May 13 while a student recited a patriotic, Islamic-toned poem that Erdoğan had recently read on television.

Erdoğan was in the Preza village near the Albanian capital Tirana to inaugurate a mosque during his official visit to the Balkan country. 

During the ceremony, which turned into a political rally with more than 8,000 attendees, a student of a Turkish religious vocational imam-hatip school recited “Dua” (Prayer), a poem by Turkish nationalist poet Arif Nihat Asya, who passed away in 1975. The Erdoğan couple could not stop their tears while the student read the poem.

Erdoğan himself had read the poem last month in a television commercial filmed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Turkish victory in the Gallipoli campaign during World War I. 

The choice of the poem and the way that it was repeatedly broadcast by many Turkish TV channels had stirred a political debate at the time, amid claims that the video amounted to “exploitation of history, religion and emotions,” as well as being a “personal advertisement” for Erdoğan.

Here is the English translation of Asya’s “Dua” (Prayer): 

“We all have hoarse voices... Do not leave 
our minarets with no call to prayer, my God!
Bring us those who make honey
Do not leave us with no hive, my God!
Minarets have no mahya [a string of lights set up between two minarets to flash a short text, often featuring moral or religious themes]
Do not take the Milky Way away from our skies, my God!
Do not leave this country, which was kneaded by Muslims,
with no Muslims, my God”
Give us strength... Do not leave the field of jihad
with no pahlevan [wrestler], My God!
Do not leave these masses, who look for a hero,
with no hero, My God!
Let us know how to resist the foe, 
do not leave us lifeless, my God!
On the path to tomorrows, do not leave
our years with no Ramadan [month], my God!
Disperse your herd, if left unattended,
Do not leave them with no shepherd, my God!
Do not leave us with no love, no water, no air
and with no country, my God!”