Microsoft Word - 3.CINEJ10.1.410.docx The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018): Ecofeminist Approaches Fazıla Derya Agiş, University of the People, deryaagis@gmail.com Abstract This study analyzes the female characters and their relationship to nature in the 2016–2018 Turkish series Vatanım Sensin (or Wounded Love) from an ecofeminist point of view. The Turkish and Greek mothers, daughters, and sisters try to unify their families after each attack in the series. Their efforts will be analyzed within the framework of “ecofeminism” because Turkey is a land linguistically feminized in Latin as Turquia with the feminine gender ending, -a. The ecological metaphors associated with the images of Turkish and Greek women trying to preserve family continuity during Turkey’s liberation war will be analyzed; such ecological spaces include the Aegean Sea and the forests and roads of Izmir, Ankara, and Salonica. Moreover, ecological metaphorical objects include flowers, trees, and animals. Illness, famine, looting, and forced migration are the main reasons for the loss of family members. This study examines how the lost family members are united through the metaphorical uses of the environmental spaces important to women, who try to keep the new Turkey free through their efforts in the 1920s within the framework of ecofeminism, a term coined by Françoise d’Eaubonne in 1974. Keywords: 1920s; liberation of Turkey; Atatürk’s women as freedom fighters; ecofeminism; womanhood New articles in this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 United States License. This journal is published by the University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh as part of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 29 The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018): Ecofeminist Approaches Yasemin Barlan Introduction This study1 will use not only d’Eaubonne’s “ecofeminism” framework but also follow the dualisms offered by Donna Haraway as its guideline to analyze a series about Turkey’s liberation war called Wounded Love. Ecofeminism developed when several women became defendants of a clean, unpolluted environment during the 1960s and the 1970s: “Demanding for females their legitimate rights in society, the economy, and childbearing, they strongly condemned the armament race and opposed the infinite robbing of natural resources and the destruction of the environment” (Yu & Lei, 2009, p. 271). Moreover, Françoise d’Eaubonne (1920–2005) coined the term “ecofeminism” in her 1974 book, Le Féminisme ou La Mort [Feminism or the Death]. According to d’Eaubonne (1974), population growth and natural destruction threaten the whole Earth. d’Eaubonne’s (1974) theory was defended in the first conference on ecofeminism, titled “Women and Life on Earth: Ecofeminism in the Eighties” that was held in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1980 (Bishop, 2007, p. 733). Accordingly, the destruction of natural resources can be associated with torture of and oppressive attitudes toward women; in addition, women give birth to different populations. As Leopold (1949 [1977]) said, “the rich diversity of the world’s cultures reflects a corresponding diversity in the wilds that gave them birth” (p. 188). CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 30 As d’Eaubonne (1974) discussed population growth, the destruction of natural resources, capitalist and communist societies, and the negative aspects of being a woman, she explained that agriculture can be associated with women who produce crops, vegetables, and fruits as a metaphor for fecundity in relation to childbirth. d’Eaubonne (1974) argued that women are oppressed in patriarchal societies and that nature is similarly devastated (The Environment & Society Portal, n.d.). Ecofeminists defend the removal of some dualisms in today’s society because they lead to taxonomic hierarchical orders, such as “man/woman/nature/human, leader/follower, [and] teacher/student” (Pogreba, 2014, para. 4). Pogreba (2014) argued that the following characteristics define men today: “(1) rationality, (2) universality, and (3) autonomy,” which are opposite to “(1) nonrationality (or emotionalism), (2) particularity, and (3) relation and dependence,” (para. 4) which are prejudicial characteristics used for depicting women in general. These comparisons formulate the dualisms of “culture/nature, male/female, good/evil, domestic/wild, conscious/unconscious, subject/object, [and] human/animal (Pogreba, 2014, para. 4). Patriarchal systems vilify women (Warren, 2015). Briefly, if women are educated about their rights, they oppose the belief that they are genetically weaker than men: they can be good scientists and businesswomen instead of evil witches who gossip. Women who are not housewives escape their domestic spheres; however, they are not wild for being conscious of their rights. They are capable CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 31 of achieving many jobs and are human beings equal to men. In this regard, women should not be slandered using animal names, such as “shrew” for a woman who is garrulous, as many who recognize animal rights do not consider animal names insults. In addition, Donna Haraway (1985) proposed in her work “Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s” that humans create boundaries between themselves and other humans with different physical characteristics, and accordingly, several societal dualisms appear, among which one can count self/other, mind/body, culture/nature, male/female and civilized/primitive. This study will analyze these dualisms in the 2016–2018 Turkish series Vatanım Sensin (Wounded Love) from an ecofeminist perspective in relation to the attitudes of female characters. Ecofeminism was selected as a theory to analyze the series because nature is destructed during wars, and women did not have equal opportunities to those of men before the establishment of the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923. The political novelties Atatürk brought to Turkish women and the protection of the environment include the equality of women and men in education and work, as Atatürk explained in a congress held in Izmir on January 31, 1923; “the right to attend in municipal elections” in 1930; “in 1933, the right to elect and be elected as mukhtar and finally in 1934, the right to elect and be elected as deputy” (Özer, 2013); the protection of animals by the foundation of the Turkish Association for the Protection of Animals in 1923 (Melikoğlu, 2009); the planting of trees and flowers in Ankara, CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 32 which was supposedly an unproductive land; and the construction of Atatürk Forest Farm and several farms in the Etimesgut, Sincan, and its Malı Village in Ankara, believing in the role of local farming for the development of a country (Köroğlu, 2009). All these novelties are underlined in the series, but they can be explained with a theory founded by d’Eaubonne in 1974 after the second global wave of feminism in the 1960s, as d’Eaubonne witnessed the transformation of women’s rights in Turkey, being born in 1920 and having seen the effects of the World War II (1939–1945) and the Cold War (1947–1991) on nature. In fact, Atatürk gave the Turkish women the rights existent in Western societies as a result of the first global wave of feminism that started with the first American women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1848) delivered her speech, “Declaration of Sentiments,” in which she criticized women’s legal situation and listed 11 resolutions seeking equality for women in labor, politics, and society. Accordingly, in the United States, the League of Women Voters was established in 1920 to champion women’s suffrage (League of Women Voters, n.d.); the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor was founded in 1920 to defend women’s equality at work; and Alice Paul wrote an Equal Rights Amendment for the United States Constitution in 1923, being the leader of the American National Woman’s Party (Eisenberg & Ruthsdotter, 1998). Successive to these events, in the 1960s, several discriminative acts against women were recorded, and accordingly, CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 33 in 1964 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was approved to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender, race, and religion in the workplace (Eisenberg & Ruthsdotter, 1998). In addition, Title IX in the Education Codes of 1972 granted women rights equal to those of men to attend higher education institutions as well as professional schools (Eisenberg & Ruthsdotter, 1998). d’Eaubonne was undoubtedly influenced by these developments around the world when she established her theory of ecofeminism in 1974. However, Turkish women gained their equality to men in workspaces and educational institutions just after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, well before the 1960s. Accordingly, the series Wounded Love shows how and why Atatürk granted women equal rights for the development of Turkey from economic, political, and societal perspectives, being aware of the movement for women’s rights around the globe. Furthermore, d’Eaubonne’s (1974) theory compares the ill treatment of women during wars to the ill treatment of the environment, including the destruction of trees, crop fields, and the endemic plants. After the literature review section, the plot of the series and its characters are presented. Then the series is analyzed in accordance with the theory of ecofeminism in the discussion section, which is followed by the conclusion section. Literature Review CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 34 Of the previous studies that inspired this paper is Gülcan Işık’s (2017) article about the series Wounded Love, which discusses the use of the Turkish flag in the series alongside various historical characters. In addition, Lixinski (2014) wrote that wars were leading to the destruction of the environment and explained that though several global measures have been taken, such as the International Law Commission’s 2012 decision to protect nature during armed conflicts, a legal framework for protecting the environment during wars does not exist. Therefore, Lixinski (2014) demonstrated how such a legal framework would work: this legal framework would correspond to the body associated with the protection of cultural heritage during wars, and it would be inspired by feminist international law, and for this reason, this type of law enters the “private domain” of the states involved in wars. Consequently, this study emphasizes the richness of Anatolia in terms of its natural resources, their protection, and their devastation in the series Wounded Love by underlining the importance of women’s rights, as well. Wounded Love: Turkey as a Female Land During the Liberation War The Turkish series Vatanım Sensin (Wounded Love) begins with the description of the Ottoman Salonica in 1912; the Ottoman Empire had become week, and Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, born in Salonica in 1881, is trying to build an independent state of the Republic CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 35 of Turkey by freeing Turkey from Western invaders. The city of Izmir is invaded by Greeks. Cevdet is a soldier working for Atatürk. Azize, his wife, is trying to raise three kids, including two daughters—Yıldız (Star, the oldest) and Hilal (Crescent, the youngest), whose names allude to the Turkish flag—and a son (Ali Kemal, whose real name is Dimitri), whom Azize had found in a cellar. Ali Kemal was hidden there by his Greek mother (Veronika) while escaping Salonica after a plunder. Tevfik, a friend of Cevdet, is also in love with Azize. He shoots Cevdet from his shoulder for taking lost treasures by a mountainside and declares Cevdet dead. Cevdet’s family moves to Izmir. However, after having entered the Greek army as a spy by mistreating Turkish prisoners upon the demands of secret Turkish forces of Atatürk, Cevdet also moves to Izmir, but his family knows him as an enemy of Turks until he explains the truth. Yıldız is a woman trying to obtain a higher rank within society, whereas Hilal is a nationalist woman who writes and distributes news under the male pen name Halit İkbal to earn the respect of all members of Turkish society. In the end, Yıldız marries Yakup, Cevdet’s spy friend, and Hilal falls in love with Leon and marries him secularly without any types of religious marriage ceremonies. Leon is the son of Veronika, the wife of the Greek commander, Vassili. Ali Kemal, his brother, accepts the offer to live in Greece with his biological mother, Veronika; in this case, Ali Kemal represents the fact that racial and religious discrimination is senseless for being raised by a Turkish mother and choosing to live with her biological Greek mother. As a kid, he killed a Greek boy while secretly playing CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 36 with Cevdet’s gun. This is why the family had to leave the Greek Salonica. Cevdet and Azize have a baby called Mehmet. After the death of Vassili due to capital punishment, Filippos becomes the new commander of Greece. In the end of the series, Filippos discovers that Cevdet is a spy and executes him and his wife by shooting them with his soldiers. Filippos kills himself after the victory of the Turks with the bullet Cevdet had sent him. Leon and Hilal decide to live in Izmir. Yıldız and Yakup live together, while Mehmet stays with his sisters. Hilal publishes a novel about the story of her parents and titles it Vatanım Sensin (Wounded Love). The little boy who carried a Turkish flag and news in the series leaves a flag on the tombs of Cevdet and Azize, who are considered martyrs, and prays for all the Turkish soldiers. Although it is indicated that the characters and institutions are imaginary in the series, some news agencies propose that certain characters can be associated with historical figures, such as Eşref Pasha, who represents pilgrim Mehmet Eşref Paşa, who was the Ottoman head of the Municipality of Izmir from 1895 through 1907 and whose name was given to a quarter of Izmir: “Eşrefpaşa” (Televizyongazetesi.com, 2017). Moreover, Cevdet is associated with Gâvur Mümin (Foreigner Mümin) who helped the Turkish folks and military in the occupation of Izmir by Greeks on May 15, 1919 (Odatv, 2017). CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 37 World War I occurred between 1914 and 1918 between two parties: the Allied Powers (France, Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States) and the Axis Powers (Austria- Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire) (“History of World War I & the Turkish War of Independence,” n.d.). Because the series concerns the War of Independence of the Republic of Turkey, it is important to mention that the current Turkish regions of Marmara, Aegean, Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia, Black Sea, and Central Anatolia were occupied by external enemies of Turkey who tried to take its lands after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Some of the Ottoman Empire’s members supported the foreign occupation of Anatolia as internal enemies, such as Sultan Vahdettin, who wished that the Greeks had won the war, while the Greeks were conducting a massacre in an effort to expand their lands and arriving from Izmir to Central Anatolia and up to Ankara (Aydoğan, 2014). Many countries decided to violate the Armistice of Mudros, and accordingly, Istanbul was occupied by France, Britain, and Italy; Adana was occupied by the French; and Urfa, Merzifon, Samsun, and Maraş were occupied by the British. Italians also invaded Antalya and Konya, and the Greek Army settled in Izmir on May 15, 1919. Consequently, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk started the Turkish War of Independence on May 19, 1919, from Samsun; after the occupation of Istanbul, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk opened the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara on April 23, CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 38 1920, and was voted its president. The Greek Army was approaching Bursa and Eskişehir; however, in 1921, Colonel Ismet defeated them with his soldiers. On July 10, 1921, the Greeks initiated the battle of Sakarya, after which Mustafa Kemal was assigned the titles of Ghazi (War Veteran) and Marshal. The Greek invaders were defeated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on August 30, 1922, in Dumlupınar as well as in Izmir on September 9, 1922. Consequently, on July 24, 1923, the treaty of Lausanne was signed, leading to the recognition of the new independent Turkish state and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on October 29, 1923 (“History of World War I & The Turkish War of Independence,” n.d.). The Latin name for Turkey, Turquia, is a female noun ending with –a. Wars took place because may states desired Turkey’s natural resources. More details on the relation of women to nature are explained in the next section. Women and Nature in the Series Benoist-Méchin (1964) wrote that the Greeks devastated nature; killed mothers, kids, and seniors; burned villages; and spread poison in the water in ponds. According to Benoist-Méchin (1964), there were vineyards alongside fields of grain, fruit, and vegetable before their invasion of CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 39 the Aegean zone of Turkey, but the Greeks burned them, escaping from Turks after their failure, and some had not only raped but also crucified women and kids in the barns. As Merchant (1989) suggests that nature is a mother and a living organism, feeding all the human beings via its products (p. 3), mothers appear as sources of love and peace in the series. Turkey -an abundant land- can also be regarded as a mother who feeds her children via its products. However, humans become the owners of the environment when they work on it to make their living and survive (Merchant, 1989, p. xxi and p. 2). In the series, Turkish men and women assume similar roles as warriors; however, women appear also as protectors, caregivers, and peacebuilders. In the following subsections, these dualisms will be analyzed: self/others, mind/body, culture/nature, male/female, and civilized/primitive. Turkish and Greek Mothers: Self/Others Neither a Greek mother nor a Turkish mother discriminate against one another; instead, they act as “we, the mothers, but not as others” in the series. Nature can be regarded as a mother that raises crops and flowers like children. However, men raised in patriarchic societies may see mothers as inferior to them, and this point of view reflects upon their thoughts about nature, which is just like a woman whom they can attack and devastate (Warren, 2015). Thus, they start to discriminate against women. CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 40 Regarding the concept of othering, one sees that Greek soldiers try to invade Izmir by discriminating against the Turkish populations there. In the first episode of the series, a male commandant, a male priest, and male Greek soldiers invade İzmir, while modern Greek women celebrate. Hasan Basri, a Turkish character reminiscent of a Turkish journalist called Hasan Tahsin, shoots his gun to start the Turkish liberation war. Eşref Pasha is protecting Cevdet, whom he does not know. Cevdet’s grandfather was a martyr in Crimea as an allusion to the existence of Turks in many lands, reminding that Turks will fight against the discrimination against Turks in different parts of the earth. The Ottomans are selling Salonica to Greeks. “Eşref time is getting closer” is a password between Eşref Pasha and Cevdet to save Anatolia. In the 30th episode, mothers of one nation do not discriminate against mothers of another nation. Ali Kemal learns that he is Greek and named Dimitri. Ali Kemal visits his biological father, Vassili’s, grave; Ali Kemal is a nationalist Turk who is being punished and tortured in a prison when his mother recognizes him from a scar on his belly. Thus, nature offers every individual its products equally, and mothers take care of all children regardless of whether they are their own offspring, just like nature: Azize raises Veronika’s son. Ali Kemal is a metaphor for the fact that nature provides all human beings with fruits and vegetables regardless of their nations. CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 41 Additionally, in the 44th episode, when a Greek couple decides to adopt Mehmet, the son of Azize and Cevdet, they feel empathy toward Azize, who had recognized her lost son from a scar close to his left hand that he got from being tortured by Greek soldiers together with many Turkish women, some of whom had been raped, mistreated, and beaten. Because the concept of land is regarded as a woman by men raised in patriarchic societies, men devastate not only nature, but also women: “Mother Nature (not Father Nature) is raped, mastered, controlled, conquered, mined; her (not his) secrets are penetrated, and her womb (men don’t have one) is put into the service of the man of science (not woman of science, or simply scientist)” (Warren, 2015, para. 39). Furthermore, Filippos’ son, Aleksi, unsuccessfully tries to sell Turkish babies from an orphanage to the Greeks. Women are associated with the environment, and in the series, Turkish women are tortured by the sea, used as a symbol of innocence. In the series, Yıldız rejects Aleksi’s invitation to a hotel room because he sees women as inferior to him without any values. This act of Alexi is a metaphor for the attempt to invade Anatolia by discriminating against Yıldız as a Turkish woman to possess temporarily. Moreover, Filippos respects Anatolia’s natural richness, mentioning that Anatolia’s Turkish name was derived from the concept of motherhood, as in the Turkish word Anadolu (Ana+dolu: mother+full), which means a land full of mothers in English. As a feminine Latin noun, Anatolia refers to the wealth of nature as the Anatolian lands are prosperous. As nature takes CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 42 care of humans with its resources, so do the women depicted in the series. The Greek male soldiers usually appear as invaders, discriminating against or othering Turkish women in the series. Furthermore, as nature provides humans with cures, in the series, both Turkish and Greek mothers appear as healer nurses. Azize, Hilal, and Yıldız work as nurses, and a Greek nurse helps Cevdet recover after a bombing. Anatolia is a feminine Latin noun ending with –a, just like Turquia (“Turkey”), natura (Latin for “nature”) and terra (Latin for “land”). Therefore, it is alluded to that the natural resources of Anatolia also include natural cures and remedies as female nurses cure humans metaphorically. Consequently, mothers are united with their offspring through scars and birthsigns; and nature is a mother for all human beings as imposed in egalitarian societies but not in patriarchic ones, where women can be oppressed and dominated just like the mother earth, whose resources are exploited. Only in egalitarian societies, men do not discriminate against women. Othering occurs during wars against women by invaders in the series. However, women help other women regardless of their cultural differences. Turkish Women as Sisters: Mind/Body The mind stands for thinking, whereas the body for beauty. Nature works to create different species whose bodies are divergent. In the first episode of the series, Yıldız is proud of her physical appearance as a child; she tells Hilal that she is more beautiful than her. However, in the subsequent CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 43 episodes, Hilal writes and disseminates journals to save Turkey and reads many books written not only by Turkish authors but also by foreign authors, such as the major works of Russian literature Leon brought her. In the end, in the 59th episode, Hilal decides to become a teacher to fight against ignorance, which is the cause of all the evil on earth. Moreover, when she is shot by a Greek soldier due to her love affair with Leon, she continues to write, even though she cannot walk. Hilal [Crescent] represents intelligent and educated women, whereas Yıldız [Star] represents beautiful and strong women. Both appear as rational and independent women in the end of the series. As the crescent and stars illuminate the lands at night, both Hilal and Yıldız illuminate the earth through their existence and knowledge. Interpreting the metaphorical names of the two sisters, the crescent and the star on the Turkish flag represent the complementary qualities of Anatolian people: their intelligence, hard work, strong belief in God, and strength to win battles, as well as the beauty of Anatolia’ nature. In the 31st episode, Hilal tries to depart from Leon in the woods. Birds are chirping; moreover, Leon had sent her an azalea in a letter. Accordingly, based on the bird metaphors, men who respect women respect nature, as well. Nature’s pastoral beauty appears as a symbol for pure love in this episode. In relation to historical figures present in the series, Black Fatma (1888–1955) was a Turkish warrior woman who lived in the woods in an attempt to catch enemies. She first appears CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 44 in the 25th episode. Women were associated with nature because they would appear suddenly and attack the enemies in the woods. It was their rational strategy. Black Fatma, born in Erzurum as Fatma Seher, got her nickname from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who used the “Black” to denote her courage in commanding 300 soldiers as a first lieutenant in the Liberation War of Turkey (Zafer, 2019). Additionally, in the 10th episode, cannons had a loud sound from Istanbul to Aydın, and everybody should have united in the ideas of Halit İkbal, thus Hilal by becoming, “10000 Halit İkbal, 100000 Halit İkbal,” etc.; Hilal declares governments as enemies, whereas nations as friends, as did Halide Edip Adıvar in a meeting in Istanbul (Urfalı, 2016). Thus, the figure of Hilal represents the concepts of unity in diversity and gender equality in journalism: “Cultural diversity reflects ecological diversity” (Warren, 2015, para. 15). Moreover, Halide Edip Adıvar, a famous Turkish female writer, appears in the series when a child returns the money she had offered him so that she could bring it to the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Halide Edip was a Turkish female writer who lived between 1884 and 1964. She studied at the Uskudar American Academy; she learned mathematics, French, and Arabic from renowned instructors; and she worked as teacher and an academician. She also founded the Community of “Teâlî-i Nisvan” for women so that they could attain equal societal opportunities CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 45 to those of men. Moreover, she organized meetings in the quarters of Sultanahmet, Fatih, and Uskudar in Istanbul after the invasion of Izmir by the Greeks; she fought in the war; and worked also as a nurse, journalist, corporal, master sergeant, and later as a deputy in the new Republic of Turkey (Enginün, 1988). Therefore, she represents the different roles women can assume. The eighth episode also compares Halide Edip’s behavior to that of Yıldız. Yıldız refuses to marry a physician man who wants to dress her in all black like the radical Islamists. He also wants her to never work but instead do the laundry, cooking, and housework. Besides, she would need to get his permission for everything. She manages to escape from him and regains her rights as a secular Turkish woman when he is killed in a Greek trap after she tells the Greek troops where he is going with her after their Islamic wedding. As Yıldız contacts a Greek soldier to save her from this man, a family asks for help on the way, but while this man departs with Yıldız, he is killed. Because of the war, the land of the country of Turkey is like hell. For this reason, many Turkish men try to attack and kill Yıldız; accordingly, lynching is used as an attack on both women and the environment in the 14th episode. Seemingly ultra-religious men defend their right to devastate women, making them into their unpaid servants; in this situation, Yıldız appears as a defender of gender equality that exists only in secular states. CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 46 Thus, the series shows that during the war Turkish women, associated with the land of Turkey, worked hard, were intelligent, and could save the land from enemies, respecting their own rights and defending their social and societal equality in various fields. Western and Eastern Women: Culture/Nature Women are associated with Anatolia, but just as nature has certain rights that must be protected, so too do women have the right to be treated as equal to men. In the series, Greek women always help Turkish women as singers, shop owners, friends, or neighbors. For example, Eftalya is a Rebetiko singer who is trying to look after her father. She has to escape from Tevfik because she was trying to help Cevdet get closer to his wife, Azize, who wanted to marry Tevfik, considering that Cevdet was an enemy. Sir Hamilton kills Eftalya because she does not serve him as a spy in the 27th episode. Eleni, a Greek shop owner, sells dresses to Yıldız. Most of the women have jobs and their economic freedom in the series. However, Lucy, a relative of Sir Hamilton, suffers from tuberculosis, but she is desperately looking for love, as she indicates to Veronika in the 17th episode. Despite Lucy’s appearance just as a rich lady, living in luxury without working, the characters of Azize, Hilal, and Yıldız show that educated women can be world leaders; concerning the nature metaphor, just as flowers blossom in gardens and crops grow in fields when adequately watered, so too do women when CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 47 they are educated. Thus, women who are sufficiently educated on their rights can achieve societal equality with men who otherwise assign them roles as singers at bars for men or housewives, serving their husbands at home, to halt their contributions to society. Male/Female In the series, some Greek men consider Turkish women inferior to them. Filippos was the main male figure, who insults women. Meanwhile, although Filippos is in love with his Turkish servant, Havva, he never confesses this to her. But after learning that she was meeting with other women to fight against the Greek army, he says to her, “I have to tell you how much I desired to touch you… You are similar to Asia Minor; just like these lands, these cities, as I cannot possess them, my desire grows… I like the one who does not love me, I want those who do not want me. I was throwing away the toys I had got as my mother would tell me…” In fact, after associating Havva (Eve) with Asia Minor (Anatolia), he kisses her, then suddenly shoots her dead without letting her speak. The evil concept of Eve convincing Adam to eat a piece of a fruit, leading to their expulsion form paradise, is replaced by the good patriotic figure of Eve, alluding to the fact that all the human beings derived from Eve and Adam. White (1967) proposed that the environment stands for humans on earth just like the description of paradise in the Bible (p. 1205). Adam and Eve were barred from reentering paradise for tasting the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1–20). Havva, first seen as a domestic servant, becomes a wildly CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 48 intelligent, patriotic secret agent before the eyes of Filippos. Havva is conscious and rational for protecting her country, but Filippos was unconscious enough to kill her. Havva thus represents that all the women can be rational, universal, and independent even by rebelling against the Greek homeowner for whom she works as a dependent servant. Accordingly, Havva is a metaphor for the obligation of humans to protect the environment. Havva, or “Eve” in English, is a name that reminds us that all the human beings originated from Eve and Adam. If one kills nature, the whole earth will suffer due to the lack of food, water, and oxygen, and all species will become extinct. Filippos, as a male figure, can be regarded as a nature devastator by leading a bloody war on the rich lands of Anatolia, just as he murders Havva, a woman figure used as a metaphor for the unity of all people against racist ideologies. Civilized/Primitive A civilized society is one in which women are equal to men: Azize, Hilal, Seher (a warrior), Halide Edip Adıvar, Black Fatma, Efsun (a fantastic woman warrior who traverses wild jungles to join Black Fatma), and Yıldız prove this through their attitudes and behavior. Veronika, Eftelya, and Lucy seem weaker than the Turkish characters because they depend on men to survive: Veronika is a mother and housewife who survives on her husband’s income. Eftelya is a singer who tries to survive on her own, but she depends on Tevfik. Moreover, Lucy does not work but CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 49 depends on Charles Hamilton. However, warrior women symbolize the equality of women and men within society after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire: Azize is a nurse, Hilal is a journalist using a male pen name, Seher rebels against her lover, Dağıstanlı, who rejects the power of Atatürk, because she wants freedom and equality, Halide Edip is a writer who calls for Turks to obtain their freedom through her works and speeches, Black Fatma is a female warrior, Efsun assists Turks via her own war strategies, and Yıldız rebels against life as a housewife who only cooks and does the housework for her husband. The Aegean Sea, forests, and roads of Izmir, Ankara, and Salonica are the metaphorical paths to women’s emancipation in a secular republic after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Ecological metaphorical objects such as flowers, trees, and animals are metonymies for the beauty and natural richness of Turkey and also symbolize freedom, peace, love, and equality for all. Illness, famine, plunder, and forced migration are the main reasons for the loss of family members, such as Cevdet and Azize’s family, who has to transfer to Izmir from Salonica. Cevdet likes pastries with eggplants—metaphors for the fecundity of the Aegean lands as it is explained in the first episode that depicts the Turkish populations in the city of Salonica in 1912. The food metaphor alludes to the fact that every nation must invest in farming for the future of their countries while protecting the plant species in these countries. Furthermore, violent acts such as Yıldız’s lynching are primitive, as was Aleksi asking Yıldız to go to a hotel room, whereas the active participation of women in life as soldiers, nurses, CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 50 spies, journalists, and teachers is civilized. Additionally, in the third episode, Yıldız plans to attend a Greek party, but her sister Hilal tears her dress due to her nationalism since she never wants her sister to flirt with enemies in a party. Despite this, her father sends her sister a new dress, alluding to the importance of the equality of Turkish and Greek women in every sphere. In the third episode, Yıldız and her Greek friend, Eleni, wash clothes together; however, this job is depicted as a necessary hygienic human activity. This friendship depicts the importance of unity in diversity in a country. The fact that they are doing this activity in a garden is in reference to the fact that all human beings must protect the environment despite their cultural differences in civilized societies. Hygiene is crucial in killing harmful bacteria and viruses that can even be guns during biological wars. Moreover, in the 15th episode, Hilal and her male friends manage to open a Turkish flag on a building used as a base by Greeks among Greeks, and they attend this event in Greek costumes that refer to the fact that external aspects do not depict whether people are primitive or civilized. Instead, gender equality indicates that a nation is civilized. In addition, women help others feel empathy toward animals if we interpret that nature is metaphorically a woman, and nature makes humans love its products and different species. Animals and humans are friends in the series, as evinced by the scene in which a kid talks about CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 51 the escape of a cat called Kırpık in the 52nd episode after Hilal’s operation; women usually foster empathy towards animals like Hilal: Child: The cat Kırpık (Ragged) escaped, sister Hilal. Hilal: What a nasty cat he is! Did he escape? Hilal recovers in the 55th episode for her patriotism. Her recovery is a metaphor for the birth of a new Turkish republic. In addition, as Hilal is going to be hung for her nationalism in the 11th episode, she associates the Turkish land with a phoenix, saying, “a bird can be caught, but can be born from its ashes, Mevlana said that you are what you look for.” Just like the eternal phoenix, the Turkish Republic will be born from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Her last words are, “May our country live!” Later, Leon asks Eşref to arrest him to save Hilal by diverting attention away from her for his secret love for Hilal despite Hilal’s ethnic difference. Thus, hanging is primitive, but love is civilized. In addition, in the 57th episode, Leon tells her he would not be a warrior like his father, and he asks when they will be able to talk about other issues besides the war. Therefore, violent males start wars to seek more natural treasures in other people’s lands, but females try to construct homes through love despite cultural differences. Additionally, the character Latife, who appears in the 54th episode with Hilal close to a bookshelf, represents that neither religious marriages nor religious divorces are necessary because many women encounter hardships in contemporary societies where male religious authorities CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 52 rarely allow divorce or where they get married with the permission of these male religious figures. Latife Uşakî (1898–1975) was an intellectual lady who studied law at the Sorbonne in Paris, as depicted in the series. She was the first lady of Turkey from 1923 to 1925, when Atatürk divorced her (Anonymous, 2018). She and Atatürk married in front of an imam, but both parties had two witnesses, as in civil marriages; however, they got divorced secularly with a government decree (Anonymous, 2018) before the Turkish Civil Code went into effect in 1926 (Caarls & de Valk, 2018). Accordingly, the female figures in the series demonstrate the importance of secular civilized society for the development of a world in which women and men can work, get married, and study with equal rights. Moreover, regarding love affairs, civil marriages are emphasized in the series: in the last episode of the series, Hilal asks Leon, “We loved each other as we were enemies. Will we be able to live together?” In the 52nd episode, Yakup describes to Yıldız their future home in Ankara that would be by a lake with birds singing nearby. Yakup also has a white horse, as in fairy tales. Yıldız says to Yakup, “What a beautiful place this is!” In reply, Yakup describes their future house in Ankara as having a big garden with different trees and oleasters. Yakup would plant the oleasters, but Yıldız would water them because nature requires care, and Turkey would be a land of flowers and trees after the war, during which there CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 53 was only blood. Yakup refers to Atatürk’s wish to transform Ankara into an efficient green land (see Köroğlu, 2009). Thus, the wonders of nature can be regarded as a metaphor for peace and indicate the need for the equality of women and men so they can work together to develop a peaceful nation. Conclusion To conclude, in the series, wars are full of blood; a collapsed empire and the disrespect of women lead to the devastation of nature in Anatolia. Western countries invade Anatolia, but Turks succeed in liberating Anatolia from foreign forces by following Atatürk. Moreover, nature is a metaphor for equality, pluralism, and peace in the series. The blood of the martyrs is absorbed by the Turkish soil. Turkish and Greek mothers are friends and families are very friendly, but politicians are greedy for more natural resources, so they make their armies invade the Aegean regions of the old Ottoman Empire before the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. Concerning the findings of this study, within the framework of ecofeminism as suggested by d’Eaubonne (1974), women can generally be associated with land during war: they can be raped, attacked, slandered, or tortured just as people devastate nature by invading lands, attacking their jungles, slaughtering plants and animals, and torturing trees by cutting them for constructing huge buildings; however, some women prevail by opposing all the dualisms of self/others, mind/body, culture/nature, male/female, and civilized/primitive by fighting for an equalitarian CINEJ Cinema Journal: Fazıla Derya Agiş Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 54 society in defending their rights to education, work, equal pay, and freedom of speech and expression by writing. This study shows that the series Wounded Love successfully depicts the establishment of the Turkish Republic after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire by highlighting the legislation Atatürk made to further the rights of women and Turkish people’s environmental rights through dialogues between the characters. Concisely, these are the messages delivered in the series with the dualisms of self/others, mind/body, culture/nature, male/female, and civilized/primitive from ecofeminist perspectives: women and nature never discriminate between human beings for protecting and feeding them, a mother can look after another mother’s offspring without any hesitation just like nature that feeds every individual, both mental and physical beauties are present in women, and nature provides humans with beautiful flowers, trees, and sceneries that make humans feel relieved and happy, enculturation and moral education are more important in raising children than genetic codes since every individual derived from Adam and Eve; a mother shall teach her offspring to respect peace and protect nature, besides, secular societies are civilized as many primitive radical societies discriminate against women; primitive societies devastate nature in civil wars, in general; besides, primitive men may think that they can place women to inferior positions within society and possess them if they wish. However, Atatürk led to the reconstruction of the demolished Anatolia, which CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Relation of Female Characters to Nature in the Turkish Series Wounded Love (2016–2018) Volume 10.1 (2022) | ISSN 2158-8724 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cinej.2022.410 | http://cinej.pitt.edu 55 can be depicted with the phoenix metaphor, and brought gender equality and environmental sustainability laws to the new Republic of Turkey as explained in the series. The series explains the novelties Atatürk brought to the Republic of Turkey by depicting Turkish women’s attitudes during the Turkish Liberation War and the reconstruction of the environment in Anatolia after this devastating war. REFERENCES Anonymous. (2018, February 15). Latife Hanım kimdir? Hare Sürel Vatanım Sensin’de Latife Hanım’ı canlandıracak.... Milliyet. https://www.milliyet.com.tr/gundem/latife-hanim-kimdir- hare-surel-vatanim-sensinde-latife-hanimi-canlandiracak-2610520. Aydoğan, M. 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ENDNOTES: 1 This article was first presented as “Ecofeminism and Family Continuity during the Liberation War of Turkey from Internal and External Enemies: Westernization of Turkey after the Ottoman Empire in the Current Turkish Series, Entitled ‘You Are My Country’” at the War Hecatomb Effects on Health, Demography, Territory, and Modern Thought (19th–21st centuries) conference, organized between June 13– 16, 2018, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, but it was never published as a whole article. Some changes were made for this study.