The strange contradictions in They Burn the Thistles

As I near the end, Yashar Kemal's novel "They Burn the Thistles" sets the stage for a pitched battle between the peasants of the remote Turkish village Vayvay and the cruel landowners who have essentially stolen land and terrorized the peasants. The villagers are inspired by the presence near them of the legendary "brigand" Slim Memed, the Hawk. There are a number of twists and complications that are very hard for readers not versed in Turkish history to follow, but it seems that this novel, set in about the 20s?, is against a background of the new, Western-oriented Turkish government, far off in Ankara, and these new landowners act with the apparent backing of the government - they rationalize that they are bringing reform and prosperity to the villages but of course they are just amassing their own wealth and power. There are two layers two the landowner/ruling class, and they are in rivalry, and perversely Kemal gives them almost identical names, making the plot especially difficult to follow. Kemal's heart and sympathy are in the right place, by and large: his characters are painted with a broad, almost comic brush, and of course we want the peasants to stand up and throw off the yoke of oppression, but there's almost a medieval/spritual quality to his writing: the peasants/villagers are unable to act until inspired by the great and mysterious leader, Memed - it's almost as if Kemal believes that there has to be a worshipped ruler, that society has to be run by a "great man," that the solution is a return to feudalism or royalism. Despite all his sympathy for the poor villagers, I'm not sure he really trusts them.