Zizek: On Minarets and Atatürk

Slavoj Zizek was in Istanbul a few days ago. He gave an interview to Sabah. The newspaper has published the interview in its latest Sunday edition.

Zizek told some interesting things again. I would like to highlight two of his remarks:

(On the minaret ban in Switzerland):

"Swiss people have always been a xenophobic society. They have been accepting foreign immigrants to their country for decades, but they made it almost impossible to let their families in as well. Immigrants from Yugoslavia and Turkey had to have a flight back home to see their spouses. As you know, liberals say: 'They want us that we should allow them to build minarets, but building churches is banned in Saudi Arabia.' This is where Switzerland has ended up. I like the people that we call 'hardliners' and 'radicals,' as well Muslim activists in Switzerland and Amish community in the US... Amish people certainly don't care about what the world thinks about them. 'Who the hell cares,' they say. But those evangelist crooks in America are always busy with questions, like, "what kind of orgies do the hedonists and liberals have now?" So that's what I tell to Muslims: 'Don't bother about what the Others do. Show your discretion'."

(On Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey):

"Atatürk's project was based on imposing a secular and united republic through violence. I believe that the political violence that he used was necessary. In Mexico, too, a secular dictatorship has been established to pull the country away from its malign traditions. What is important here is the dosage of the violence. A revolutionary military regime was established in Mexico, but after a while the power was passed on to civilians. For leaders like Atatürk, there is always a risk to slip into fascism; but Atatürk didn't do this. It was one of his better qualities. He wanted to be friends with the Greeks, right after the war. 'You belonged to the Turkish nation, accept it, then I'll give you as much sovereignty as you want,' he told the Kurds. It may sound as a crazy idea, but it was actually a clever solution. I believe that you put too much pressure on him nowadays. You need to accept that he had to form a modern establishment. Somebody had to do it. Britain has been playing dirty tricks on these lands in the early 20th century. If they could succeed, the life would be a real catastrophe here."