Bayram Morning in Istanbul

My father had scanned three antiquated postcards a few years ago. I believe that these cards can't be found anywhere else anymore.

The one above shows the Ortaköy district of Istanbul, possibly in the late 19th century. (Click the picture to enlarge)

And the two cards below shows the Blue Mosque and the busy sea traffic of the Bosphorus in the same period.

Wishing you a happy bayram and noting that I'll be away for a week, I'd like to share with you a bit of Yahya Kemal poetry.

A Bayram Morning At Suleymaniye Mosque

As the luster of my heart increased every second

A sublime morning had arrived in Suleymaniye.

This bayram hour, beneath our own skies,

Reflected the landscape which turned blue

The whole people, the whole country, in 900 years

And the dusty curtain of time dropped.

(...)

In this grand temple, I mixed up with the union of the country

Thanks God that I've seen again in these hours

The spirits that breath together with the living.

And in this bayram morning, lights have filled my spirit.

Justified Violence?

Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, were attacked by enraged residents in Izmir after they displayed flags of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, while riding in a crowded convoy in the city.

Izmir is known as the most liberal and Westernized city of Turkey. So how should we read this incident? Can violence be regarded as justified in certain circumstances?

I believe that violence can only be justified when it's done for self-defence; so what has happened in Izmir was absolutely wrong and stupid. However one should try to understand the psychology of the Izmir mob. The message was clear:

"If DTP doesn't condemn PKK, which is considered as a terrorist organization by Turkey, as well as the EU and the US; then it should expect to be confronted by other radicals in similar violent methods, instead of democratic arguments."

Nothing could manage to turn Turks against Kurds or Kurds against Turks, as a whole, in the past. The Izmir incident shows what the Kurdish Gambit of AKP is doing to Turkey: An unprecedented social division and ethnic tension...

Turkophobic Prayer of the Week

The following children prayer by Martin Luther is an historical example of the deep roots of Turkophobia in Central Europe.

As can be observed in any kind of xenophobia and racism, Martin Luther's words are somehow irrational. So irrational that he puts Turks and the Pope in one basket as the common Other:

Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort

Und steur des Babst und Türcken Mord

Die Jhesum Christum deinen Son

Wollten stürtzen von deinem Thron.

* * *

Lord, help us with your Word

Stop the killings of the Pope and the Turk

They want to see Jesus Christ,

Who is your son, dethroned.

PS: Leyla Cosan analyzed many prayers in her book, Tanrim Bizi Turkler'den Koru (Lord, Protect Us From Turks). I'll quote one prayer each week. The English translation here is mine.

Van Rompuy's Ataturk

I guess I can find a photo with Ataturk of anyone who visited Turkey...

Here is Herman Van Rompuy, the newly-appointed President of the EU, in Izmir where he came on September for an international fair.

It seems that the nazar stone, which was given him as a present in Izmir, brang Van Rompuy some political luck.

I'll comment about his upcoming EU presidency later, but now I am just curious about his personal opinion about Atatürk and the AKP government. I would like to ask him about it in the future.

Is he one of the sincere admirers of Atatürk like Darius Vassell or yet another populist like 50 Cent?

Or was the Atatürk photo-op in Izmir just a fait accompli, in the exact way that he was appointed as the President of the EU, as well as how he would be forced to keep his opinions about the EU membership of Turkey for himself in his tenure?

The Ceiling of Justice

"A court hearing in Turkey into an alleged ultra-nationalist conspiracy to overthrow the government was suspended on Friday after the ceiling partially collapsed over the judges," Reuters reported.

There were no injuries, but the presiding judge suspended the hearing. Some journalists who were in the courtroom joked: "It may be another terror attack by Ergenekon."

Some instances of a meaningful symbolism here, but I won't bother writing about them today.

After a while, even the biggest tragedies of the world get boring and trivial, even though they always remain crucial for many people, especially the victims.

IPI's Accessing Governments Project

International Press Institute has published a special report for a project which is called "Accessing Governments."

I assisted IPI in conducting the research in Turkey. In the end, we have seen that receiving information from the Turkish government as a journalist is as hard as it is in Kenya and Yemen.

Here is the full report:

IPI Accessing Governments

Some More Turkish Songs

Following the 8tracks mix that I published last week, here is another one. This time, I would like to share my personal selection of best Turkish songs from the post-1980 period...

A Timely Summary of the Ergenekon

Since the beginning of the investigation, I have been defending here that the Ergenekon Case, with its unconvincing and illegitimate evidences, disrespected witnesses and comical suspects, was nothing but a spectacle, which was created by the Islamist AKP government to form its own deep state and -when it's needed- to manipulate the unfavorable political calendar.

As far as I can analyze, the Ergenekon case has got nothing to do with civil democratization, as can be seen from the fact that the government leaders are getting along quite well with the successful coup leaders of the past, while illegally oppressing the political opposition by suspiciously condemning them to be a part of a mysterious junta.

The investigation, which is already tainted by prosecutors who approve illegal wiretapping and other violations of basic human rights, represents the recently-created Islamist domination of the police force, universities and the media, orchestrating well-planned psychological attacks against the last strongholds of the secular state: The army and the judiciary. We'll all see what will happen in Turkey after Islamists completely seize these two institutions, too.

But why do I make this summary now?

I see that the international media has recently changed its tone while talking about the case. While I have been criticizing this case, condemning it as a missed opportunity for Turkey to judge its successful coup leaders as they're still alive, the international media was praising the AKP government to democratize the country. However, we have started to see a critical coverage only recently. Maybe it is also a good time for some foreign columnists to apologize for accusing anyone in Turkey who was critical of the Ergenekon to be secular hardliners, anti-democratic establishment, etc.

New York Times was always cautious about the procedure, which I appreciated; but they also marginalize their tone now, started to criticize the government more harshly because of the case. Their latest article about the subject was surprisingly definitive:

"Legal experts contend that the elaborate charges and sometimes wild allegations in the case have the broad reach of an Inquisition. Zealous prosecutors, they say, have detained dozens of suspects without charge while conversations from tapped mobile telephones have surfaced mysteriously in pro-government newspapers, threatening to damage the credibility of the Turkish judicial system. (...) Gareth Jenkins, a Turkey specialist, noted the pervasive fear among Western analysts of Turkey that Ergenekon 'represents a major step, not — as its proponents maintain — towards the consolidation of pluralistic democracy in Turkey, but towards an authoritarian one-party state.'”

What about other Western sources which were supporting AKP passionately? Why are they also more critical about the Ergenekon now? Because they started to see that AKP has got the potential to be anti-Western one day?

As a Western-oriented, but disappointed and alienated Turk, I don't really care about them now.

Once again, you get what you deserve and you reap what you sow.

The Quote of the Week

Please consider the following words while remembering the Cartoon Crisis, created by a racist artist, giving birth to new questions about the right of free speech and how it should be applied in a world that War on Terror still continues effectively:

"(...) Finally, and most importantly, Islam is invaluable. In saying this, Derrida's point becomes something quite different from Nietzsche's desire for a Moroccan eye. Islam is not useful because it can offer, as Nietzsche thought, some kind of non-European perspective on modernity, a set of different lenses for one's Kantian spectacles. If Islam has any use at all, it is in fulfilling its medieval half of the civilization/barbarity dualism by provoking modernity: we need violent fundementalisms, Derrida almost seems to be saying, in order to remind us how those of our own are structurally no different. Only the violence of the fatwa can make us realize how, in order to protect our own concept of the holy (free speech), we have to completely trample on somebody else's (the reputation of a seventh-century prophet, for example). For "we Europeans," a phrase Derrida employs with not completely convincing irony, Islam brings out the worst in us - and it is precisely this process that Derrida finds so necessary to our self-understanding." -- Ian Almond, "The New Orientalists: Postmodern Representations of Islam," Chapter Three: Derrida's Islam and the Peoples of the Book

A Football Star, Kicked Out of His Hotel, With An Ataturk Portrait Underarm

What has happened yesterday to Darius Vassell, an Ankaragucu striker who formerly played 22 times for England National Football Team, is just surreal.

Only a few months after he was given a hero's welcome when joining the Turkish club in the summer, the 29-year-old footballer is in the middle of a chaos now, because of the new management at the club.

It seems that the new president doesn't want Vassell in the team. So Vassell has been kicked out of his hotel room in the middle of the night, after a brief talk between the hotel management and the club officials.

As if this is not absurd enough, Vassell moved out of the hotel with his packed-up suitcases and an Ataturk portrait under his arm. When asked about the portrait while taking the driver seat of his car, Vassell explained to a few reporters:

"I've been seeing Ataturk photos wherever I went. When I made a research about his life, I was overcome with admiration. So I bought a portrait of him from the shop in the hotel. I'll hang it wherever I go."

Turkophobic Art in the US?

A certain degree of Turkophobia had contributed significantly to the Central European culture and art. The stereotypically-evil Turk on the Karlov Most of Prague is an artistic example of medieval anti-Turkism.

I couldn't imagine a similar piece in the United States, but it seems that some Central Europeans had carried a little bit Turkophobia to the New World, too. I've just discovered The Turk's Head Building in Providence, Rhode Island.

It shows that even historical enmities and empty stereotypes can contribute to universal aesthetics, sometimes. It's got class. It is something much more different than the cheap Turkophobic propaganda -in disguise of art- that we've seen more recently.

Some Good Turkish Songs

I've recently published a mix on 8tracks. Here I share it with you, for those who are interested in Turkish music, especially in some good songs which were produced before 1980s. If you are interested in Turkish psyche, check this and that mix as well.

When I'll have time later, I'll publish another mix with the songs of the post-1980s period...

Ataturk, Roman Law and AKP

Any foreigner who was in Istanbul or Ankara today could witness the end of a myth, mainly created by the Western European media.

Traffic stopped and sirens blared for two minutes starting at 9:05 a.m., the time when Atatürk died in Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul 71 years ago. At that moment, thousands of people voluntarily went out of their cars to show their respect for the founder of the Republic, some eyes were full with tears. Meanwhile in Ankara, Atatürk’s mausoleum was decorated with 40,000 flowers by 250.000 people, who flocked there with their children, waving flags. Millions of people created similar scenes in all Turkish cities.

They were all showing that the feelings of this nation for Atatürk is sincere, even under a government which has ideologically been undermining his heritage for the last seven years. In contrary to what you read in the Western European media in general, if there is a cult of Ataturk, it is not the product of the state, but of the people, they have proven.

This is the demonstration of a naive patriotism like we've been seeing in the United States for decades. It is nothing to do with the destructive nationalism which we have witnessed in Western Europe.

* * *

It is also remarkable that this respect for a secular patriot has been shown in the face of an Islamist government. However, everything is not as bright as one may hope.

To be honest, the creeping pseudo-Islamization in Turkey, was not as dramatic as I had expected during the first five years of the AKP government.

There were bits and pieces of different examples, demonstrating a weak will of the government to transform the society. Finally, they started to take-over the secular republic with more serious steps after they seized the judiciary and neutralized the army effectively.

The latest decision of the AKP government is the worst incident I've ever seen. "Law faculties will no longer have to have certain law departments – those of Roman law, EU law, comparative law and marine and environmental law."

Roman Law is the basis of the Western justice system. What will be the next step? Lectures on Sharia Law?

All anniversaries of Ataturk's death show that a popular, Islamist revolution in Iranian style is not possible in Turkey, but what I fear is a coup by the government, which may one day feel itself strong enough to do what it wants even against the will of millions.

The question is: Is it the last term that AKP rules as a one-party government or will there be another term after 2011?

Why Didn't Bashir Come to Turkey?

Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has cancelled his Istanbul visit in the last minute, saving the Turkish government from a shameful occurence.

I've learned the story of this last-minute decision from a reliable diplomatic source:

1) It is said that the Turkish government has never invited al-Bashir officially. The summit of the Islamic Conference was just an automatic invitation.

2) Al-Bashir wanted to take this opportunity to give himself a legitimate light on the international stage. The Turkish government reluctantly nodded, but Ankara tried to keep the visit as low-profile as possible since the beginning.

3) Al-Bashir didn't take it. He requested a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Abdullah Gul. Gul had priorly rejected the EU pressure by saying that there wouldn't be any bilateral meeting, so he had to avoid Al-Bashir now.

4) Ankara conducted a well-crafted diplomatic message to Al-Bashir, stating that Gul's programme wouldn't be suitable for such a meeting. Being rebuffed as such, Al-Bashir cancelled his visit altogether.

That's one of the rare foreign policy decisions of AKP ended positively.

Better lose the saddle than the horse...

Lonely in the European Crowd

Turkey has -once again- proven itself as an integral part of the modern European culture, although its contributions are not appreciated by the EU politicians yet.

Following the success stories of Turkish directors like Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Fatih Akin, Zeki Demirkubuz, Reha Erdem and Ferzan Ozpetek, now Turkish musicians shine on the European scene.

It's not the Eurovision this time. It is the MTV European Music Awards.

A Turkish rock band, MaNga, was chosen the "Best European Act" at the prize ceremony in Berlin. Turkish singer Emre Aydin had won the same prize last year.

While accepting the prize, Ferman, soloist of MaNga band, has quoted Nuri Bilge Ceylan's speech which he had given after he was named as the best director at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. Ferman has said that he liked Ceylan's movies so much that he would steal his words: "We are taking this award on behalf of our beautiful and lonely country."

It's good that the band members told about Ceylan a bit. Otherwise, without referring to him, these word would be losing their meaning, turning out to be a strange plagiarism without any creativity.

On the other hand, don't these words tell something more than they literally mean?

Isn't the urge of Turkish artists to emphasize the loneliness of their country -at the highest level in Europe- a signifier something about the EU?

Thousands of articles, hundreds of books can be written on these questions...

Reap What You Sow (v2.0)

AKP government has controversially invited Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the upcoming Istanbul summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

The second coming is as bad as the first one. And the EU has reacted this time by asking Turkey to reconsider its invitation to Al-Bashir, who has an international arrest warrant against him for war crimes.

Turkey, which is not a member of the International Criminal Court, has announced that it won't arrest Al-Bashir. The reaction of Turkish President Abdullah Gul was harsher against the EU.

"It is a meeting between Muslim countries. Who is the EU? What are they interfering for? What kind of memorandum they can give us?" Gul said.

* * *

I had told it before: With friends like Al-Bashir and Ahmedinejad, Turkey doesn't need enemies.

However, I'm just laughing at what's happening nowadays. Once again, the very same people who praised AKP just months ago suddenly turned against the Islamist government. And where did their compliments go?

I've been interviewing the prime minister of a medium-sized EU country a couple of years ago. He was praising AKP passionately. I reminded him that a significant number of people in Turkey thought that AKP had got a secret agenda. After the Refah example, they learned that not an Islamist revolution, but only an evolution might be possible in Turkey. The only obstacle against such an evolution was the strong army, which held a unique role in the only model republic of the Middle East.

The EU prime minister told me that "the sceptic were just paranoids who should a doctor" and "nothing bad would happen when the AKP controls the army as well". When I told him that I -as a Turkish citizen- was also one of those skeptics, the prime minister uttered: "Then, you're one of them, too..."

I don't know what the same politician feels about the AKP government now, but the time has confirmed that those skeptic Turks had more healthier minds than his. The returning tide of the international perception approves it now...

* * *

So once again, I would say, "Reap What You Sow," while reading David Schenker's article on the Wall Street Journal:

"Recent developments suggest that while Turkey's military leadership remains committed to the state's secular, Western orientation and the defining principles of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the civilian Islamist government led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) seems to have different ideas. Ankara is increasingly pursuing illiberal policies at home, for instance by attacking independent media, while aligning itself with militant, anti-western Middle East regimes abroad."

"At home, individual liberty and rule of law have gone by the wayside. The Islamist government—in an effort to silence critics—attempts to bankrupt the independent and secularist Turkish media through extra-legal tax fines. The AKP government has also targeted political opponents by arresting them on dubious charges of attempting to overthrow the government."

"While Ankara's politics have changed, the military's pro-Western disposition reportedly has not. But over the past decade, the dynamics between the politicians and the general staff have been transformed. For better or worse, Western pressures have compelled the Turkish military to remain in the barracks, and refrain from interfering in political developments. Today, the Turkish military can do little but watch as the secular, democratic, pro-Western republic established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the early 1900s is undermined."

"(...) Since the 1930s, the country has been a model of modernization and moderation in the Middle East. But absent a remarkable turnaround, it would appear that the West is losing Turkey. Should this occur, it would constitute the most dramatic development in the region since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran."

Erdogan's Swine Fever

The debate of the day in Turkey is about the swine flu vaccine.

Following the rumors that the phase 4 variation of this vaccine is being practiced in Turkey for the first time, the number of skeptical people rose dramatically.

It is said that 45 million vaccines that Ankara bought were initially rejected by the United States due to safety concerns about the untested effects of some ingredients such as mercury. Clumsy declarations of the Turkish government reinforce this kind of conspiracy theories.

The latest example was even tragicomic:

Recep Akdag, the Health Minister, has told that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan would also get vaccinated soon.

A few hours after this statement, Erdogan denied his own minister. He said that he won't get vaccinated and nobody should be forced to do so. Then Erdogan called his minister to his office and scolded him.

Why is Erdogan so sensitive about the swine flu vaccine issue?

Some say that it has got nothing to do with safety concerns. The problem is more religious.

Muslims, including me, don't eat pork. Erdogan may be playing to his conservative voting base, which has got plenty of ignorant people who think that the swine flue vaccine includes pork products.

I'll LMAO if Erdogan will be infected with the H1N1 because of his political stance in this health issue.

And will I get vaccinated?

Swine flu is not my biggest concern.

I'm looking for a vaccine against pseudo-Islamic politics...

AKP, not pro-American???

American author Patrick Seale, has written an article, "The Rise and Rise of Turkey," for New York Times today.

He suggest that "(...) the Iraq war has had another important consequence that is also attracting serious notice. America’s failure in Iraq — and its equal failure to tame Israel’s excesses — has encouraged Turkey to emerge from its pro-American straitjacket and assert itself as a powerful independent actor at the heart of a vast region that extends from the Middle East to the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia."

As an NYT reader, I would like to ask a question to Mr Seale:

Can you give me just one example from the policies of the AKP government that comes into conflict with the American interests in the region? Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Syria? Which one?

PS: If you choose the Davos crisis as an example, then I would refer to Mr Seale's statement: taming Israel's excesses...

Thank You from Neo-Nazis

The German government still didn't do anything about Thio Sarrazin, the newly-appointed board member of the German Central Bank, who says that the Turks in Germany have a lower IQ and -as underclass- they don't have any productive function.

Berlin may keep ignoring these racist words, but some other people don't do it. Here is a complimentary leaflet from neo-Nazi groups, where you can see around in Munich:

"Thank you Sarrazin. It's better to be rude than to be a coward."

Freedom of speech in the way that Adolf Hitler had once benefited in a Munich beer hall...

Turkish-Kurdish-Armenian Musical Brotherhood

A proof of the eternal solidarity between Turks, Kurds and Armenians in Turkey...

An evidence that the current turmoil between three ethnicities are encouraged by certain elements which are not the product of these lands...

Here is "Gülümse" (Smile), a classical song of Sezen Aksu, one of the best Turkish singers ever...

Lyrics by Kemal Burkay, a Kurdish politician who was repressed by the Turkish state in 1970s and an exemplary socialist who could see from the beginning that the nationalist terror of PKK had got nothing to do with Kurdish rights or interests...

Composed by Arto Tuncboyaciyan, a Turkish-Armenian musician, the brother of the legendary artist Onno Tuncboyaciyan who made all Turkey cry with his tragic death...

As the song says:

Come on, smile, let the clouds disappear

Otherwise how come can I regenerate

Maybe a movie comes to the city cinemas

A beautiful forest appears in the texts

The climate changes, turns out to be Mediterranean, smile.

I had instruments, I had rivers

I had pebbles

But you're different, do you see

You're different.

Put the case that I got hungry, I was in the sulks with my mother

The whole city was vexed with me

I don't even have a cat, do you see

Come on, smile.

Maybe a movie comes to the city cinemas

A beautiful forest appears in the texts

The climate changes, turns out to be Mediterranean, smile.

Who cares about the Trans-Caucasian energy security of the West while listening to this song?