A Fuzzy Milestone for Turkish Media

Ertugrul Ozkok, the editor-in-chief of Hurriyet, has resigned yesterday.

While he was making his emotional fairwell speech at Hurriyet's newsroom meeting, I was a feet away from him, observing his mixed feelings of sadness and joy.

He was obviously sad, because he was leaving his home office that he managed seven-days-a-week for 17 years and six-days-a-week for the remaining three. Right after he proudly proclaimed that at least he challenged the traditional media establishment in Turkey (that we call Bab-i Ali), he uttered with tearful eyes: "That was a good life."

At the same time he seemed quite happy, as light as a feather, because he has been demanding to leave since the early 2000s and the company management didn't allow him until yesterday. He was saying that he was exhausted and it was to pave the way for the next generation, attaching importance to his young colleagues. Such an attitude is unprecedented in the history of Turkish media.

* * *

Whether you like him or not, Ozkok has been a phenomenal figure in Turkish journalism since the day that he took the post exactly 20 years ago.

Personally, I disagree with most of Ozkok's political opinions, e.g his neo-liberal praisal of Turgut Ozal, but I can't deny that he was a legendary media manager. I am fortunate to have learned from his professional dynamism and boundless vision.

I also appreciate the fact that he never lost his humane side even when holding so much power, preserving his kindness and sincerity all the time. For a personal instance, he was one of the first people to phone and congratulate me after my daughter was born. Another instance was given when he called me to apologise after he roasted me unfairly during a newsroom meeting, also stating that he was not aware that it was being broadcasted live by CNN Türk, almost secretly!

* * *

Ozkok will remain as a columnist, keeping his role as Turkey's leading opinion-maker with a fresher mind. Though, his departure from the post of editor-in-chief still marks the end of an age in Turkey, in which more questions about the freedom of press may arise in the presence of an increasingly autocratic government.

To summarize, I am proud to have worked with Ozkok and witnessed his historical farewell in the end. Meanwhile, I also have mixed feelings for parting ways with a sensational manager like him. Because, as Kai Diekmann, the editor of Bild, has said today, "It is a loss not only for Turkey, but also for the whole European media..."

The Quote of the Week

A young man from Nigeria has attempted to bomb an airliner arriving in the US city of Detroit from Amsterdam.

According to the media reports, he was a lonely, alienated student with a rich father in Nigeria and he ultimately went astray in the foreign environment of the UK, falling into the trap of terrorists in Yemen who try to legitimize their wronged causes with an Islamist discourse.

The attempted crime, which was averted by a heroic passenger from the Netherlands, was surely horrific, but it is still disgusting to watch a few racists in the US diving into this opportunity to revile against the colored people. I won't give a link to their site as I don't want to promote them.

I'm also not going to explain that Islam is actually a religion of peace by referring to Quranic verses, being the 4.234.535th person to do it online. I'd just like to quote three sayings by Prophet Mohammad, because I believe that they're not very known outside a small circle, even though they're related to the problem at hand.

Here are the concepts of religion and superiority according to Mohammad (pbuh):

"The believer who socializes and still suffers from the treatment of the society is superior to the one who doesn't do neither."

"The most superior of the believers is the one whose morality is the strongest. The most superior of the immigrants is the one who migrated away from what God prohibited to do. The most superior of all wars is the one that a person wages against himself/herself for sake of God."

"Do not long for death."

"In Islam, there is no harming and there is no suffering."

"In religion, do not exceed (the limits) and do not fall behind."

"The person who has got no mercy for the children is not one of us."

"The man who resorts to cruelty to gain something is not one of us."

"There is no doubt that this religion is strong and you should always be mild (in interpreting it)."

"Do not forget: You're not better than anyone thanks to your white, red or black skin. If you want to be superior, if you want to be better, then you should always be God-fearing, you should have taqwa."

"The person who can sleep while his/her neighbor starves has no place among us."

PS: If I remember correctly, only once had I quoted Prophet Mohammad in this section. It doesn't mean that I am not interested what he says. I am just cautious in receiving Islam's messages from the Prophet's words, because there are so many fabricated hadith. According to my belief, it is not like that with what we have in the Koran, which was never edited. However, I still read a lot about the life of Mohammad and the sayings that were definitely his. I think everybody should know about his life and words, confirming their authenticity with his/her logic by checking if they're contrary -or not- with the wording and the spirit of the Koran. I highly recommend Martin Ling's Mohammad biography. PPS: The hadith that I quoted here were collected by Jalaladdin Abu Fadl Abdurrahman ibn Mohammad in the 15th century from several early sources. His book was translated also into French, printed in Marseille in 1851. It was translated into Turkish by Abdulbaki Golpinarli, probably the greatest Turkish expert on the history of Islamic sects. I'm fortunate to have the first edition of Golpinarli's book, which was printed in 1957.

This Is Also A Policeman

I would like to share this photo with you to show that there are also good policemen in Turkey...

Here is one, chatting with a boy who probably stoned a patrol car...

An Islamist Police Conspiracy?

I don't fear that the seperatist terrorism of PKK may ever divide Turkey. I fear that the Turkish government, with its intentionally-polarizing political agenda, has already done it.

Let me give you the pieces of the Turkish puzzle by summarizing what happened here last week. Then you can decide yourself if Turkey is on the verge of submitting to a newly-created Islamist police force or not:

1) Feyzi Isbasaran (above), an MP from Elazig province, resigned from the ruling AKP. He was sent to discipline council of the party over his outspoken remarks against a police 0fficer.

2) Isbasaran was driving his car completely drunk and his remarks while talking to the police officer were surely unacceptable. On the other hand, the officer was very wrong when insisting not to show his ID to Isbasaran even after being asked several times. Arrogance has always been the favorite sin of the Turkish police. It can drive any citizen crazy.

3) In the past, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had never forced anybody from his party to resign. He concealed all kinds of scandals before, including the ones with some obviously corrupt AKP officials. But this time, when it comes to a political confrontation with the police, Erdogan was surprisingly quick to kick out the trouble-maker.

4) Isbasaran is not an ordinary member of the parliament. He was one of the closest aides of Turgut Ozal, the former President of Turkey. He knows a lot about the police force as he was once in charge of the homeland security.

5) Just before the latest incident, Isbasaran's name had appeared on a column in a right-wing newspaper. While talking to the columnist by phone, Isbasaran was suggesting that there was clique inside the police force which was trying to weaken the military institutions to fill the gap that they would leave behind.

6) According to Isbasaran, the latest allegations about a so-called assassination attempt against Bulent Arinc, the vice PM, was obviously fabricated by this police clique, which was linked to the Gulen Movement, a shadowy Islamist brotherhood. "Unfortunately, some people in our party also believed in it," Isbasaran had complained.

7) After the latest incident which resulted with his departure, Isbasaran insisted again that he was being targeted by this Islamist police clique. "There were death threats. Prime Minister Erdogan will be responsible if something bad happens to me," he said.

8) Meanwhile, according a recent report by Vatan newspaper, the government and the army is at odds behind close doors, because of a fresh draft bill about the police force. The bill will allow the police to import military equipment, including heavy machine guns, completely by-passing the military control. At the same time, the army warns the government about "a confrontation."

* * *

An increasingly powerful, Islamist police force against a weakened, secular army...

Millions of individuals who fear that they will be reprimanded if they ask the policeman to see his ID...

And masses of people who wouldn't understand what's going on, probably until it is too late...

Doesn't it remind you the pre-1982 conditions in Iran?

Celebrating Christmas By Removing Crescents

Concerning the minaret ban in Switzerland, I had defended that the problem was not about the Swiss people as a whole. It is the Swiss government which is increasingly weak against the up-and-coming fascist wave of the deep minority, the racists who call themselves conservatives.

In Zürich, a factory had transformed its chimney into a minaret last month to show solidarity with Muslims. Its board of directors made this decision unanimously. None of the board members were Muslims. It was just an example not only for Europe, but also for the whole world.

Unfortunately, the 30-meters long chimney-minaret has been removed by the Zürich Municipality on Christmas Eve!

It is reported that the city council was under pressure of pious Christians and socialites, who reside right across the factory, seeing a crescent everyday from the south banks of the lake. The factory has protested the decision, suggesting that the chimney was actually an artistic installation. However, for a fascist authority, neither the freedom of expression means anything...

There is nothing wrong with the Swiss people. Their government, which turned the democracy into a majority dictatorship, is the one that should be blamed...

Merry Christmas!

The Turkish Journalist on the Cross

If there is someone in Turkey who is getting crucified nowadays, it's the Turkish journalist who tries to remain independent in the face of the government pressure.

The AKP government has imposed yet another fine on Dogan Group. Dogan Burda, the group's magazine publishing branch, has disclosed to the Istanbul Stock Exchange that the Trade Ministry's General Directorate for Competition imposed a 0.6 million Euro fine over product placement irregularities in magazine ads.

The fines that the government has imposed in a year against Dogan Group have exceeded 4 billion Euro in total. There are other problems, even some life-threatening ones as Zafer Atay, secretary-general of the Turkish Journalists Association, explains: "Journalists are neither safe nor free in Turkey."

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Turkey, who is the main responsible party here, defends that “the press enjoys far greater freedom in Turkey as compared to the U.S."

Hurriyet columnist Sedat Ergin has recently written an article which sincerely explains the feelings of a journalist in Turkey, who tries to remain independent against all odds.

"Mr. Prime Minister, in a statement you made in Washington, you said: 'There is no such issue as a freedom of the press problem in Turkey. The press enjoys the greatest amount of freedom ever throughout its history.' To be perfectly frank, I do not feel this way at all. I am therefore putting this in print to make my objection a matter of record," Ergin says.

You can read the rest of the article here.

The Patriarch on the Cross

During an interview with CBS News, the Orthodox Patriarch in Istanbul told that he felt like he was being crucified, regarding the current situation of minority rights in Turkey. “In our historical tradition, there has never been a crucifixion,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu replied strangely.

It is a strange reply, because -first of all- it is out of context with the words of the Patriarch. Obviously, the Patriarch didn't mean a physical crucifixion here and what he meant was just an exaggeration, IMHO.

What is more strange is the lack of Davutoglu's knowledge, whom I know as a man who knows a quite lot about Turkish history. Crucifixion was never a mainstream punishment method for the Ottomans (unlike the Romans, for instance), but it was indeed used occasionally as I have written before.

A Cinematic Breath

A Turkish movie named "Nefes: Vatan Sagolsun" (Breath: Long Live the Motherland) has been watched by 2.4 million people in two months. As AFP reports, the movie outshines "even Hollywood blockbusters and drawing praise from both the army and pacifists" as "Turkish cinema has made its maiden attempts at a cool-headed look at the bloody Kurdish insurgency in the country's southeast."

Film critic Attila Dorsay may say that Nefes is "the first truly anti-war movie in Turkish cinema," but according to my humble opinion, this is not an anti-militarist movie, as can be seen from the praises of the military. On the other hand, it is neither a militarist movie. The reason is simple: The movie lacks a strong political perspective. I don't know if it's good or bad in cinema, but the movie manages to maximize its consumer base by playing on both sides of the polarity.

As a whole, Nefes reminds me of the new generation Russian war movies which made a comeback recently. Commercially successful, but artistically imperfect.

EU's Santa Claus Gift For Serbia

The European Union opened its borders unrestricted today to more than ten million Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians, abolishing all visa restrictions with these three countries.

The remaining three Balkan states, namely Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania, were all left in cold. Surprisingly, all of them are Muslim majority countries.

Here are two striking reactions from the readers of The Independent:

Mitrovica: "People that created concentration camps and rape camps in Bosnia and Kosova can travel freely anywhere in EU while their victims are isolated. Then again Europe has brought genocide and rapes to every corner of this planet so probably see themselves in Serbs and revel in some sadist nostalgia."

Sandjak: "Bosnia did meet more requirements for visa liberation than Serbia, but Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania are Muslim majority countries. This indicates once again that Europe has not changed its attitude towards Bosnia since 1992. Serbia through Dodik, PM of Bosnia's entity Republic of Srpska prevents any progress in Bosnia, and Europe is quite aware of it. Why was not said that Serbs and Croats from Bosnia have dual citizenship with Serbia and Croatia which means they can travel without visas, whereas only Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) are banned. Serbia will never arrest war criminal Mladic for fear that he could tell the ICTY who ordered genocide in Bosnia."

* * *

It was actually a Santa Claus gift for Serbia from the EU.

The end of the visa barrier has fallen on the festival of St Nicholas. This saint is a venerable figure for all Christians, whether Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox, and especially for the Serbs. In Serbia, today was the equivalent of the American Thanksgiving.

I don't know if a few conservative EU leaders who were poisoned by a D'Estaing-styled idiocy have meant it, but it seems that the timing was an implicit reference to the Christian values of Europe, which are actually as imaginary as all ideologies.

And don't those leaders know that the home of St Nicholas, the real Santa Claus, is southern Turkey? Don't they see another symbolism here, maybe a more important one, not about the past, but the future?

I never suggested that Serbian people should always be punished for what their leaders had done almost 20 years ago. I simply say: The EU had a moral responsibility in Serbian massacres in Bosnia and Kosovo. So Brussels should have firstly been embracing Bosnians and Kosovans.

And the same EU leaders should think about the words of Serbia's Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who says that they waited for 20 years and "Finally, the same rules that apply for others apply for us as well."

Then the EU can also question itself about its stance on Turkey's membership, remembering that Ankara applied for the first time 40 years ago and the visa-free travel rights of the Turkish people which were confirmed by international courts are still being usurped by the EU governments.

Serbia may apply for the EU membership next week. Not only Turkey, Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania, but all Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco will be watching if the bloody double-standards of the EU will finally be abolished as well, or not.

* * *

The EU is not a xenophobic Christian club.

If it were, then it would be doomed to fail in this globalized world.

The Almighty Terrorist

It is revealed today that Abdullah Ocalan, PKK's leader, has never been arrested by the Turkish special forces. It was Ocalan's body double (above). The real Ocalan is not imprisoned in Imrali, a Turkish island. He may be on holiday in Capri...

It seems that the only government in this country is now Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of PKK, which labeled as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the US.

Let's remember:

Ocalan, who was condemned to a life sentence, had announced last month that he would be transferred to another cell in Imrali island. He complained that the new cell was smaller than the previous one, even though the difference was barely one square-meter.

Consequently, several riots were observed in southeastern provinces. Most of the rioters who burned cars and stoned shops were Kurdish children. A tactic that PKK have been using for a long time...

Then DTP officially declared that they were concerned about Ocalan's comfort. It was a significant development, showing that this political party was no more hiding the fact that it was actually an apparatus of PKK.

Thereafter, the Constitutional Court did what it had to do, shutting down DTP by referring to its obvious links to PKK. And DTP leaders announced that they would resign from the parliament...

Finally, Ocalan talked to his lawyers about the ban and ordered DTP leaders to take their resignations back and stay in the parliament under a new party. Today, DTP leaders, like PKK poodles, did what Ocalan wanted, confirming that the court decision was totally legitimate.

* * *

After Ocalan's messages, it is expected that violent protest marches which still continue all around Turkey, especially in the cities with large Kurdish populations, will cease in a few days.

The police is generally tolerant during PKK marches. In some cities, the security forces even allow the protesters to beat the policemen that they didn't like!

What AKP's police cannot stand is laborers, not terrorists.

Hundreds of tobacco industry workers, who were formerly public servants, are about to lose their jobs now after the government privatized TEKEL. While marching yesterday, the police brutally dispersed TEKEL workers. A few opposition MPs were also suffered from the police batons and tear gas.

A CHP parliamentarian, not his body double, welcomes the police tear gas with his forehead (above).

On one side, there is a government which is only strong enough against its tax-paying citizens, but not terrorists...

On the other side, there is a terror organization which is being legitimized by the incapability of the government...

AKP and PKK...

Which one is a rising political actor and which one is a destructive force in Turkey?

DTP-PKK Link and International Standards

Amnesty International has expressed its concern that a Turkish court has shut down DTP under laws that fail to meet international standards.

I respect Amnesty International in general, but I'm surprised to see them using such contentious terms sometimes.

International standards?

Isn't the Batasuna verdict of the Spanish court, which concluded that there was a link between this political party and the terrorist organization ETA, a part of those international standards?

Or what about the Refah verdict which was ruled by the same Turkish court under same Turkish laws and subsequently confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights? Was the closure of Refah against Amnesty's subjectively-defined international standards, which were surely not shared by the ECHR?

While condemning Turkey, Amnesty International doesn't even mention Batasuna or Refah, but still emphasizing that "the European Court of Human Rights has previously issued a series of judgments finding Turkey to have violated the European Convention on Human Rights in relation to the closure of political parties." Isn't this a spin?

Shutting down DTP won't solve any problem in Turkey, but it was a legal necessity as there was a clear link between this party and the terror organization PKK. DTP has done nothing in the past to distance itself from terrorism and that's how they made Turkey miss a great chance. For those who still doubt, here is one more evidence about DTP-PKK link that surfaced yesterday:

33-year-old Abbas Kaya (below) has recently been arrested in Mardin, while carrying a suspicious bag. Explosives and hand grenades were found in the bag. It is discovered now that the suspect, who has confessed that the PKK has intended to use the explosives in bloody actions, is a councilor of DTP in Viransehir Municipality. How many more links should be provided to fulfil Amnesty's international standards?

Protecting Property, Not Identity

In Paris, almost all shop owners have insurance against violent protests...

In Istanbul, many of them have no insurance, but pistols...

In Mus, almost all of them have machine guns, instead.

* * *

In France, drama happens... In Turkey, tragedy...

* * *

What important here is to punish all criminals without considering their ethnicity or profession...

Many people think that the AKP government may finally manage to trigger a civil war, a situation which couldn't be imagined only a few years ago.

I don't think so. It is indeed a situation which couldn't be imagined only a few years ago, but we shouldn't be fooled.

Nobody in Turkey is attacking (yet) to another citizen because of his/her ethnicity. It's still all about protecting property.

And that's why it's even more tragic.

In the last decade, the Turkish society has been overwhelmingly materialized. With the rise of pseudo-Islamism, the religion has surrendered to a hardhearted neo-liberalism. In the end, both religious and secular values lost ground and a blind capitalism triumphed in Turkey as well.

I believe in pacifism for reaching political and social goals. However, as I've written recently, I can have respect for some sort of political violence in certain conditions.

After all, the violence which one may resort to protect his identity can be justified somehow. We have never witnessed to such a divine violence in Turkey.

But the violence that we've seen in Turkey today, the violence to protect your property, is what is most despicable.

What kind of shop window or car can be more valuable than a life anyway?

This erratic logic is what we used to see in Western Europe, where the governments have successfully been managing to avoid it by stiff laws and rules.

Turkish society was not like that, but this is how AKP has westernized us...

Punching Silvio

What a symbolism on Silvio Berlusconi's bloody face!

Massimo Tartaglia, who knocked out the Italian Prime Minister with a miniature replica of Milano's gothic cathedral, might be just a nutter, but what he has done represents a political reality.

While talking about the divine violence, Slavoj Zizek explains that "violence is not necessarily activity, action. It is not always the case that social functions run by themselves and that it takes a lot of energy, a lot of violence to transform them. To the contrary, it often takes a lot of violence to make sure things stay the way they are. Sometimes, then, the truly violent act is doing nothing, a refusal to act."

Tartaglia's action was actually a reaction against the inaction of the majority of Italian people, who still loves Berlusconi against all odds, including sex scandals, mafia links and corruption cases. The physical blow was nothing, comparing to the crushing violence of Berlusconi's efforts to make sure things to stay the way they are, which obviously sucks, and the defeaning silence (the refusal to act) of the Italian public.

The question here is not if the political violence can ever be justified. The miniature cathedral that broke Berlusconi's nose is just a moral reminder of the sane minority in Italy, like Umberto Eco. With Zizek's words, like the young people of the French banlieue who simply wanted to say (to adopt a slogan from Badiou): we are here, and we are from here.

Honestly, I don't hate Berlusconi. However, I somehow enjoyed to watch the miserable expression in his face after the attack, reminding me the face of another honorable politician. When Berlusconi was struggling to sleep because of the pain in his nose, relegating to the division of us, the mortals, there were thousands of ordinary people in Italy who were sleeping with a naughty smile on their faces. I'm sorry for Berlusconi, but happy for them.

Nationalist Militia?

Turkish nationalists and Kurdish activists clashed in Istanbul today, leaving at least one person injured from a gunshot during street battles, AFP has reported.

I would like to correct the AFP report:

The action and reaction in Istanbul today was ultimately idiotic, but the people who reacted were not necessarily nationalists. As their appearance (no MHP mustache, but Islamist or leftist style beards) also hints, these were just local shop owners who tried to protect their property from a hundred DTP/PKK supporters who were hurling petrol bombs and stones.

Similar scenes could happen in Paris, if French shopkeepers didn't have any insurance during immigrant riots. Would they also be labeled as nationalists then? (The fact that they were not a nationalist militia didn't mean that they should not be prosecuted. Of course they should be punished in legal terms for injuring a person and risking the lives of many other people. The probability of them being agent provocateurs should also be taken into account.)

Meanwhile, as Associated Press reported, this is the third straight day of street violence after the constitutional court outlawed DTP for links with the terrorist organization PKK.

The ensuing violence deepened and this is very dangerous especially if we consider the fact that ordinary people started to brandish their guns in the streets for whatever reason. The AKP government is the main responsible party here and they will be the one who will pay the price in the next elections. AKP has finally polarized people ethnically. Previous governments had never managed to do it.

On the other hand, I'm still optimistic. We don't live in 1970s. Nobody can divide Turkey now. Not because of our great government, but because of the international interests in the region, which favor a strong Turkey as a reliable energy partner...

Taming Radicals By Law

Turkey's Constitutional Court has just banned Democratic Society Party (DTP). The decision has been made unanimously by top judges, including the ones who rejected a similar case against the governing AKP.

After inspecting dozens of evidences for two years, the court has decided that DTP has become the political wing of PKK, a terrorist organization according to the United States and the EU. The relationship between PKK and DTP is similar to the one between ETA and Batasuna, the court rules.

At the same time, the court didn't kick all DTP MPs out 0f the national parliament. Yes, 55 DTP members have been barred from politics, but the remaining 19 in the parliament can easily attract only one more MP to form another parliamentary group under the flag of a new party. If they're responsible politicians and not terrorist provocateurs, then that's what they should do.

* * *

Banning a party is not an ideal situation in a democracy, but sometimes it is necessary. As I've written a few days ago, I agree with the prosecution. I had said that a ban could be counter-productive for political stability in the short term, but the judiciary should not think about politics. It should serve the justice, blindly, by basing its decision solely on current laws and norms.

It is DTP which made Turkey lose an indispensable opportunity by not distancing itself from terrorism. Recently, it has undoubtedly become the mouthpiece of PKK. Their constant efforts to relate the Kurdish Opening of the government to the fate of Abdullah Ocalan, the terrorist leader who serves a life sentence in an isolated island, were the last nails that they put in their own coffin.

What was wrong with this court decision is about some DTP politicians who were surprisingly barred from joining any political party for five years. For instance, alongside 34 members of the party, DTP official Aysel Tugluk (right) was also banned. It is true that she couldn't manage to distance DTP from PKK by herself, but she had tried to do so. She was actually a rare example of doves in DTP. It is unjust that she has also been banned, while a PKK militant named Emine Ayna is still allowed to be in politics.

* * *

On the other hand, I believe that there is a potential of utilitiarism in this decision as a whole. Even though the effect of this move would surely be negative in the short term, it may be positive in the long one. Let me explain:

In such a unique, but fragile democracy like Turkey, banning radical parties generally serve the long term national interests by taming their political bases and elites.

Remember Turkish Islamists...

Welfare Party was a fanatically-Islamist organization, which was once talking about imposing sharia law in Turkey. After it was closed down with the confirmation of the European Court of Human Rights, a more moderate party, namely Virtue Party, has been born out of its ashes. Virtue Party had also got some radical Islamists, which were all eliminated after a second ban. Finally, we have come to AKP and now its leader Tayyip Erdogan is miraculously condemning his previous statements, defending that he has been changed.

I hope that a similar change will happen to pro-Kurdish politicians after this legal and totally justified decision, prompting them to condemn PKK terrorism and keep themselves away from Kurdish nationalism, which is as destructive as any hardcore nationalisms in the world. Maybe they can finally learn to be the party of whole Turkey and whole Kurds, not just a terrorist faction. As the Turkish saying goes; "sometimes a catastrophe is better than a friendly advice."

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."

DTP Case: Justice vs Logic

Serap Eser, 17, was waiting for her bus on November 8. The bus stop was just a mile away from my home. Right after her bus arrived, a few PKK militants attacked it with molotov cocktails. She was seriously injured with horrendous burns.

After 29 days in coma, Serap has died today. PKK has claimed one more civilian life in Istanbul.

* * *

Turkey's Constitutional Court will hear a case to shut down the country's pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) tomorrow.

From a political point of view, the closure of DTP will be counter-productive for Turkey.

But should the judiciary regard the political climate?

Does the justice change according to environmental conditions?

* * *

When it was first founded, I was hopeful that DTP could be a part of the solution for the Kurdish problem in Turkey. Unfortunately, with their increasingly destructive nationalism, they proved that I was wrong.

Take the recent remarks of DTP leader Ahmet Türk. Now they're so ruthless to explicitly defend the PKK, a terrorist organization according to Turkey, the EU and the United States.

DTP shamelessly tries to legitimize the PKK and I guess that any state in the world would shut down such a political party with obvious links to a terror organization.

Remember Spain and ANV, for instance.

The justice, the legal system and any kind of laws say that DTP should be closed.

* * *

The political logic may say that DTP should not be shut down, but from a legal point of view, its closure was justified long ago.

I don't think that single events should effect legal decisions, but Serap's death may have a normal impact, especially if we remember the spine-chilling reactions of DTP officials after the molotov cocktail attack:

"Some kids see the pressure against their families and organize such actions. We never want such molotov coctail attacks, but the police should also not use tear gas against protesting crowds."

This is the sick, eye-for-an-eye logic of DTP, which can now be doubtlessly defined as the political wing of PKK.

And this why it is legal to shut it down, whether it is good for political stability or not.

Mountains and Minarets

In the best article that I've read today:

"Minarets are threatening because they rub salt in the wounds of those who feel the loss of their own faith. (...) if the elites are hated for causing our modern malaise, the Muslims are envied for still having faith, for knowing who they are, for having something that is worth dying for," Ian Buruma says.

You can read the rest here.

My Favorite Minaret

I, as a person who is amateurishly interested in religious architecture, wrote here before that Suleymaniye Mosque is my favorite landmark and Kölner Dom is in my Top Three.

As the world discusses minaret bans and the Turkish neo-Ottomanism, I'd like to mention my favorite minarets in Istanbul. As Selimiye Mosque -with its enigmatic minarets which are the longest in Turkey (71 meters)- is in Edirne, I have no option but Ortaköy Mosque.

Ortaköy Camii, or the Grand Imperial Mosque of Sultan Mecid, may not be as amazing as the Selimiye, but it still rocks. Built between 1854 and 1856 as the work of two architect brothers from a celebrated Ottoman-Armenian family, the mosque was eloquently designed in neo-baroque style. Surrounded by the sea from two sides, its wide windows let the Bosphorus light shine inside.

The historical landmark seems like an original mixture of a mosque and a church. Not because of the ethnicity of its architects, but probably thanks to the Ottoman cultural agenda of the time -a full-fledged modernization period like the Meiji Restoration in Japan...

I always associate its minarets with exquisite fountain pens, pointing the Heaven. Aren't they a symbol of enlightment and wisdom? Don't they mark the breath-taking change in their time, heralding a new world order which would be based upon the power of knowledge, instead of bayonets?

Switzerland as a Theocratic State?

When I was away from here, Switzerland has banned minarets by a referandum.

First of all, I should state that I don't agree with many critics who branded Swiss people as racist as a whole because of such a ban.

As the following reactions of the public showed, not all Swiss people are racists. 1.5 million Swiss people voted for the ban, but Muslims should remember the rest, 6.5 million, including the ones who protested the result. Hundreds of Swiss youth took the Geneva streets, carrying banners which read "We're all Muslims." As Hurriyet reported today, St. Elisabeth Church in Basel symbolically declares that its tower is now a minaret as well. The Jewish community in Switzerland also denounced the ban.

After seeing the positive in the negative in the first hand, we can look into the situation with a sane mind to make constructive conclusions, instead of provocative statements.

The referandum was the idea of SVP. Some call them "right-wing," but it's a problem. If the diagnosis is wrong, the treatment can't be formulated correctly. So let's name it: SVP is a populist party with very worrying racist tendencies in a country where are many Nazi-like laws in and around, as well as discriminative immigration policies, forced-assimilation applications, etc.

When I had an interview with Soli Pardo, SVP's Geneva chief, exactly a year ago, I had felt that he was not expecting a minaret ban. He was not even thinking that a referendum can be held in the near future. I'm sure that he's also very surprised now.

Pardo had labelled the minarets as arrows rising to the Hell, (let's remember that there are only four minarets in all Switzerland). When asked about the similar posture of church towers, he explained that they're "more balanced" somehow.

This racist dilemma is universal. The Other is always unfavorable, even when it is identical with what you have. The foreign immigrant is lazy, but he also still our jobs. He is ugly, but he can steal our girls, too... The problem with racists is the fact that you can't change their minds even when you reveal their inconsistencies.

So what should be done to prevent the rising Western European racism -which is wrongly called xenophobia by many apologists, is not about the hardcore racists, but the popular periphery around them. The problem is the lack of universal education and cultural interaction.

Take the limited number of ultra-conservative Swiss cantons which overwhelmingly voted for the ban, even though there are virtually no Muslims inhabitants. You can't see such a pattern in a city like Geneva. Even the SVP representatives in this city, like Pardo whose father was a Turkish citizen, is quite cosmopolitan and open-minded there.

The shocking ban shows that the Swiss government has failed to promote multiculturalism especially in the countryside. It failed to kick racism and xenophobia out of the sociopolitical map. So now it is time to start a broad campaign to reach out and educate the upcountry. Let's remember: Appenzell, which is one of the cantons with the biggest number of yes votes, has always been rejecting to give women the right to vote until 90s. The Swiss women in this canton earned this right only after a Supreme Court decision, not a referandum.

The Swiss goverment should apply a shock therapy now. Mark the cantons with the highest number of yes votes, declare them as priority areas for every kinds of foreign exchange programs, especially the ones with university students. A positive change will happen soon or late.

In the end, the minaret crisis is currently being based on a detail of a broader problem: A physical part of a temple which is effectively without any function nowadays. Unfortunately, like always, the public cannot see the core of the problem yet, which is the inability of the Western European governments to cope with persistent racism in their societies.

When we solve this problem by new and more efficient ways, we can start talking about the limits of the democracy. Questions include: Can you organize a referandum for anything? If yes, is it really democracy or is it the rule of the majority?

And sometimes dictatorship of a virtual majority like we have in Switzerland now?.

Not even a secular dictatorship, as can be seen from the fact that it discriminates against the Islamic architecture while promoting the Christian one...

Then why doesn't SVP suggest a new referandum to turn Switzerland into a theocratic state like Iran or Saudi Arabia?