LAWYER WHO’S TAKING ON THE EU (AND ANYONE WHO INSULTS TURKEY)
Benjamin Harvey In Istanbul

Scotsman, United Kingdom
Aug 6 2006

KEMAL Kerincsiz believes Turkey is one of the greatest, most free
countries in the world.

But insult it, and you could find yourself facing him in court.

To some of Turkey’s 70 million people, the ultra-nationalist lawyer
is the voice of a proud people against a patronising West. To others,
he is the voice of intolerance – a major embarrassment that could
derail Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.

As the ubiquitous, mustachioed leader of the Turkish Lawyers’ Union,
Mr Kerincsiz is the reason writers and intellectuals are regularly
put on trial in Turkey.

Mr Kerincsiz gained international notoriety this year for dragging
the celebrated novelist Orhan Pamuk to court for allegedly insulting
Turkishness. Mr Pamuk, often cited as a candidate for the Nobel prize
in literature, was acquitted.

But the lawyer has met with success in less high-profile cases, winning
a conviction against an Armenian-Turkish journalist for the same
offence. He has also opened dozens of other cases against journalists,
writers and intellectuals, including one set to go to court this
month against the Arizona-based Turkish novelist Elif Shafak.

Mr Kerincsiz and his organisation of some 700 nationalist lawyers
have exasperated not only EU officials – who have said the cases must
be stopped or Turkey will jeopardise its hopes of joining the EU –
but also Turkey’s intellectuals and its leadership.

The lawyer believes Turkey’s future is in the East and represents
a growing, powerful faction of Turkish society tired of being told
it must aspire to be more like the West. Recently, his view appears
to be gaining traction in the government, with Recep Tayyip Egdoga,
the prime minister, increasingly making foreign policy overtures to
the Middle East – and away from Europe.

"The easterner has to insult himself and degrade his own culture to
ingratiate himself with the West," Mr Kerincsiz said. "Our place is
in eastern culture, our real aim is finding allies among our own
people." By that he means primarily the Turkic peoples of Central
Asia, which he hopes to see included one day in the "Turkish Union"
led by Turkey.

He admits this is a far-off dream, but it is possible, he says,
especially when one looks at the mishmash of different cultures
joined together in the EU. Mr Kerincsiz makes no effort to hide his
view that the European Union is an enemy of Turkey.

In the year that has followed Turkey’s opening of EU negotiations
last October, it has become clear that even if they don’t entirely
share Mr Kerincsiz’s view, Turks are cooling in their enthusiasm for
accession, and he is tapping into the sources of their discontent.

The latest "Eurobarometer" survey found only 44 per cent of Turks
surveyed thought EU membership would be a good thing for Turkey,
compared to 55 per cent last autumn. Last spring, 66 per cent said
they supported EU membership.