National Post, Canada
A Nation in Denial
by Robert Fulford
Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007
?id=3D389d82ff-786e-43ab-a997-8732fea34a34
When Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for literature in October, not
everyone in Turkey was pleased. A lawyer who had helped bring charges
of "insulting Turkishness" against Pamuk in 2005 claimed the author
won the Nobel not forhis books but because he had taken the side of
those who believe that in 1915 a Turkish campaign of genocide killed
more than a million Armenians. "As a Turkish citizen I am ashamed," he
said — not ashamed of the genocide but of Pamuk. A nationalist poet
said that people who know literature would neverplace Pamuk first
among prominent Turkish writers. Last, maybe.
Pamuk’s enemies reflect what Turks (even the prime minister) call "the
Deep State," a shadowy network of judges, police, army officers,
bureaucrats and crime bosses, all of whom claim to defend Turkey’s
honour. They argue, withthe hysterical ferocity of people who no
longer believe their own lies, that the genocide story was invented by
Turkey’s enemies.
The Deep State’s opinions may eventually be drowned by more convincing
arguments; but for now it’s too powerful to be ignored. Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a relatively moderate leader, wants to make
Turkey respectable enough for full membership in the European
Union. While worrying about rebellious Kurds and Islamic radicals
(Turkey is 99.8% Muslim), Erdogan apparently decided that unfairly
prosecuting a few writers wasn’t too high a price for appeasing his
county’s irascible nationalists. How could he know the size of Pamuk’s
foreign reputation? How could he have anticipated, disaster of
disasters, the Nobel?
The Deep State stands behind Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code,
created to maintain public ignorance by making criticism of Turkey a
crime. Article 301 was the basis of charges, eventually dismissed,
against Pamuk. It was also behind the charge of insulting Turkishness
brought in 2005 against Hrant Dink, a journalist who belonged to
Turkey’s small Armenian minority. He was convicted but given a
six-months suspended sentence. In nationalist eyes, that certified him
as an enemy.
Apparently as a result, he was shot to death on Jan. 19. As he lay on
the sidewalk, the murderer ran away, shouting, "I have killed an
Armenian!" Police see a conspiracy. They have arrested seven men,
including the alleged shooter — who, after his arrest, was allowed to
pose for pictures with a Turkish flag.
A persistent critic of Turkish law, Dink disliked the national
anthem’s line, "smile upon my heroic race," and criticized the
schools for requiring children, whatever their ethnicity, to swear:
"I am Turkish, I am righteous." And he discussed the genocide.
In 1996, Dink founded a Turkish- Armenian weekly, AGOS, to create
understanding between the two communities. He achieved a small
circulation,just 6,000 subscribers, but made a large reputation. While
Armenian in background, he supported Turkey’s application for full
status in the EU and believed in its future as a democracy.
A crowd of 100,000 attended his funeral in Istanbul. At The Hague
1,000 people gathered in front of the Dutch Parliament while
parliamentarians from three major parties condemned Turkish
nationalism. In Brussels on Thursday the European Parliament observed
a minute’s silence for Dink. In Washington, Senator Joseph Biden
introduced a resolution that praised Dink’s virtues and called his
death "an outrage and a tragedy."
His death has become yet another stumble on Turkey’s path to the
EU. Pamuk was threatened by one of Dink’s murderers, so he’s accepted
state protection.
He also cancelled a planned visit to Germany while going ahead with a
visit to the United States. He said he was avoiding Germany for
security reasons but he may have been showing the Turks that their
policies are harming their future. Germany, by a long way Turkey’s
most important trading partner, will certainly influence EU
decisions. This week German papers were saying that(as Die Zeit put
it) "a dam has broken" and Turkish policy must change.
The Dink assassination was only the latest in a long series of
appalling events that have disclosed a troubled, confused, and
insecure nation. Turkey has no record of political stability in recent
decades. Since the middle of the 20th century, government has been
changed four times by military coup. Once the centre of great power,
Turkey may never have entirely recovered from the dissolution of the
Ottoman Empire in the 1920s. History has left Turks with incoherent
national memories of pride and shame. Their long, painful rise toward
modernity demonstrates why a peaceful and prosperous future requires a
reasonably honest understanding of the past.
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© National Post 2007