The banality of the murders of three Christians in Turkey
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Turkish Daily News , Turkey
April 21 2007
We will continue to pray in our churches for our nation, but our
nation will continue to see us as enemies. And sooner or later,
‘birileri’ who loves their country will attack us again. As our bodies
will lay there on the ground, their abis, in the most banal fashion,
will declare that birileri is trying to destroy Turkey
Ziya Meral
You have to learn one key element that forms the mental template, which
rules Turkish politics and society, if you wish to understand what is
happening and where we are coming from. It is not only the melancholy
of a lost glory that we have inherited from the Ottoman Empire, but
also a deep rooted "some people" syndrome. This syndrome began with
the bitter experience of the European powers and non-Muslim minorities
during the fall of the Empire. They sought to go on their own ways or
tried to invade and colonize what we today call Turkey. Since then,
every non-Muslim is viewed as a potential traitor and conspirator
that seek to divide our country under the leadership of the Western
powers. Within this mindset, today’s powerful and secured Turkish
Republic is under the same imminent inner and outer threat, which the
Ottoman Empire was under before and after WWI. Step into a bookstore,
read a Turkish newspaper, listen to the political and media elites,
you will see that this is a reified truth that is internalized widely
as "common sense" and is beyond any doubt.
Always ‘birileri’ divides our nation:
The international community, non-Muslim minorities and various NGOs
and intellectuals in Turkey have been asking for the free exercise of
the most basic rights of religious minorities, that are protected not
only by the Turkish Constitution and Penal Code, but as well as all of
the international covenants Turkey is a party to. Yet, this request has
always been interpreted by the politicians and wider public through the
lenses of some people syndrome. "Birileri", or some people, are trying
to strengthen minorities in order to divide our nation. These birileri
are not only trying to use the Human Rights argument to pressure Turkey
and make her look "bad" in the eyes of the world, they are also the
ones behind the persecution of minorities. When the Roman Catholic
priest Andrea Santore was killed in Trabzon by a 16-year-old boy on 5
February 2006, majority of politicians and commentators declared that
birileri were trying to hinder Turkey’s EU accession. When a Protestant
church in Odemis was attacked with Molotov Cocktails on 4 November
2006, it was birileri who were trying to embarrass Turkey. Not so
surprisingly, the local authorities ordered the church to shut down
its activities following the attack, because birileri had darker
aims than just worshipping their God. When a Protestant church in
Samsun was stoned and threatened in January 2007, it was birileri
again who were trying to put Turkey in a hot spot. When Hrant Dink
was murdered this year, it was not the plain fact that birileri who
"loved their country" killed him, but some other birileri whose main
occupation were to corner Turkey on the Armenian question.
Gendarme hunt on missionaries:
This "sensitivity" for the welfare of our country showed itself all
through out 2006 and 2007. Turkish media reported with a great zeal
that two Turkish Christian missionaries, Hakan and Turan were caught
with a splendid Gendarme operation and taken to courts on 11 October
2006 as if propagating one’s beliefs are crimes in Turkey.
Apparently, these Turkish Christians, whom I know personally,
were offering sex with younger girls and money to few innocent
unemployed Turkish lads and threatening them with guns. Through out
this aggressive activity "to convert" the lads, they have also not
forgotten to insult Turkishness, Prophet Muhammad and the Turkish
Armed Forces. Their fate still awaits a conclusion by the court.
All these years, Turkish media gave sensational accounts of 100 US
Dollars being placed in the Bibles to lure Muslims. No court ever
found a Christian or a church guilty on any of these charges or found
the traces of generously distributed dollars, but the urban myth still
continued. The State, which runs an effective apparatus that controls
media did nothing to stop these wild accusations. On the contrary
officials have echoed the same ‘common sense’ that these people have
one agenda and that is to divide our country. So it should come as no
surprise to you when Necati, Uður and Tilman were killed brutally by
5 young nationalist and slightly religious men, AKP MPs for Malatya,
where the murders took place, have declared that birileri were trying
to stir up Turkey right before the Presidential elections. Beneath
all of the superficial condemnations of the murder, which is often
limited to the first opening sentence, the rest of all of the comments
point to good old dull international conspiracy theories.
The Elders of Zion replaced:
The human face of this national neurosis is the death of human beings,
who have nothing to do with any of the perceived national threats. The
dark side of our worldview is just human, all too human, nothing fancy
and enchanting like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or the myth
of birileri. As long as the media and politicians keep using Christians
in the country as scape goats to the mundane failures of local politics
and identity confusions in a global age, we will have more murders and
attacks, that’s certain.The mental template that was born out of the
sad experiences of the past has paralyzed us completely. We are now
failing to understand the present on its own terms and to move to a
brighter future. Historical malady has removed the plastic energy we
need to mold and renew ourselves as modern day Turks. It gave birth
to an incapacity to mourn genuinely the death of two Turkish and one
German human being by a bunch of kids who took the words of their abis
(older brothers) seriously, to an incapacity to see that we have a
significant problem of Non-Muslim minorities and that our perceptions
of our country as a tolerant junction "where civilizations meet"
is only believed by the marketing gurus of the tourism industry.
Not for saving the face:
I am a Turkish Christian and have known Necati personally for years. I
attended the same church with him. He was a genuine man, who loved
his country and people. However, neither Necati and Uður nor any
of us are allowed to love our country or even serve her. Somehow,
our personal love for Jesus is incompatible with being a Turk and
a Patriot. Somehow, no matter who we really are and what we really
believe, what is important is what the officials and media have named
us; Traitors! The Turkish State has a legal responsibility towards
her vulnerable minorities. The improvements and grandeur public
declarations of sorrow by the politicians should not be done only with
the fear of the EU or to save the "face" of our nation, but because
our State cares for her children and citizens. The State has a moral
responsibility to do so! Even when the international watchdogs are
not looking, even when the legal provisions are not in place, even
before someone asks for protection, our country should be there for
us. Our democracy and the national soul is only strong to the extent
of her protection, respect and integration of her weakest members!
This will happen again
My heart bleeds as I write these sentences not just because of
the death of beloved ones, but because as I read the comments and
reactions to their murder, waves of fear and helplessness fills every
single cell in this body of mine. I know, just like the other events,
this too will be forgotten as the country is fixed on the Presidential
elections. The myths that are allowed to be "truths" will still remain
in the minds of people. We will continue to pray in our churches for
our nation, but our nation will continue to see us as enemies and
sooner or later, birileri who loves their country or are angry with
the West will attack us again, as if we are foreign Embassies. And
our deaths will never be tantalizing stories of international actors,
historical battles and colonial intentions. We will die in the most
banal ways; a depraved youngling seeking to assert his identity and
be an active agent in a confusing age, finding encouragement from
the careless statements of his writer, politician and religious abis,
will find a kitchen knife or a gun, then use it. As our bodies will
lay there on the ground, those abis, in the most banal fashion, will
declare that birileri is trying to destroy Turkey, all along failing
to notice that those birileri are so difficult to find because they
are the very ones who are speaking!
…~E..
Ziya Meral, a Turkish convert to Protestant Christianity, is a
theologian and writer
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