DREAMING OF A PURE NATION-STATE

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N ov 17 2008
Turkey

With statements he made during the Nov. 10 ceremonies held in memory
of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Brussels, where he was attending an EU
defense ministers’ troika meeting, Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi
Gönul became the top item on Turkey’s agenda last week, though he
repeatedly tried to deny his assertions.

Gönul is a former governor who has been in politics for many years and
is one of those whose names are the first to be remembered at times
when somebody is needed for a top position, in terms of relations
between the state (read as establishment) and politics. This quality
of his comes not from him being a person whose never-disclosed ideas
are favored by everyone nor from his ideological stance, but from his
being a person who is so utterly tight-lipped and secretive that no
one has any idea about what he really thinks about a given issue.

Indeed, it is a source of curiosity that he has managed to participate
at all in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party),
which is highly esteemed by the voters for its discourse on change
and reformism, as he is regarded as a figure whose views about the
most controversial issues are not known. Moreover, no able politician
but Gönul could have managed to serve as defense minister for as
long a period as six years without causing even the slightest crisis
in a country where military-civilian relations represent the most
problematic area in terms of democratic reforms. One cannot help but
wonder how he has managed to remain in such a post, a very troublesome
office given the political conditions in Turkey.

We would be very pleased to hear Gönul talk about the secret of
serving as defense minister without any problems, as this represents an
ordeal to every sane politician in a country where one crisis between
the military and civilians follows on the heels of another. But I
know that this desire is impossible to fulfill. So we are justified
in speculating about this secret. For instance, I may suggest a thesis
and assume that Gönul is actually holding a virtual position without
any concrete function. Indeed, to date, we have never had a chance
to see such a ministry or such a minister really exist with respect
to external threats or deadly internal threats, such as terrorism.

Gönul holds such a position that you cannot hear him speaking even
minimally about the memorandum issued by the army, which is supposed
to be subordinated to him, against his government. When terrorists
attack Daglıca or Aktutun or any other military outpost, everyone
says something and heated debates are seen, but you cannot hear the
defense minister or the Defense Ministry make any single comment about
them. Whether the country should conduct cross-border operations is
discussed for months but, all through this time, you don’t witness
any sign of the existence of a defense minister. While all of the
generals from the highest rank to the lowest take the opportunity
to utter remarks about issues that do not concern them in the least,
one cannot hear the voice of the defense minister, who is in charge
of these generals on behalf of the government. Minister Gönul’s post
is such a position that it in reality does not exist. Actually, who
can best be fitted to a position that is deemed not to exist than a
minister who is deemed nonexistent?

One cannot help but think that the taciturn inaction of a politician
whose real power derives from obscurity and insignificance can really
be an advantageous quality. Such a politician makes comments only
rarely, but then what does he say? "Population exchange was utterly
important in Turkey becoming a nation-state. If there were Greeks in
the Aegean and Armenians in most places in Turkey today, would it be
the same nation-state? I don’t know with which words I can explain
the importance of the population exchange, but if you look at the
former state of affairs, its importance will become very clear. We
cannot deny the contribution of those who consider themselves the
victims of this nation-building, especially the forced emigration,
to the struggle in southeastern Anatolia."

If it were only Minister Gönul who was unfortunate enough to be able
to speak with pride today about the dark pages in our history, such
as population exchange or forced migration, built upon tragedies for
both Muslims and non-Muslims due to the conditions prevalent at the
time, and even to present these as the principles of the republic,
we might not give much thought to this issue. But this mentality is
very dangerous and worth being discussed, since it is still popular
among the Turkish military and civilian-bureaucratic circles. It is
because of this discriminatory mentality that the apparatus that we
call as the state in Turkey treats every different idea or lifestyle
as an enemy and attempts to destroy it.

This mentality, which in the past regarded Armenians and Greeks —
who did nothing but enrich these lands with their different cultures
and religions — as enemies is treating pious Muslims, or Kurds or
Alevis, who attempt to enjoy their own cultures, as threats. Who can
save a Turkey where the fanciful idea of creating a pure nation-state
has poisoned even a minister of a political party that has assumed
office despite the obstacles posed by the establishment from the
risk of being dragged to a uniform fanaticism of a so-called "culture
revolution" like that launched by Mao in communist China for the sake
of progressivism?

Meanwhile, I strongly suggest that the opponents of this mentality,
which does not fit with hopes for creating a contemporary, plural,
diverse and democratic Turkey, should look and see what happens in
other countries. The election of a black American whose ancestors
were enslaved in the past as the US president or a Turkish immigrant
becoming co-chairman of the Greens in Germany should tell them
something.

–Boundary_(ID_BT7KJhGaL0+LceBNi2 cpsw)–