KEMALIST BOLSHEVIK TURKEY: GREAT MARCH TO CIVILIZATION!
Today’s Zaman
Nov 6 2009
Turkey
Images from "La Turquie Kemaliste," published by the Kemalist regime
between 1934 and 1941.
A few weeks ago, my close friend Mustafa Akyol gave me a call to share
his "aha moment" after listening to Mr. Eric Zurcher’s lecture on
"Kemalist modernization."
Mustafa also sent me some photos, the copies of which he got during
this conference. He told me this was the first time in his life that
he had seen them. Actually, it was the first time for me as well.
These photos speak for themselves. I don’t know if there would be
enough space to put them in today’s edition of Today’s Zaman, but their
content is described quite well in Mustafa’s article quoted below.
Talking to Mustafa and seeing those pictures brought me once again
to the marvelous novel by Milan Kundera, "The Unbearable Lightness
of Being." Kundera, like he did in many of his other novels,
makes quite illuminating references to the totalitarian nature of
socialism in this novel. When I read his descriptions I cannot help
but draw some parallels between Turkey and what he is talking about:
"Anyone who thinks that the Communist regimes of Central Europe
are exclusively the work of criminals is overlooking a basic truth:
the criminal regimes were made not by criminals but by enthusiasts
convinced they had discovered the only road to paradise." So if your
mission is to do good for society, you are entitled to use any means
for this "endeavor." During the "hat revolution" (1925), which aimed
at modernizing Turkish people by making men wear Western-style hats,
dozens of people were hanged because of their resistance of this
"revolution." A "small" sacrifice to create "heaven" on earth!
Let us read another paragraph from Kundera: "In the realm of
totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any
questions. It follows, then, that the true opponent of totalitarian
kitsch is the person who ask questions. A question is like a knife
that slices through the stage backdrop and gives us a look at what
lies hidden behind it." The Turkish education system is based on
complete brainwashing and standardization, which aims at raising a
"secular," "nationalist" individual who looks at everything from the
perspective that the state wants to give her. Kemalist Turks never ask
the following questions: Why don’t we read anything about Armenians in
our history? Why was everything Ataturk did good, while any people who
opposed his ideas were traitors, and why did we have so many of them?
And so on.
Before I give the floor to Mustafa, a last quote from Kundera:
"Haven’t I said that what makes a leftist a leftist is the kitsch of
the Grand March? The identity of kitsch comes not from a political
strategy but from images, metaphors and vocabulary." What you will
read below is the English translation of Mustafa Akyol’s Turkish
article which appeared in the Star newspaper on Nov. 4. Let’s now
look at the images of Kemalist Turkey:
"Kemalist Turkiye’yi tanıyalım" (Let’s get to know Kemalist Turkey),
Mustafa AKYOL
* "Everyone knows the ancient problem that Turkey is facing once
again following the uncovering of the ‘original signed’ copy of
the document. For some reason ‘Kemalist’ institutions and circles,
especially the Turkish Armed Forces [TSK] can’t seem to get along
with democracy. But why? An important panel discussion that shed
light on this question was organized by the ARI group at Bilgi
University, but I’ve just now found the chance to write about it. The
meeting was titled ‘Secularization and Modernization in Turkey,’
and the main speaker was Dutch historian Professor Eric Zurcher,
who is a renowned expert on Turkey’s recent past. Zurcher made a
presentation that offered a different look at the description of
‘Kemalist modernization.’ The core of his presentation was based on
concrete data and not ‘interpretations.’
* "He conducted a ‘content analysis’ of the propaganda magazine named
‘La Turquie Kemaliste,’ which the Kemalist regime published between
1934 and 1941 to promote their ideas and goals to the West. This
magazine, which was published in France, included a very limited
number of German and English articles, and while unfamiliar in Turkey
was very interesting.
* "The cover of the magazine featured determined, content and muscular
men managing giant industrial facilities and ‘working to achieve
goals.’ Zurcher underlined a point that almost everyone realized as
soon as they looked at the photos of the magazine. These images were
strikingly similar to the ‘socialist realism’ dominating in the Soviet
Union during the same period.
* "The pages of La Turquie Kemaliste were filled with photographs
of newly built monuments, sculptures and squares in Ankara that
were empty and frigid. The Dutch academic noted that this trend was
identical to the ‘fascist art’ used in Italy at the same period when
it was under the rule of Benito Mussolini.
* "There was no reference to religion and no element (e.g., a photo
of a mosque) that conjured up the idea that the majority of the
Turkish population was Muslim. The only word with Arabic origins in
the magazine was ‘Kemalist’ and that was changed to ‘Kamalist’ for
a while. That is because [Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk, who did not like
the name ‘Mustafa,’ used the world ‘Kamal’ as an ‘original Turkish’
alternative to the word ‘Kemal.’
* "Out of the several photographs used in the magazine, there was not
a single natural image of society. The small number of photographs
that featured people included models that were posing for the camera.
These included a villager with a rake in his hand looking up into
the sky with a big smile on his face, a female pilot with her helmet
and cheap glasses posing for the camera and "modern" Turks dressed
in clothes similar to those worn by English aristocrats watching a
delightful game of tennis.
* "In conclusion, there was no ‘society’ in Kemalist Turkey, only
‘subject models’ that posed according to the state’s ideals. Noting
that each of these points reflected a political mentality, Zurcher
said Kemalism was ‘idealist but authoritarian, pro-modernization
but uniformist.’ He also added that while this ideology could be
‘understandable’ in the 1930s, it could not be a guide for Turkey in
the 21st century.
* "See, the basic problem of our ‘shrewd guards’ who don’t like
democracy for some reason is that they are imposing an ideology
that should have been left in the 1930s as an ‘official ideology’
without even feeling the need to ‘revise’ it. The most tragicomic
part is that they are doing this in the name of ‘progressivism’."