HONOR HISTORY, HOMELAND SAYS NOBEL PRIZE WINNER GUNTER GRASS
Hurriyet Daily News
an-author-gunter-grass-questions-eu-criteria-for-m embership-2010-04-16
April 16 2010
Turkey
Nobel Prize winner Gunter Grass discusses the credibility of
EU membership criteria, the author’s role in promoting minority
perspectives and the weight of history. The German author appears at
a panel this week with Turkish counterpart YaÅ~_ar Kemal, who shares
his rural background and high literary standing
Legendary literary figures Gunter Grass and YaÅ~_ar Kemal saw their
rural "native towns as the center of the world," the German novelist
said when he met his Turkish counterpart at a panel discussion
Thursday afternoon.
Both authors come from the periphery: Kemal was born in Cukurova
in Turkey’s south, while Grass was born in the free city of Danzig,
today’s Gdansk in Poland. Though he came to West Germany as a refugee
in 1945, Grass frequently returns in his fiction to the Danzig of
his childhood.
"YaÅ~_ar Kemal and I have both come from the rural areas and saw our
native towns as the center of the world," Grass said of the Turkish
novelist of Kurdish descent, who is best known for his stories of
village life.
"The one who breaks away from his land cannot be a novelist," said
Kemal, adding that when he lived in Istanbul, or even in Sweden,
he always wrote about Cukurova.
The two writers’ dedication to their native lands was one of the
factors that have created a strong bond between them. When Kemal was
awarded a peace prize at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1997 and was asked
who he would like to present the award, he chose Grass. Organizers
had previously asked the German author to present an award, but he
always said no.
"Then they called me and said Gunter Grass had accepted," Kemal said.
"I gladly accepted the offer," Grass said. "When I read him, I felt
as I was reading someone from my own native town."
The two authors have established a strong relationship since that
time. This week, they came together within the framework of a European
Union project called Turkish Literature in Europe, European Literature
in Turkey.
Both writers have been described as sharing the common characteristic
of being the voice of the victims, of the disadvantaged and members
of minority groups. Yet they also share another commonality that is
less known to the public, said Osman Okkan, the spokesman for the
Turkish-German Cultural Forum who moderated the panel. Kemal’s native
language is Kurdish and Grass speaks a language not known by many;
his mother is of Kashubian origin, part of a group of Slavic people
distinct from the Poles.
Perhaps it was this specific background that has made both authors so
vocal in their views about protecting the rights of minorities. "An
author should voice the views of the minority, not those of the
majority," Grass, who is in his early 80s, said in response to a
question. The German writer was vocal in his criticisms of both Europe
and Turkey, and careful in his choice of words – he avoided using
the controversial term "genocide" in talking about the events of 1914.
Grass also questioned the credibility of the European Union’s
membership criteria, arguing that even some European countries do not
meet the 27-nation bloc’s requirements. "Which country is included
in Europe and which is not?" he asked. "Some countries do not meet
EU criteria. Would today’s Italy under Berlusconi be an EU member? We
need to question that."
Coming from a country that is known to oppose Turkey’s accession to
the EU, Grass caused a stir in Germany – and won fame in Turkey – when
he wrote a book based on his experiences posing as a Turkish worker.
"We need to learn to deal with problems," he said, adding that it is
not good to point fingers at each other.
Just as Germany did, Turkey should learn how to deal with its past,
Grass added.
"We are not proud of our past. But the crimes committed by past
generations are not accepted by the generations that follow," he
said, adding that Turkey should learn from this experience in dealing
with the World War I-era killings of Armenians at the hands of the
Ottomans. "Turkey should not turn a blind eye to the massacres of
1914. A million and a half people murdered should not be ignored."
Saying that the effect of literature in changing society "makes itself
felt very slowly," Grass called on citizens to take an active role,
noting the mass protests held in Turkey in response to the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.
Grass confessed that it has been extremely difficult for him to accept
the documented deaths in his country, saying many countries such
as France, Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium also have terrible
events in their pasts.