Sunday’s Zaman, Turkey
March 21 2010
Basic (wrong) instincts
by ANDREW FINKEL
No one should underestimate Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an’s political skills.
He is a powerful orator and a man with an innate grasp of putting into
words the thoughts of his fellow citizens. It is a skill which woos
crowds and wins elections. A more cautious man would have hesitated
before picking a street fight with the Israeli president in Davos over
a year ago. But after Mr. ErdoÄ?an’s `one minute’ tirade, he came home
a hero. He is a prime minister who shoots from the hip and, remarkably
enough, hits his mark. However, this week the shot went wild, straight
into his foot or possibly somewhere else more painful.
There will, of course, be many who will nod their head in agreement
with Mr. ErdoÄ?an’s none-too-subtle threat to expel Armenian nationals
working in Turkey illegally. Indeed, if it is a European audience he
meant to address, then many of his listeners will share a prejudice
against foreigners taking jobs.
However, he made it clear in an interview with the BBC’s Turkish
Service that such expulsions (now unlikely) would be a tit-for-tat
retaliation against foreign legislatures who want to recognize an
Armenian genocide. If the diaspora wants to muddy the waters, then let
them bear the consequences, was his message. Don’t scratch our back
and yours will itch, too. It is not that the Turkish position is
morally superior but that Turkey has the power to kick up a fuss. It
is the language of the municipal official who threatens to tear down
an illegally constructed story unless the contractor pays a bribe.
So if Mr. ErdoÄ?an is a politician who trusts his instincts, in this
instance, his instincts let him down badly. There could have been
other ways to explain Turkey’s immigration policy. If there is a
sizeable number of Armenian citizens working in Turkey (the figures
are disputed but somewhere between 12,000 and 100,000), then this has
occurred because the Turkish authorities have at some stage chosen to
turn a blind eye. If there is an explanation for why they have done
so, it is because mutual economic dependence between Turkey and
Armenia helps create a momentum for reconciliation. The parallel is
within the suitcase trade at the end of the Cold War when `tourists’
from the former Soviet Union set up makeshift bazaars everywhere in
Turkey, swapping binoculars for bubblegum albeit in a manner
unrecognized by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
This has been a bad week for Turkish political instincts. Another
story which hit the headlines abroad was a directive by the Ministry
of Health which forbids women seeking artificial insemination from
attending clinics abroad and which penalizes medical institutions
which facilitate such journeys. The ground for this is Article 231 of
the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which makes it an offense to conceal the
paternity of a child. The controversy seems a bad parody of the one
that rages in some European capitals as to whether it is lawful to
assist people traveling to euthanasia clinics in Switzerland. The
latter debate is over where to draw the line between compassion and
incitement to murder. The former is over how to protect patriarchal
rights. It is essential for children to know who their fathers and
grandfathers are, a ministry spokesman said. This defines a parent not
as the person who brings you up but the person whose DNA you share —
a respectable opinion, perhaps, but surely not one that should be
enforced by law.
However, people presumably are to be encouraged to attend any clinics,
at home or abroad, if it means finding a cure for their homosexuality,
if we are to believe Selma Aliye Kavaf, the state minister responsible
for women and family affairs. Ms. Kavaf expressed her view that same
sex relations were a curable disease, a view (how does one put this
kindly?) at odds with several decades of sexual politics. It is also
one that makes her uniquely unsuited for her job.
On all of these issues, Turkey’s government should not be pandering to
prejudice. There are some instances when politics is not about
expressing instincts but trying to lead.
21.03.2010
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
