Journal of Turkish Weekly
June 20 2005
The way I think after Srebrenica tape
View by Baris Sanli
JTW Ankara
After the Srebrenica tape, the ghosts of the past haunted the
headlines. The tragedies, the hatreds and denials were all back
again. It was as if, some one is digging the past with a knife. It
was painful for some, heroic for the other some and unbelievable for
the rest.
In ISRO/USAK we made several discussions about the events. Instead of
blaming the Serbians, we preferred discussing the possibility of
constructive policies for the Balkans. Some of optimistic, some were
pessimistic. During last week, whatever we published about Serbia was
used as an evidence for proving the hatred between Serbs and Turks by
some foreign media. It was definitely unbelievable, whatever the
subject is, the conclusion was ready: `They said this because they
hate us’.
As an Internet media, we regularly check our inboxes, read your
messages and listen our readers. Generally the readers shape our way
of writing and dealing with issues. On the other hand, as Dr. Laciner
reminds all our writers : `The sincerity is the key’. So, after all
the emails and forums, we tried to look differently to the Balkans
and think sincerely.
Turkey’s Dilemma
Most of the people may say, `what the hell Turkey has to do with
Balkans?’. This was true until late 1980s. Bulgaria’s attitude
towards Bulgarian Turks, and forcing them to immigrate were the first
signs of Turkey’s reluctant involvement with Balkans. On one hand,
Turkish Foreign Policy is based on peace and not interfering other
nation’s internal matter. On the other hand, Turkey is inherently
multicultural society. There are lots of lobby groups like
ethnic(from Balkans and Caucasus) organizations or groups those can
affect Turkish Foreign Policy.
Bosnian war was the biggest single event that attracted Turks
attention to the Balkans. In terms of Balkan policy there is `Before
Bosnia’ and `After Bosnia’. `Before Bosnia’ period was when most of
the Turks do not have any idea about the Bosnia or Balkans. The
reflection of this event even continued during the war. For example a
Serbian football player has become the key player of one of Turkey’s
most prominent teams. The crowds were cheering his name. It was
absolutely a time of neutrality.
`After Bosnia’ period was when the Bosnian’s started immigrating to
Turkey. Their tragedies were slowly becoming part of ordinary Turks
memories. While Serbs were ethnically cleansing Muslims and
-according to them Turkish presence, they were achieving the
impossible, namely `increasing the Balkan awareness in Turkey’.
Nowadays, once in a week Turkish State Television (TRT) is
broadcasting programs in Bosnian, which is hard to imagine in 1990s.
During the Kosovo events, I perfectly remember, the reporter girl
from ATV(Turkish channel) started crying when she saw the shattered
lives of the immigrants those forced to the borders. So all these
events, forced the governments to do something about the Balkans. But
the governments and their policies have ignored this pressure on
them. If Turkey has increased its influence in the Balkans, the
Serbian nationalism will grow stronger and hence may damage the
Muslims and Albanians living there. On the other hand, the weaker
Turkey acts, the more violent Serbians become. `Where are Turks now?’
like sentences from Serbs are also etched in the memories of some
Turks.
Why Balkans?
Turkey didn’t need an immigration policy until 1980s. But first the
Bulgarian, then the Bosnia and the Kosovo events led to changes in
Turkish immigration policy. Anytime a dispute starts in the Balkans,
Turkey welcomes the immigrants and hosts them. But most of the
immigrants reject to go back to their countries even after the
disputes end. An important ratio of them tries to get a Turkish
passport for their future as a sign of distrust to their home
countries’ attitudes.
This psychology is hazardous, because it helps to the aims of the
tyrants and changes the dynamics of the Balkans.
USAK/ISRO’s attitude
USAK/ISRO is an NGO. Generally, as an NGO we try to think about
constructive policies. And during this week it was such. The
discussion subjects varied from Greater Serbia to free roaming for
Balkan countries and bursaries for students. There is one way for
peace in Balkans and it is coexistence. But this is not easy.
According to BBC, two thirds of the Serbs still thinks that Mladic
and Karadzic are heroes. And this makes things very complicated.
National Heroes and the Turks of the Fantasies
National heroes are part of a cultural identity. What kind of
cultural identity should we expect from a nation whose heroes are
Mladic and Karadzic? The answer is not easy and a positive one for
Serbs. Instead of blaming Serbs, we tried to understand them. Serbia
as a country and nation has been at the cross roads of wars and
disputes. Is Serbia traumatized by all these wars? Can we conclude
that Serbian people are not thinking the way we think?
In the orthodox world, there is this image of Turks. I have mails
from Armenian and Greek readers, those claim Turks are not as they
were described. Nearly all claims that we(Turks and Greeks, Turks and
Armenians) are so similar. In one real life story told to me by an
academician, an Armenian who promised himself to spit to every Turks’
face he meets, was stunned by the similarities between he and a Turk,
they went for a drink after an hour or so.
The Turks in the fantasies of the Serbs, Armenians and Greeks have no
relation whatsoever with Turks. They are just `the other’ puppet used
by authorities to gain ground domestically. Greeks are slowly
embracing the real Turks. The similarities between two nations
surpass the disputes between each other. When a Greek sits with a
Turk he may talk about three or four disputes, but they can talk for
days about the common points.
Now, I believe, it is time for Serbs to wake up from the
hallucinations. To achieve this, education is a must. Education is
the key to wake up people from dreams to realities. For example,
there must be a student exchange programs between two nations. Serbs
may think that they are better than Turks, but the new generation in
Turkey has a potential. Even this year, I was surprised by a Leonardo
da Vinci project from a high school student from Trabzon about
nanotechnology. They should see Turkey and judge their fantasies.
In terms of nationalism, most of the Balkans think that Turks are
like them, nationalist. We talked about it a lot, we are not
nationalist but patriotic. Turkish nationalism is very hard to
implement, because there are lots of groups and races in Turkey. It
is hard to define a race as Turkic race. Instead, as appeared in the
Economist few weeks ago, being a Turk is more or less defined with
sentences like `strong family relations, risk takers and etc.’
On the other hand, Turkish nationalism is a one of its kind. Turkish
nationalists are annoyingly relaxed people. Whenever you ask them
about their policies, they will say `We will sort it out’. Of course
what is meant by `sorting out’ is a mystery, because most of the
nationalist are silent and calm figures in Turkish society. As one
high ranking nationalist puts it, young generation of nationalists
are more interested in girls than politics.
The Future
Serbia, with Russia, is key to the peace in the Balkans and with the
crisis EU and US struggling, the region may turn to bloodbath.
Turkey, although reluctant, must calculate and consider the future of
Balkans for the sake of its stability. The peace and stability in the
region is -as always been, the priority of Turkey. To achieve this,
there had to be constructive policies. Policies those need the
cooperation of Russians, Turks, Serbs, Bosnians, Croatians, Albanians
and Macedonians. The process may be painful and may require lots of
commitments from both parties, but doesn’t it worth for our children?
ISRO : International Strategic Research Organization
USAK: Uluslararasi Stratejik Arastirmalar Kurumu (Turkish of ISRO)