TURKEY’S ALLIES ARE COMMON SENSE AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
By Barin Kayaoglu
View: Barin Kayaoglu
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Oct 25 2006
Several bizarre reports exploded last week in reaction to the French
parliament’s vote two weeks ago. In a non-binding advisory note, the
Higher Council of Radio and Television (Radyo Televizyon Ust Kurulu –
RTUK) asked TV stations across the country to stop broadcasting French
films. Meanwhile, quoting the French journal Le Nouvel Observateur,
reports came in that France would open an official trade bureau in
Northern Iraq to compete with Turkish businesses operating there. The
news will likely draw a lot reaction from certain circles in the near
future. One should not be too surprised to see if the French legation
was to be blamed for being a backdoor initiative to create further
chaos and turmoil in Turkey’s southeast and Northern Iraq.
Turkey’s worst enemy is the volatility of its reactions. Some people
have already come up with weird ideas such as abandoning French
classes in schools, boycotting French tourists, or even boycotting
Turkish companies that are joint-ventures with the French. These are
not healthy indications. Turkey must realize that in the tumultuous
times ahead, its allies are nothing but common sense and freedom
of expression.
Exercising common sense means that Turkish people have to think and act
in a cool-headed manner. This might sound like a strange suggestion,
but they have to behave in such a way that they would advise their
kids to behave in stressful situations. "He who stands up in rage
sits down at a loss" is a common proverb that every Turk hears while
growing up. Everybody should adhere to this principle.
Everybody should see that the larger goal is to refute the claims
that what happened to the Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire in
the 1910s was not genocide by the definitions of international law,
but a massacre of another sort, which was reciprocated by the Armenian
side. Everybody should see the bigger picture that only by expressing
their views in a civilized manner can Turkish people expect to succeed.
Another way to disarm the claims of the French parliament and the
Armenian Diaspora is for Turkey to bring forward its other potential
super-ally, freedom of expression. The American founding father Thomas
Jefferson once said "it is error alone which needs the support of
government; truth can stand by itself." In this light, Turkey must
realize that any laws that punish non-violent forms of speech hurt
Turkey more than its adversaries in the long run. Last week, the
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan called Turkish reactions to
the French vote "hypocrisy" because Turkey still curbed discussions
on certain aspects of its past. As much as the Armenian government has
its own share of hypocrisy in this debate, Mr. Oskanyan has a point.
Putting intellectuals on trial for speaking their mind is unacceptable
and unbecoming of a country like Turkey. Only by granting opposing
voices an audience and nurturing meaningful discussion on the subject
can Turkey thwart the baseless allegations.
Indeed, this will comport with Ataturk’s legacy. It will be to the
point to bring a story that was discussed in this column a few weeks
ago: During the 1930s, President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Prime
Minister Ýsmet Ýnonu assigned the eccentric apparatchik Recep Peker to
draft a report that would give a new sense of mission to Cumhuriyet
Halk Partisi (CHP-Republican Peoples’ Party). Peker’s 1936 report,
which proposed the reorganization of the RPP along the lines of the
Italian Fascist Party, met Ataturk’s bitter resentment.
Ataturk reportedly exclaimed "what the hell has Recep done again?"
and elucidated his vision for Turkey to his aide Hasan Rýza Soyak as
follows: "Should an anti-monarchical current take over the world in
the future, even those who demand a sultanate can form a party in this
country." Today, I believe, even those who call the Armenian tragedy
"genocide" should be able to have their say.
Turkey must stop doing some of the things that it is doing right now.
It should stop racing the French to stupidity. It is a contest that
is hard to beat. Turkey should refrain from passing futile laws about
French imperialism in Algeria (that it was tantamount to genocide).
The point is debatable and precisely for that reason Turkey should
gather a conference of scholars from both sides in a posh location
in Istanbul or the Aegean coast in order to garner international
attention. The juxtaposition would be too hard to miss for anyone:
Whereas France forcefully curbs freedom of expression, Turkey is
promoting it. But in order to augment that overture, all laws in
the penal code that criminalize anything other than an open call to
violence must either be changed or stricken out. By taking that last
step, Turkey can go traverse vast distances.
Turkey’s strongest allies in its struggle against the senseless
and fruitless allegations by France and the Armenian Diaspora are
common sense and freedom of expression. At the moment, by behaving
the way that they are behaving, Turkish people are weakening these
two partners. If their problems are addressed forthwith, they will
help Turkey prevail.
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Barýn Kayaoðlu is a Ph.D. student in history at the University of
Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia and a regular contributor to
the Journal of Turkish Weekly.
E-mail: [email protected]
———- NOTES
(1) "RTUK: Fransýz filmlerini yayýnlamayýn" (RTUK: Do not broadcast
French films), ntvmsnbc.com, October 20, 2006; available from
(2) "Fransa Kuzey Irak’ta temsilcilik acýyor" (France to open legation
in Northern Iraq), ntvmsnbc.com, October 19, 2006; available from
(3) "Oskanyan: Tepkiler ikiyuzluluk" (Oskanyan: The reactions
are hyprocrisy), ntvmsnbc.com, October 21, 2006; available from
(4) See Barýn Kayaoðlu, "The Armenian Question Between Genocide,
Tragedy, and Hypocrisy," Journal of Turkish Weekly, October 11, 2006;
available from
(5) Teoman Gul, Turk Siyasal Hayatýnda Recep Peker (Recep Peker in
Turkish Political Life) (Ankara: Kultur Bakanlýðý, 1998), 29.
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