Turkish Daily News , Turkey
Jan 27 2007
Dink murder: A Catharsis or a test?
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Maybe the ‘higher power’ has tested us by laying Hrant on history’s
altar so that a new Ottoman society of tolerance can be created to
form a modern European Turkey mosaic in the 21st century
CENGİZ ÇANDAR
I have a Jewish friend. He is Istanbul born and bred. After high
school in Istanbul he went to the United States. He stayed there. Now
he is a U.S. citizen. He is a professor. He is a well-known name
among the Washington political elite. During the ceremony for Hrant
Dink at the church, I was standing on one side of the coffin and he
on the other, in the opposite aisle. Our eyes met for a second. He
told me some very interesting things the next day.
He said: `I did not know Hrant Dink personally. My being there on
that day, in that church, was a coincidence but it remained as a
dramatic memory. My eyes constantly scanned the eyes of the Armenians
present. I read in those eyes, `This place is finished for us.’ As I
too am a member of a minority I read those looks differently than
you. That was the day that this place came to an end for us, the
minority group members…’
I could not believe it. How could such a feeling be reached on a
day when tens of thousands of people marched with banners, chanting
`We are all Armenians’? `The Armenians did not hear that voice,’ he
said: `When we were kids, we were all together – Jews, Greeks,
Armenians, Muslims… We used to play together. We used to joke. We,
the minority group members, were aware of our ethnic identities but
there was no segregation. There was a wonderful cosmopolitanism.
Maybe you were not aware of our differences but there was no problem.
The situation is different today. The feeling `this place is finished
for us’ is very dominant. Maybe Hrant Dink’s death has done what many
things such as the Wealth Tax and the events of Sept. 6 and 7 did not
…’
This is `reading the situation.’ I do not know whether it should be
read that way.
The Armenian surprise at the Turkish reaction:
I went to Hrant’s house the day before yesterday; a day after I
heard these words and had been contemplating them. Rakel offered me a
seat next to her. As I tried to make myself at home and rid myself of
the uneasiness caused by being the only man in the room, a woman
visiting to give her condolences introduced herself and her friends
to me. They were the president and members of the `Trabzon Mothers’
Association.’ They had come all the way from Trabzon to
Bakırköy, Istanbul, to visit and express their condolences to
Rakel. `You can never guess the magnitude of sorrow and shame that
the people of Trabzon are feeling. We are questioning why we could
not raise our children better,’ she said.
She denounced the consequences of `poverty and ignorance.’ She was
trying to explain that Trabzon too was embracing Hrant. And she was
very sincere. They even had a photo taken with Rakel as a memento of
the day.
Then in a newspaper I read statements from some French Armenians
who had come to Istanbul and Turkey for the first time in their lives
to attend the funeral. The statements were published by French
newspapers. One of them said:
`I would not in my wildest dreams have thought I would see the
Turks chant, `We are all Hrant, we are all Armenians.’ But I did see
it in reality. This is a miracle. I am a religious person, I have
been praying for a miracle for years. The iron curtain of the USSR
fell into rubble with the earthquake in Armenia in 1989. So God helps
the good emerge from the bad. Why should we turn down the Turks’
friendship? There are also Armenians that we do not share the same
point of view. The Armenian patriarch in Istanbul told me, `Turks are
good people and they are very much like Armenians.’ Turkish Armenians
are much like a fish in the sea – they have become very much a part
of society. We need to distinguish between the Turkish state and the
Turkish population.’
Another was saying:
`There were representatives of the Armenian community from all over
the world. I was surprised when I landed in Istanbul. Everyone was.
And I guess the prejudices of some members of the community were
invalidated.’
I was most struck by Ara Toranyan’s words. I saw Mr. Toranyan
during the Asala court cases in France. He was the most militant
leader of the French Armenians during the 1980s. That is why his
following words were striking:
`This is a very nice reaction from the Turkish people. I was
expecting something but nothing to such a great extent. On the other
hand I never doubted that there were democratic, courageous people in
Turkey. There are extraordinary powers in this country, which can
withstand very hard conditions, which want to change things. This
ceremony is a remarkable message of hope; I hope that the pain we are
feeling is also felt and understood in Turkey. The Turkish people’s
affection has been proven. Militants, a part of the army, the state
and tribes participated in the events of 1915. The participation by
Turkish people was not great. I have never had any bad feelings or
hatred toward the Turkish people.’
All these are also `reading the situation.’ According to these
statements Turkey has entered a phase of maturation in which
minorities can rid themselves of the feeling that `this placed is now
finished for us.’
Beware of the boomerang effect:
At the beginning of the week Etyen Mahçupyan, in his article `The
Turks’ in Zaman, explained his despair as follows:
`We do not intend to understand or hold the hand of the `other
Turk’ who could not comprehend Hrant’s words or bear his presence. So
the murderer is not of age yet… `This is exactly the point’ Hrant
would have said `Are the Turks of age?’ We were aware that we had
been living in a society that was prevented from maturing. But maybe
it is time we ask ourselves this: Is this a society that was made
younger so that it could ritualize its own identity problem by
converting it into an act of violence on another? The issue in front
of `my Turks’ is very clear: To prevent a mass suicide that is
rapidly sliding toward mass pathology and to establish a medium where
everyone can feel themselves `human’…’
Maybe the `earthquake in the society’s soul’ caused by a murder has
helped our society that was `made younger’ to mature. At least we
hope so.
However, for this `social state of mind’ to be guided toward the
good from a `social feeling of shame,’ it needs to be translated into
politics. Here is how: by getting over the issues raised by Article
301, by passing an acceptable foundations law as soon as possible, by
freeing the schoolbooks from texts that incite feelings of animosity,
by determinately taking care of `crime producing social ateliers’ and
Internet sites that work like threat and death squads and by
stimulating awareness against `racism’ in the public.
All of these are within the power of the administration, i.e. the
Turkish government. It is under its job description, which can no
longer be neglected. The Hrant Dink murder, with a week gone by, has
become a `catharsis’ – a personal and social purification for both
our society and the individuals it is comprised of.
On the other hand, this should be prevented from becoming `social
masochism’ that will return to hit society like a `wild
racist-nationalist boomerang.’
Therefore the government must take steps for more freedom and
democracy without any further negligence. It does not matter whether
the steps are taken according to the Copenhagen or the Ankara
criteria.
Who knows? Maybe the `higher power’ has tested us by laying Hrant
on history’s altar so that a new `Ottoman society of tolerance’ can
be created to form a `modern European Turkey mosaic’ in the 21st
century.
Let’s not fail this test…