[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
Let me give you a rule of thumb about Turkey: If you want to focus on the deadliest conflict in this country, forget the tension between the conservatives and the secularists. Dismiss the culture war between those who define themselves “Muslim first” and “Kemalist first.” For all those “central” issues are trivia when compared to the most lethal trouble in this country: the Kurdish question.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
“Allah, Syria, Freedom – nothing else!” That is the slogan peaceful protestors are chanting on the streets of Syria these days, challenging the classical pro-regime slogan “God, Syria, Bashar – nothing else!” Yet the “security forces” of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are brutally crushing this most justified yearning for liberty. It is reported that the thugs of the regime have killed at least 850 people in the past few weeks, whose only crime was to ask for the end of the Baath dictatorship that has ruled the country for more than four decades. Thousand have been reported to be arrested, and tortured, while troops supported by tanks are raiding towns and homes. The regime of Mr. Assad is simply killings its own people.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
“One Laden dies, a thousand Ladens are born,” reads the cover story of the current issue of the magazine “Türk Solu,” (Turkish Left.) A smiling photo of bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who just got killed by American soldiers, covers the front page of the magazine. And its logo presents a sober photo of the all-secular Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, while defining the publication as “An Atatürkist, nationalist, leftist paper.”
I know, it sounds weird. But it is actually not that weird when one gets to know the “anti-imperialist” strain within Kemalism (aka “Atatürkism”), and the political, rather than religious nature of al-Qaeda.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
The death of bin Laden was comforting news for the billions around the world who saw him as the mastermind of terror. Especially the Americans, some of whom lost their loved ones to the indiscriminate killing of al-Qaeda, were understandably cheerful. But not everybody shared the same feelings and thoughts. News from Pakistan and Afghanistan in fact indicate quite a few people in those countries mourn for the man, which they regarded as a hero who bravely stood up against “the imperialists.”
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
I had a sobering experience about that a few weeks ago, when I wrote a piece in Turkish titled, “The Address to the Youth should be abandoned as well.” The “address” to which I was referring was from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. It is a 1933 text presented in every textbook and classroom wall, and is memorized by all students.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
Yet there was one little catch in this “zero problems” strategy: some of our neighbors, and other countries in the region that we wanted to get closer to, are dictatorships. So, we ran into the risk of making friends with regimes that crack down on their own people.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
I am not the greatest fan of Charles Krauthammer, the neoconservative columnist of the Washington Post. But the man is undoubtedly smart, and one of his insights was a true gem. “In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon,” he advised in his column, “always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning.” The opposite, he said, gives American politicians and bureaucrats “too much credit.”
I know there are huge differences between Washington and Ankara, but there might well be parallels as well. And the more I get to know the ways of the latter, and the details of the puzzling phenomena there, the more I tend to think like Krauthammer.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
The breaking news of Monday night was truly breaking: Turkey’s Supreme Election Board, or YSK, a board of judges whose job is to oversee the electoral process, had vetoed the candidacy of 12 “independents.” Seven of them were supported by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP. One of them was the famous Leyla Zana, a Kurdish activist who had spent a decade in prison after being convicted of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
Political parties have just declared their candidates for the upcoming general elections. Thus we had a chance to get a sense of how the new Turkish Parliament will be. Let me look at them one by one.
But first a reminder: In the West, candidates of a political party are often elected by the local branches of that party. In other words, the system works from bottom up. In Turkey, it is almost the reverse: Candidates are elected by the “central committee” of the party, which is often dominated by none other than the leader.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
Turkey is heading towards general elections, which are to be held on June 12. There is some excitement in the air, but everybody is pretty certain that the winner will be the Justice and Development Party, or AKP. The only question is how great the AKP victory will be. Some polls show that the party’s votes are around 45 percent, others suggest even higher figures fluctuating around 50 percent.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
About a month ago, a group of veiled Turkish women initiated a bold campaign: “No veiled deputy; no vote!” They were calling on political parties, including the incumbent Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to take a revolutionary step in the upcoming elections by offering some candidates who wore the Islamic headscarf. “The gap between Parliament and the society should be filled,” their declaration read, “and this discrimination against veiled women must end.”
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers' comments]
Turkey’s controversial Ergenekon case, which is about the crimes of the state and the schemes for a military coup, has become more controversial lately. The arrest of two journalists, who are apparently accused of “supporting Ergenekon with propaganda,” seemed unacceptable to many, including me. But such excesses of the case should not blind us to the real crimes and criminals that it tries to unearth.
On the latter front, the case in fact took an important step in the past 10 days: It focused on the anti-Christian hate campaign and the horrendous massacre of three Protestant missionaries in the eastern city of Malatya in 2007.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers' comments]
Something very unexpected happened last week. Dozens of policemen visited the offices of daily Radikal, a fine newspaper who is just several floors above the Hürriyet Daily News in the same media plaza. The men in uniform were looking for all the available copies of a book draft with the peculiar title, “İmamın Ordusu” (The Imam’s Army). Its writer, reporter Ahmet Şık, has been in prison since last month for his alleged ties with the alleged terrorist network codenamed “Ergenekon.” And his book, allegedly, was prepared with the orders, and the support, of the same terrorist network.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers' comments]
Early this week, I received a phone call from Sencer Ayata, a professor of sociology who joined the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, a little less than a year ago. He invited me to join a lunch at which the CHP’s new “youth report” would be launched. “Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu will also be with us,” said Dr. Ayata. “It will be a chance to chat with him.”
Pleased with the idea, I said, “Thanks, sure.” This was the very first invite I was receiving from the CHP, and it seemed to signal the change the party is going through – or, at least, trying to go through. I also knew that Dr. Ayata, an erudite sociologist and a true social democrat, was a man whose works are worth looking at.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers' comments]
I spent a couple of hours writing and reading messages on Twitter last Sunday night. And it turned out to be one of the most educating discussions that I recently had.
The topic was Libya and the air strikes on Gadhafi forces. Right after this operation began, under the auspices of the United Nations Security Council, I received an email in Turkish that denounced “this latest imperialist war against Libya.” With a few dozen signatories, the manifesto-like text condemned the NATO, and the West in general, for its “new Crusade” on the North African nation.
[Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News, with readers' comments]
AUBURN, Alabama – Unfortunately, I missed the 50th anniversary party of our paper, the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. For I am here, a college town named Auburn, to give a talk at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a libertarian think-tank, on “The Commercial Heritage and Contribution of Islam.”
I actually can’t complain at all from my short visit here: I learned a lot in just a day, from lovely terms such as “warfare state” – a pun on the “welfare” one – to the pacifist outlook of the American libertarian movement, which is not much known to the outside world. (Turkish leftists, who see “capitalism” behind almost every war in recent history, should certainly meet the passionately pro-capitalist and similarly anti-war thinkers here.)
[Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News, with readers' comments]
It must be hard to be a foreign observer and try to sort out what Turkey exactly is. For this is a truly mind-boggling, sometimes maddening country. Its people have totally opposite narratives about the destiny of the nation and the causes of its misfortunes.
The founder of the country, for example, is a demigod for many Turks, whereas he is a ruthless dictator in the eyes of others. The demigod of some Kurdish citizens, on the other hand, is for the majority a “terrorist master” who should have been executed long ago. What is absolutely black for some is the purest tone of white for the other.
[Originally published in the Hürriyet Daily News, with readers' comments]
It is philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, it is said, to whom we owe the term “a leap of faith.” By this, we mean subjective beliefs people add on top of facts to arrive at religious or philosophical conclusions. And, if you ask me, it is not a problem at all to have a leap of faith – unless you impose it on others. That’s why it is necessary to keep public discussions centered on facts rather than everybody’s personal “leaps.”
I might be sounding too philosophical, but I actually want to talk about a very current topic: the recent arrest of two journalists as a part of Turkey’s controversial Ergenekon probe.
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers' comments]
What you read in the headline is what I said to myself two mornings ago, on the new “wave” of Ergenekon arrests, involving almost a dozen journalists. One of them was Nedim Şener, a meticulous reporter I barely know yet genuinely respect, for his exposure of the “deep state” in the infamous Hrant Dink murder case. Another was Ahmet Şık, who is also known for his brave journalism on the criminals within Turkish security forces.
“This is unbelievable,” said a friend of mine, who is a dedicated human rights lawyer, on the phone. “This Ergenekon thing has gone out of control.”
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers' comments]
The 84-year-old Turkish politician, who passed away last Sunday, had a fascinating story to tell — and to remember.
Necmettin Erbakan, whose first name literally means “the Star of Religion,” was undoubtedly the star of Turkey’s political Islam, which he began to build in the late ’60s. Since then, he founded five subsequent political parties, four of which were closed by the secular state for not being secular enough. He suffered three military coups and a prison term, not to mention many court cases and political threats.
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