Not if he is provided with a few good meals and some sleep. Why not! Just the mention of his name and display of his book at the UN by Hugo Chavez, “insulting” American hegemony, and the sale of is book skyrocketed to #1. This is the dream of every writer, known or unknown. The charges against Pamuk put him at the top of the literary world, including a Nobel Prize for literature. He offers fascinating reading, deserving the Nobel Prize for his literature. He also stands tall for his politics, telling the truth about the Armenians and Kurds. Imagine if Pamuk was a great writer and he lied about the historical evidence to please the “guardians of correct” thinking in Ankara. On my reading list is also the “The Bastard of Istanbul” by Shafak, for which I want to thank the authorities in Ankara.
The latest victim of the Turkish “truth squad” is Hrant Dink, editor of Agos, an Armenian-language newspaper. I do not get it. Why is it so difficult for the Turkish authorities to admit that there was a genocide of the Armenians? Offer an apology! The entire world knows it, and so do all the people of Turkey, except those who are in denial. It is more insulting to be in denial or pretend not to know. The genocide of the Armenians and Greeks, and those who could not be “Turkified”, took place almost a century ago, when the Ottoman Empire was on the verge of collapse. Even the Kurds joined this persecution, in the name of Muslim solidarity and to seize the property of the victims, though in the end the guns of the state were turned on the Kurds themselves. A plethora of eye-witness reports chronicled the slaughtered of thousands rounded up and forced to take the long march to “safety” and “death”, even carrying their own spades to dig their graves. So did many journalists, historians, the US Consul George Horton, and many other embassy officials from countries which were reporting the facts of life in the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 20th Century.
What is the rationale for the officials in Ankara to react to criticism as insulting “Turkishness”? Seventy million Turks, the most powerful and armed people in the neighborhood, can they be threatened by the mere mentioned of the Armenian genocide, in a passing note on that historical period? The importance of this event is for the historical record and for the generations of Armenians who had to live with the nightmare of the extermination and a protracted struggle for its recognition. Put this event behind them, put finality, just like anyone who seeking a loved one. The same is true for the Greeks, thousands slaughtered, and most of them forced to leave or die, “euphemistically” referred to as “exchange of populations.”
So, a sense of powerlessness within the Turkish ruling apparatus is not the real reason, unless ³Turkishness² is so fragile there is a need to give it a new injection, boost the ego of the Turkish masses with a sense of nationalism, fictitious as it may be.
Is it possible that the Turkish ruling circles still harbor the desire to restore the Ottoman Empire? There is room for that, with Washingtonʼ s blessings to solidify its hegemonial policy in the Eurasian (oil) corridor by weaning this region away from Islamic fundamentalism and Russian influences. The ³Turkic² people would be more than 200 million, with Turkey first among equals. There are millions of Turks yearning for this restoration. Maybe the sensitivity for “Turkishness” is intended to preserve the fictitious image of a tolerant multi-ethnic empire, not an oppressive and genocidal empire, the image of all empires, British, French, American, Greek, or Ottoman. Maybe some of us are still not in the 20th, much less in the 21st Century.
There may be other motives for this sensitivity to “Turkishness”. Turkey is being pressured to become democratic and modern, the model of Islamic development, to qualify for membership the European Union. This is more to this than internal problems, coming to grips with the Armenian (or Greek) genocide and millions of Kurds struggling for their rights, autonomy, even self-determination. In such a climate, anyone who is critical of the Turkish state and the lack of freedoms (except for the good Turks) is in trouble. Evidently, those critical of a system of oppression and exploitation (the Kurds being part of this criticism), especially those on the left (not the right) fall into this category and are in trouble.
“Turkishness” is more like Colbertʼs “Truthiness” in Comedy Central. Not with facts or the historical evidence, just hold onto your opinions no matter what the facts are.
The progressive movement in Turkey tells its own story by the thousands of hours and pages of testimony in courts, thousands of people jailed, tortured, and killed in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s. In the 1980s the Turkish military declared war on these “Mountain Turks”, to smash the struggle of the Kurdish people. The bullet, not the ballot, seems to be the preferred method of the Turkish military when dealing with its enemies, at home and abroad. These black pages in Turkish history will continue as long as Article 301 is on the books and raises its head like a phoenix and pounces on those who insult “Turkishness.” This “sensitivity” seems to be the Turkish weapon to ward off those foreigners telling the Turks “to do this or that” if you want to join the EU. The French, why don¹t they buzz off! The ruling circles in Ankara are telling the Turkish masses what they hear from the foreigners is yok. Never mind the historical facts. This is a war against the Turkish people themselves.
Turkey is not only a powerful country, she is also one the main bullies in the neighborhood. It has claims on Iraq, warning its allies in the first Gulf War, that if Iraq was to be dismembered, the oil in Kirkuk and Mosul will be taken over by Turkey. Turkey wants half of the Aegean sea and airspace. Forget about the Greek islands and their territorial waters. Turkish claims on maps printed in Turkey reach as far as the island of Crete. This Turkish behavior is not without rewards, from Washington. The pipelines through Turkey facilitate the transportation of oil to the US tankers. That is why Turkey can do no wrong, on the Kurdish problem, the dispute with Greece, the occupation and ethnic cleansing in Cyprus, and not a word on the Armenian genocide from official Washington. The Turkish-Israeli solidarity of interests is music to the ears of the AIPAC and Washington.
Yes, there is honor among bullies. Problems abound. So many roadblocks in the path towards the EU. In addition to the Kurdish problem, there is also the occupation of 37% of Cyprus (northern) and the ethnic cleansing, with more than 130,000 settlers from Anatolia since 1974, and the Turkish policy to legalize the facts on the ground (the partition of Cyprus) through cosmetic changes in the Kofi Annan Plan for an “apartheid solution.” However, Greece and Cyprus are members of the EU, with veto powers. Turkey will have to negotiate its membership in the EU, if she gets there, via Athens and Nicosia. In this trajectory, Washington, holding the hand of Ankara, will not do it. Of course, there are other policies, by other means, blackmail, arm-twisting, or the bullet.
It is obvious that Ankara cannot have its cake and eat it too. A democratic, secular, and modern Turkey is a pre-condition to joining the EU. Not only the artists and writers, important men and women, deserve this, it is also good for the Turkish people. They deserve a better life, one which is open and democratic. Article 301 seems to be the secret weapon of those in Turkey who do not want to make any concessions on the Kurdish problem, in Cyprus, or the transition to a real democracy and membership in the EU. This nationalist power bloc, comprising of the corporate, military, and political classes, is not acting without a rationale. The anti-Islamic current in the EU, fueled by American militarism and the wars in the Islamic world, signal that Turkey may not be part of the EU anytime soon, or ever. Article 301 is their ace card.
Article 301 is not a win-win situation for those making use of it defending “Turkishness” and a “nationalist” agenda. The sword cuts both ways. The more the state brings high-profile writers, journalists, and political personalities into the courts, as enemies of the state, the more the Turkish people and the world are exposed to the medievalism of those self-proclaimed guardians of the Ataturk legacy and the so-called modern-secular-Islamic society. To paraphrase Shakespeare, the ruling circles in Ankara and their organs, protest too much. This can be their downfall and a transition to real democracy in Turkey. The alternative is “Islamo-Fascism,” the “rightist turn” gaining ground in Europe and North America.

George Gregoriou
Professor, Critical Theory and Geopolitics

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