Post by Kassandros on Feb 10, 2010 15:40:33 GMT -5
Things the we all know. .except the Turks themselves..
www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-2....gizc enter.html
The nationalist Turk and the West
by
ORHAN KEMAL CENGÝZ
Nationalist Turks working for international organizations is an interesting phenomenon which has not attracted the attention it deserves.
This phenomenon first attracted my attention during a hearing before the European Court of Human Rights in 1999.
It was a weeklong session of a fact-finding hearing during which we learned that Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), was captured in Kenya and was being transferred to Turkey by plane. A Turkish gentleman working at the Turkish section of the court who seemed particularly disinterested in the content of the hearing became very excited with the news that reached our courtroom.
During the break, he came by and spoke with me, saying very proudly, “We got him.” It was obvious that he was a Turkish nationalist and had little to do with human rights. This was why the case before the court, concerning the destruction of a village in Turkey’s Kurdish region, was not at all interesting to him. Having observed him that week, my Kurdish lawyer colleagues’ endless complaints about the Turkish staff at the European court started to make sense to me. Kurdish lawyers had always complained about the discriminative behavior of the Turkish staff toward them. This claim was of course very difficult to prove. But they felt this way and my observations confirmed their feelings. Some Kurdish lawyers even planned to deliver a petition to the European court complaining of the behavior of some lawyers in the Turkish section, but somehow this wish remained unfulfilled.
The European court is a human rights court, though I don’t think they pay any attention to the human rights sensitivities of the staff they employ. This may not be particularly problematic for other country sections of the court, but when it comes to countries in which the education system only serves as a way of brainwashing, there might be serious problems. And there is no doubt that Turkey is a country in which people are systematically indoctrinated during their entire educational career. So if your only criteria is a university degree and language abilities when you employ staff, it is highly possible that you will end up with a “white Turk” who sees Kurds as second-class citizens, religious minorities as the fifth column of imperialist powers, Kemalism as the only truth, devout Muslims as the greatest danger, military guardianship as a necessity and so on.
These people have a crucial role where Turkey and the West meet. These people play quite an interesting role in the way in which the West interprets Turkey and its political atmosphere. They are not only working for the European court, they are also at the European Commission, they are in think tanks in Washington and Brussels, they are working for the UN, and they work for embassies in Ankara.
They had an important role in convincing the European court that if the court rejects the headscarf ban, all women in Turkey will be pressured to cover their heads. They play an important role in deceiving Western institutions that too much religious freedom can only support Islamists in Turkey. They lead Westerners to believe that the Ergenekon gang is just a fabrication of the “Islamist government.” They are the false lenses through which you can only see a distorted picture of Turkey.
They do not believe in “Western values” but they work for “Western institutions.” There is a kind of deception in the essence of Turkish modernization and these “Western-looking Turkish nationalists” carry this mentality in their genetic code. Turkish “modernization” and “Westernization” is a very deep love-hate relationship. It is a hopeless struggle to look Western while simultaneously harboring a deep-seated hatred of the West. It is a Westernization that is based on getting rid of most of the Western segments of society -- namely, Turkey’s non-Muslims. It is the internalization of the hated one, so it is a kind of self-hatred. It is the imitation of the perceived “enemy.” It is all about forgetting the “real self.”
If we had the same number of non-Muslims as we had in our population before the Turkish Republic was established, would there be any discussion over whether Turkey is a European country, whether there is a danger of Shariah coming back, whether the “Western lifestyle” is under threat or whether Turkey is a pluralistic society? The same mentality which wiped out non-Muslims from Anatolia is also fighting against the conservative segments of Turkish society today.
“Modern” does not equate with having a democratic mentality. The Armenian massacres and the Holocaust are also part of the history of this dimension of modernity. Without democracy, modernity is just a deceiving appearance. Without having a democratic mentality, attaching too much importance to being a “modern” person can only strengthen the fascist within. And the nationalist modern Turk in Western institutions is a textbook example of this. Be careful out there!
10 February 2010, Wednesday
www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-2....gizc enter.html
The nationalist Turk and the West
by
ORHAN KEMAL CENGÝZ
Nationalist Turks working for international organizations is an interesting phenomenon which has not attracted the attention it deserves.
This phenomenon first attracted my attention during a hearing before the European Court of Human Rights in 1999.
It was a weeklong session of a fact-finding hearing during which we learned that Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), was captured in Kenya and was being transferred to Turkey by plane. A Turkish gentleman working at the Turkish section of the court who seemed particularly disinterested in the content of the hearing became very excited with the news that reached our courtroom.
During the break, he came by and spoke with me, saying very proudly, “We got him.” It was obvious that he was a Turkish nationalist and had little to do with human rights. This was why the case before the court, concerning the destruction of a village in Turkey’s Kurdish region, was not at all interesting to him. Having observed him that week, my Kurdish lawyer colleagues’ endless complaints about the Turkish staff at the European court started to make sense to me. Kurdish lawyers had always complained about the discriminative behavior of the Turkish staff toward them. This claim was of course very difficult to prove. But they felt this way and my observations confirmed their feelings. Some Kurdish lawyers even planned to deliver a petition to the European court complaining of the behavior of some lawyers in the Turkish section, but somehow this wish remained unfulfilled.
The European court is a human rights court, though I don’t think they pay any attention to the human rights sensitivities of the staff they employ. This may not be particularly problematic for other country sections of the court, but when it comes to countries in which the education system only serves as a way of brainwashing, there might be serious problems. And there is no doubt that Turkey is a country in which people are systematically indoctrinated during their entire educational career. So if your only criteria is a university degree and language abilities when you employ staff, it is highly possible that you will end up with a “white Turk” who sees Kurds as second-class citizens, religious minorities as the fifth column of imperialist powers, Kemalism as the only truth, devout Muslims as the greatest danger, military guardianship as a necessity and so on.
These people have a crucial role where Turkey and the West meet. These people play quite an interesting role in the way in which the West interprets Turkey and its political atmosphere. They are not only working for the European court, they are also at the European Commission, they are in think tanks in Washington and Brussels, they are working for the UN, and they work for embassies in Ankara.
They had an important role in convincing the European court that if the court rejects the headscarf ban, all women in Turkey will be pressured to cover their heads. They play an important role in deceiving Western institutions that too much religious freedom can only support Islamists in Turkey. They lead Westerners to believe that the Ergenekon gang is just a fabrication of the “Islamist government.” They are the false lenses through which you can only see a distorted picture of Turkey.
They do not believe in “Western values” but they work for “Western institutions.” There is a kind of deception in the essence of Turkish modernization and these “Western-looking Turkish nationalists” carry this mentality in their genetic code. Turkish “modernization” and “Westernization” is a very deep love-hate relationship. It is a hopeless struggle to look Western while simultaneously harboring a deep-seated hatred of the West. It is a Westernization that is based on getting rid of most of the Western segments of society -- namely, Turkey’s non-Muslims. It is the internalization of the hated one, so it is a kind of self-hatred. It is the imitation of the perceived “enemy.” It is all about forgetting the “real self.”
If we had the same number of non-Muslims as we had in our population before the Turkish Republic was established, would there be any discussion over whether Turkey is a European country, whether there is a danger of Shariah coming back, whether the “Western lifestyle” is under threat or whether Turkey is a pluralistic society? The same mentality which wiped out non-Muslims from Anatolia is also fighting against the conservative segments of Turkish society today.
“Modern” does not equate with having a democratic mentality. The Armenian massacres and the Holocaust are also part of the history of this dimension of modernity. Without democracy, modernity is just a deceiving appearance. Without having a democratic mentality, attaching too much importance to being a “modern” person can only strengthen the fascist within. And the nationalist modern Turk in Western institutions is a textbook example of this. Be careful out there!
10 February 2010, Wednesday