Turkey and the Fall of Icarus
I have spoken to too many people here with a story like this.
I was originally going to start this piece with a rather long litany of political arrests and persecution in Turkey—a kind of factual barrage to establish my legitimacy on this issue. It’s almost like the story of D., her family, and I aren’t enough. One needed more people, a famous professor arrested, some eye-catching torture accusations, or news crews to be worthy of being known, but then I realized that all the propaganda on Turkish TV (and Roj TV for that matter) about their ‘martyrs’ and the battles against capital letter words like Fascism and Splittism and Terrorism are not the real issue at all. The real issue is the time they are taking from my father-in-law’s life. Is the strain I see on my wife’s face when no one else is looking. Is me clutching my chest on the living room couch and fearing for D.’s safety. The real issue is the low-level torture that these crimes people refer to as ‘politics’ inflict on us ordinary people. We will live with this anxiety until her father is released and these arrests stop—and it will eat away at our family life, our home life, and our relationships. It could last years (Suspects have been getting long sentences). And the frustrating thing is its all for nothing. For teaching at the wrong place and wrong time.
The papers these days are revving up the tabloid talk. Professor Buşra Ersanli, who was arrested along with my father-in-law, has been labled ‘The Professor of Terror’ in the newspapers. The television channels call all detainees ‘KCK members,’ though they haven’t even been tried. This is par for the course in the Turkish media. It doesn’t matter what’s true, or fair, or even logical. It doesn’t matter if there’s proof, or reasonable doubt, or a just conviction. You just go with what shocks. You say whatever you want and wave the flag as you do it. The same is true of government officials. The Minister of the Interior, İdris Naim Şahin, told the whole country that Professor Ersanli was giving ‘lessons on terror’. And again, all of this mud-slinging is going on before a trial. None of it is based on any fact. No evidence has been offered up. But then, there’s a saying in Turkish, ‘Throw enough mud and something is going to stick.’ This same character assassination was done four years ago to Hrant Dink, when the Turkish news labeled him an ‘Enemy of the Turk’ and distorted his words to such a degree (most likely with government approval if not encouragement) that some people decided to take things into their own hands and assassinate him. Before Hrant, it was singer Ahmet Kaya. Not much has changed.
Alexander Christie-Miller has written about this very well here:
What's really depressing is the standard of the debate surrounding these arrests. There is powerful pressure not to make a fuss about them, coming both from the government, the pro-government media, and some who style themselves as liberals.
I had dinner last night with someone whose father has been arrested.
Last summer I was drinking tea with four people, one of whose father had been arrested. A young man at the table was obviously uncomfortable just being there. He couldn't quite make eye contact with her; he compulsively checked his iPhone. She asked me what it would take to make people in Turkey care about what was going on. I thought about that question seriously. Most people, after all, haven't been arrested. You can blank it out if you want to. I said sadly that I didn't know.
She turned to the iPhone-checker and said, "You'll be next. They'll come for you, next." She said it out of frustration, she was at the end of her rope with getting that blank, "I have to pretend you don't exist" look.
Turns out it was the other guy at the table who was next, or someone close to him, anyway.
I don't know how to write about it anymore. People outside of Turkey want to know--understandably--whether Turkey's a reliable NATO ally, whether it's "gone Islamist," whether it's a good model for the Arab Spring, whether the Jews here are safe, whether the Christians are safe. And I keep thinking of the poem:
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along
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Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Turkey and the Fall of Icarus
For too many people--some of them national leaders--the power to control with fear is just as addictive as heroin. Pretty soon, a little is not enough. Too much is not enough.
Aug '10
Re: Turkey and the Fall of Icarus
History shows us that human endurance of tyranny is extremely high. Turks are not a fiery bunch - I see them putting up with far, far more of this. As with all people laboring under vicious government, I wonder if, deep down, they believe they deserve it.
And after it's over, if it ever is, they may be untouched by the experience. Argentines have struck me that way. But then, with Argentina, so with Turkey - I base my ideas on very limited contact with the big city and rather more contact with the hinterland. Istanbul is as isolated as Buenos Aires.
Re: Turkey and the Fall of Icarus
Yes. And that's a good observation. Every time I read about "newly self-confident Turkey," I think, "What Turkey is this person talking about?" I don't think I've met anyone in Turkey who I would describe as "self-confident."
Aug '10
Re: Turkey and the Fall of Icarus
And the Icarus reference means???
Re: Turkey and the Fall of Icarus
Claire, this post brings to mind a chapter in Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago called "Our Muzzled Freedom," that I read last night.
I.
II.
Jun '10
Re: Turkey and the Fall of Icarus
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along
Claire, Who wrote this poem?
Apr '11
Re: Turkey and the Fall of Icarus
Toby Saks: About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along
Claire, Who wrote this poem? · Nov 18 at 12:03pm
Since it is past Claire's bedtime: W. H. Auden, "Musee des Beaux Arts", referring to the painting "Fall of Icarus" by Breughel.
Edited on Nov 18, 2011 at 2:03pm