Ertugrul Ozkok: Turkey's cement
Güncelleme Tarihi:
I always remember when former Prime Minister Turgut Ozal addressed the people of Diyarbakir 20 years ago, urging them to hold on tightly to their relations with God. In those days, arguments over supra and sub identity had not yet made their way into the public forum. But that day in Diyarbakir, Turgut Ozal's words seemed strange to me. Growing up, I had always learned that mixing politics and religion was very wrong.
Nearly 20 years have passed since that day in Diyarbakir. And now, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is saying the same things, but with different words. He says "Religion is a cement." Many people, rightly so, are angry about this. Where does Erdogan use these words? At a moment when he doesn't believe that the concept of "Turkishness" is enough of a cement to bind the people of this country. But, is our shared religion, "Islam," really a cement? Let's look at our eastern borders. Despite that it has been torn apart, the shared religion in Iraq is Islam. But this shared religion doesn't seem to have any effect in terms of bringing peace. And as the most fiery defender of the thesis that in fact the European Union is not a Christian club, Turkey then presenting its primary identity as Islam doesn't seem very realistic. If this is the case, we need a stronger cement to hold the Turkish Republic together.
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Recently, I was speaking with one of Prime Minister Erdogan's advisors, Omer Celik. He made this interesting observation: "Orientalism in the West and occidentalism in the East seem to be increasingly bringing about a blindness towards information in these societies. The biggest candidate for preventing this may be Tayyip Erdogan." Right after this, he adds: "But in order for him to take on this role, the AKP must be careful not to get stuck in marginal agendas." Turkey could actually become a successful contact point for the Muslim and Christian worlds. But in order for this to happen, certain irresponsible members of the AKP must stop trying to derail the party's agenda by sticking certain ridiculous arguments in front of us. Like the imam hatip (religious high school) obssessions, the turban fanaticism, and the alcohol bans....
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And if it wants to become an international point of contact for other cultures, Turkey must first create successful shared contact points within itself. So what do we need in order to do this? First, let me clarify what it is we don't need. Number one, provocation. And then, anger, violence, terror.....
Really, the only thing we need is wiseness. A shared wisdom could be the real cement that allows us all to live together.