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If, the defense minister recently asked (but later claimed was a "misunderstanding,") the Greeks today existed in the (Turkish) Aegean and Armenians in many parts of Turkey, "could our beloved country have become a nation-state?" Mr Gonul thinks it could not. Therefore, he thinks, the population exchange which forcefully expelled Turks of Greece to Turkey and Greeks of Turkey to Greece in 1920 was a milestone for nation-building.
That might have been bad news for a couple of thousand Greeks and some 20,000 Armenians who have held on to their homes, mostly in Istanbul, despite systematic Turkish efforts to tell them they are not wanted in the Crescent and Star. But the minister probably no longer views them as a threat to our ’one-nation nation’ because they are too few. In his ’correction’ Minister Gönül praised minorities for the richness they give Turkey.
What should we make of Mr Gönül’s words? We understand that he is happy the Turks got rid of most of their Greeks and the Greeks got rid of most of their Turks about a century ago. Since it is too improbable that Minister Gönül thinks the Ottoman Armenians too were exchanged by a Turkish population in Armenia, we understand that he is also happy about the tragic Armenian exodus which today around 20 parliaments deem as genocide (see his words: "...if today the Armenians existed in many parts of Turkey...").
So, we all can be happy because there are no Greeks or Armenians around. It is probably too futile to try to convince Mr Gönül that "the departed" in fact constituted a very colorful fragment of our now one-nation nation. But that may not be necessary anyhow. In the first place, the minister’s definition of a one-nation nation is problematic.
Mr Erdogan now has a golden opportunity to prove he was honest when he spoke like the Sufi he is probably not. He can amend the Constitution, like he did to remove the campus ban on the headscarf, in order to grant more religious freedoms to millions of Turks who are fellow Muslims, but with a touch of divergence from his own Islam.
I have a simple proposal with which we can easily test which religious freedoms Mr. Erdogan should prioritize as he loves to talk about “the nation’s will” and “the majority” in defense of his often deceptive rhetoric. The number of female students who wear a headscarf but must remove or cover it on campuses, and others who are qualified to enrol at university but have dropped out because of the ban, can easily be found, simply by asking them to petition. I would guess the number must be anywhere between 100,000 and 200,000.
The second part of the experiment will be easier. The Alevis who demand “broader religious freedoms” can do the same; petition. That number must be in the range of 5 million to 15 million. Now, where is the majority? Which one of the two religious problems is “bigger?” If Mr. Erdogan’s government, “which is at equal distance to every faith,” really cares about religious freedoms for all, not just for some, it can always find the necessary facts and figures as a basis for drafting new legislation.
What do Alevis want? Their demands are not monolithic. Most of them would agree that they request official recognition, of both their faith and their prayer houses. And why would Mr. Erdogan fiercely fight a war in favor of the Sunni headscarf, which is not a commandment in the Koran, but not raise a finger for Alevi prayers and rituals? Simple.
Most pious Sunnis like Mr. Erdogan privately think the Alevi faith is a degenerated, corrupted branch of Islam, and that Islam should remain purely Sunni. Some despise the Alevi faith and its followers, and some pretend to respect it but privately despise it. I have known observant Sunnis who confessed, “They would prefer even Jews to Alevis because the followers of Prophet Ali are a perverted lot.” It is double discrimination; Jews are bad, but Alevis are even worse! I remember an elderly Sunni man once preaching to me that, “The Alevis are not Muslims!”
Some 50,000 Alevis, who peacefully demonstrated last weekend in Ankara, demanded, among other things, mosques should not be built in their villages. If there are as many Alevis who officially subscribe to that demand, as there are female students demanding the removal of the ban on headscarf, would Mr. Erdogan give orders against the construction of mosques in Alevi villages, like he did against the campus ban? I bet he would not.
The Alevis are a nuisance for Mr. Erdogan and his Sunni missionaries, no matter how much, for pragmatic reasons, they try to look calm over the increasingly explosive matter. They wish Alevis did not exist at all. So, they cannot deliver on Alevi demands for broader religious freedoms.
The Alevis, together with non-Muslim minorities of Turkey, stand as living proof of Mr. Erdogan’s unconvincing rhetoric. The facts are there, they are just too plain; Firstly Mr. Erdogan does not defend religious freedoms, but defends more freedoms for Sunni Islam and for the half-religious, half-political symbols that stand for Sunni Islam. Secondly he is NOT, and CANNOT be at equal distance to all faiths.
One of modern history’s most successful PR campaigns has produced a new leader for our planet, along with its highest expectations for a single man. Sentimental speeches and celebrations are all fine, but it is time to rationalize irrational expectations. Barack Obama is not a magician; he is a bright young man.
With the exception of a few in Turkey’s civilian and military bureaucracy who favored John McCain because “the devil I know is better than the devil I do not know,” most Turks have joined a global chorus to embrace President Obama.
A couple of days before the U.S. vote, a taxi driver kindly shared with me a well-kept secret about Mr. Obama. Do not tell everyone, he warned me in an undertone, the man is a devout Muslim. The next day I learned from a shop-owner that Mr. Obama was a secret fan of Turkey, “secret” because he did not want his love affair with the Crescent and Star to be known by Greeks and Armenians who are fools to think he is on their side. How we journalists often think we know better than others!
I left the shop, totally relieved having learned that the world’s most important man was a Muslim whose heart was filled with deep affection for our beloved country. But that reminded me of another big American-Turkish secret I accidentally uncovered in the mid-1990s when an old lady in an Aegean town told me she would vote for then prime minister, Tansu Ciller, because, “Bill Clinton was in love with her,” and with Mrs Ciller in power we could rule the world! Judging from how Turkish affairs went at that time, I inevitably concluded that the U.S. president’s was an unrequited love.
It seems that Turks are not the only ones who think Mr. Obama was the best choice for U.S. president and also their best interests. Interestingly, all of the world’s otherwise divergent nations tend to unite around the “American dream.” They all think Mr. Obama will bring political fortune to their countries.
In Turkey, Mr. Obama has even succeeded to unite otherwise warring ideologies, Islamists and secularists, who, for different reasons, think that the new U.S. president will help advance their cause. The Islamists think Mr. Obama’s democratic spirit will be a boost for religious, Sunni Muslim liberties in Turkey, while the secularists believe their hated concept of “Turkey: A moderate Islamic state as role model for the Middle East” is now doomed to die. Perhaps both camps are right.
Meanwhile, liberals think Mr. Obama’s victory means broader rights for Turkey’s Kurds and a historic handshake between Ankara and Arbil; while nationalists think it means the demise of the PKK. Perhaps both groups are right.
Beyond our borders, the Armenians will naturally expect Mr. Obama to honor his word and formalize “the Armenian genocide, not as an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but as a widely documented fact.” The Turks will expect him to do as his predecessors did in the past and retreat from this “simple election pledge” and not risk tension with the too-strategically important Turkey.