Confessions

“Turkey is growing more and more conservative every year. The Turkey our sitcom started was not the Turkey of today. Thus, it is the success of our scriptwriter who has been transforming our sitcom according to the changes in the society. Every season, she successfully creates an idol character. That is why our sitcom is still watched by so many people…”

That was of course a confession... The society is becoming more and more conservative and at least some of the intellectuals of the country have given up their intellectual responsibility of being a step ahead of the society, but instead for the sake of getting some more applause or some more TV viewers, they have preferred to go as much conservative as the society goes. Naturally progress of a society cannot be achieved with such a mentality. The only consolation is the fact that there are some honest intellectuals who, even though we might not be happy with what they are doing, are continuing to be “different” than the majority, the ordinary.

An example? The intellectual initiative to apologize for the 1915 events. We share it or not or we may even find it awkwardly provocative, untimely and even dangerous, we have to salute such initiatives as a courageous fulfillment of the “to be a step ahead of the society” duty of intellectuals that may ignite the spark of change in a society. That is perhaps why even though we might not be so happy with whatever said or thought or expressed, free speech, freedom of expression, freedom of thought are so important in a democratic society.

Erdoğan’s Kurdish message

How should we write the traditional New Day festival celebrated in Anatolia, Iran and in a vast geography in central and Caucasian Asia? Should we write it with a W and say Newroz or with a V and call it Nevroz? What is the difference? Until very recently writing the word with a W would land one in a lengthy judicial process and he would face separatist accusations because there was no W in the Turkish alphabet and using W would be taken as a demonstration of support for the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party terrorist gang. But the ban on the use of W was not limited to the Newroz word. After the Turkish Daily News joined the Doğan media group, a new company was established: Doğan Daily News. The company could not be registered because of the W in its name and had to change the company s title to Doğan Daily Nevs. A tragicomedy of those years during which many books were banned, many people were prosecuted on grounds that they used none-Turkish characters.

That phobia apparently came to an end nowadays. The state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, TRT, will be launching today its TRT Şeş, a 24-hour Kurdish language TV channel. Inauguration of the channel, which has been on air for test broadcasts for a while, will be made today with a statement by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in which he will be saying in Kurdish “TRT Şeş bi xw?r be” (May TRT6 be for the good). That short sentence of Erdoğan will be an apology, as well as a confession for both the oppression on the Kurdish language and the acute phobia that continued in this land that acknowledgment of differences would result in the disintegration of the nation and the state. It is as well a promising start of a new era which if utilized well and if this new channel is not used for sheer propaganda, Turkey may finally start embracing fully all the founding elements of the Turkish state.

Gül failed in sincerity

President Abdullah Gül confessed in making an appointment to the presidency of the Istanbul University when rather than Professor Ali Akyüz, the candidate who received the most votes in an election at the university and who is known with his secularist views, he preferred to appoint Professor Yunus Söylet, the architect of the “freedom to turban” petition and the family doctor of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Gül has once again confessed that no one should expect him serve in the presidential seat in impartiality and when it comes to key appointments at universities, rather than respecting the expressed will of the academics he would hold higher the political considerations.

NOTE: May 2009 bring peace, health and prosperity for all.