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TELL US ABOUT THE DEEP STATE, BUT THE WAY WE LIKE IT!
Today's Zaman
Oct 15 2010
Turkey
Some months ago I was giving a lecture to a group of young people in
Ankara. They were conservative and devout Muslims. They invited me
to talk about Ergenekon and the deep state.
When I speak, I like to make eye contact with the audience. At the
beginning, I made eye contact with everyone in the room and I saw many
shining eyes. I started my lecture by giving an overall assessment of
the Ergenekon investigation. I criticized the case by saying that the
prosecutors focused too much on coup plots against this government,
whereas there are so many other dimensions to the case that need to
be analyzed and understood. Ergenekon's intensive activities against
missionaries and Protestants, for example, have never been analyzed
by the prosecutors.
I went on with my lecture by analyzing the relationship between
Ergenekon and JİTEM, the illegal extension of the gendarmerie that
was responsible for the killing and abduction of so many Kurdish
dissidents in the '90s in southeastern Turkey. I criticized the
Ergenekon case from this perspective, and I tried to explain that we
cannot understand the deep state without understanding JİTEM.
I was going backwards in order to tell the story of the deep state. I
mentioned how the 1980 coup was prepared in Turkey. How Alevis were
massacred in different cities, how devout Muslims were provoked and
used against Alevis by the deep state in Turkey. At roughly this phase,
I realized that there were less shining eyes looking at me.
I went on to talk about the Sept. 6-7, 1955 pogroms against non-Muslims
in İstanbul and how they were carefully prepared by the deep state
of the time.
And, finally, I came to the 1915 massacres of Armenians. I tried to
explain how the Turkish deep state was inherited from the time of
these massacres and that we have never confronted it. I also tried
to explain that unless we go outside of the narrow boundaries of our
identities and learn to truly empathize with other groups in this
country, we will never understand the deep state's mentality, neither
can we get rid of it. When I reached this last phase of my lecture,
I realized that I had lost contact with most of the audience in the
room and that some of them were angry with me.
Here it comes, our problem in Turkey. We do not fight against
injustice, human rights violations and other things from a principled
point of view but rather we challenge them only when we see them as
constraints on our freedoms. Since we do not put ourselves in other
people's shoes, our insights about our country remain too shallow,
preventing us from taking advantage of an opportunity to effect
substantial and irrevocable changes in Turkey.
For the sake of being just, I should also say that there were other
observations and thoughts that crossed my mind during the lecture. At
the very end, I still had very good and friendly eye contact with
some of the participants and some of them supported me openly. The
other thing is if I had been talking about the same thing before a
nationalist group, whether white Turks or grey wolves, I would have
probably met with very harsh criticism and might have even been
physically attacked.
At the end, I told my audience that during the massacre of Armenians
there were people who helped Armenians and most of them were devout
Muslims. They saved Armenians because they believed that their religion
and their consciences dictated it so. I said that I expect all devout
Muslims today to be like them, like these saviors who risked their
lives to follow their principles. If Muslims do not do that, they
will be, like in our Turkish saying, "Muslim only to themselves."
If you really want to fight against the deep state and its mentality
in Turkey, try to understand its root causes. And when you look at
these roots, you will see injustice and denial. We should confront
them with all these facts to really understand what the deep state
is and how we can get rid of it!
From: A. Papazian
Today's Zaman
Oct 15 2010
Turkey
Some months ago I was giving a lecture to a group of young people in
Ankara. They were conservative and devout Muslims. They invited me
to talk about Ergenekon and the deep state.
When I speak, I like to make eye contact with the audience. At the
beginning, I made eye contact with everyone in the room and I saw many
shining eyes. I started my lecture by giving an overall assessment of
the Ergenekon investigation. I criticized the case by saying that the
prosecutors focused too much on coup plots against this government,
whereas there are so many other dimensions to the case that need to
be analyzed and understood. Ergenekon's intensive activities against
missionaries and Protestants, for example, have never been analyzed
by the prosecutors.
I went on with my lecture by analyzing the relationship between
Ergenekon and JİTEM, the illegal extension of the gendarmerie that
was responsible for the killing and abduction of so many Kurdish
dissidents in the '90s in southeastern Turkey. I criticized the
Ergenekon case from this perspective, and I tried to explain that we
cannot understand the deep state without understanding JİTEM.
I was going backwards in order to tell the story of the deep state. I
mentioned how the 1980 coup was prepared in Turkey. How Alevis were
massacred in different cities, how devout Muslims were provoked and
used against Alevis by the deep state in Turkey. At roughly this phase,
I realized that there were less shining eyes looking at me.
I went on to talk about the Sept. 6-7, 1955 pogroms against non-Muslims
in İstanbul and how they were carefully prepared by the deep state
of the time.
And, finally, I came to the 1915 massacres of Armenians. I tried to
explain how the Turkish deep state was inherited from the time of
these massacres and that we have never confronted it. I also tried
to explain that unless we go outside of the narrow boundaries of our
identities and learn to truly empathize with other groups in this
country, we will never understand the deep state's mentality, neither
can we get rid of it. When I reached this last phase of my lecture,
I realized that I had lost contact with most of the audience in the
room and that some of them were angry with me.
Here it comes, our problem in Turkey. We do not fight against
injustice, human rights violations and other things from a principled
point of view but rather we challenge them only when we see them as
constraints on our freedoms. Since we do not put ourselves in other
people's shoes, our insights about our country remain too shallow,
preventing us from taking advantage of an opportunity to effect
substantial and irrevocable changes in Turkey.
For the sake of being just, I should also say that there were other
observations and thoughts that crossed my mind during the lecture. At
the very end, I still had very good and friendly eye contact with
some of the participants and some of them supported me openly. The
other thing is if I had been talking about the same thing before a
nationalist group, whether white Turks or grey wolves, I would have
probably met with very harsh criticism and might have even been
physically attacked.
At the end, I told my audience that during the massacre of Armenians
there were people who helped Armenians and most of them were devout
Muslims. They saved Armenians because they believed that their religion
and their consciences dictated it so. I said that I expect all devout
Muslims today to be like them, like these saviors who risked their
lives to follow their principles. If Muslims do not do that, they
will be, like in our Turkish saying, "Muslim only to themselves."
If you really want to fight against the deep state and its mentality
in Turkey, try to understand its root causes. And when you look at
these roots, you will see injustice and denial. We should confront
them with all these facts to really understand what the deep state
is and how we can get rid of it!
From: A. Papazian