National Opening, Or Nationalist Rigidity: Whither Turkey Now?

Nationalism has become a losers' ideology. Especially in authoritarian societies which have failed to make the leap into the global economy, nationalism is employed by the enemies of an open society as an instrument to maintain the status quo. Societies in transition are also affected by this phenomenon. Nationalism, the ideology of the losers, exploits national feeling and aggressively turns it against dissidents.

Turkish nationalism has become a German issue. As a result of its history, Germany has distanced itself from any aggressive kind of nationalism more radically than perhaps any other country in the world. But how do we deal with Turkish nationalism in Germany? Are we equipped to deal with people who are exploited by their country of origin and sent forward as a vanguard of Turkish nationalism?

For days, Turkish media in Germany have been campaigning on the issue, promoting among their compatriots what they see as the only correct Turkish nationalist position on the issue of the genocide against the Armenians, and defaming those with critical opinions.

Turks' relationship to Germans further under strain

Those who have a different view on this issue from that of official historians in Turkey are denigrated as traitors. The Turkish community has been dangerously split. And the relationship of Turks to German society, already somewhat distanced, has been put further under strain.

The debate over the genocide against the Armenians is no longer a matter of Turkish interests or of what is good for Turkey. It's rather based on a vague national sentiment grounded on sensitivities which can't be justified rationally. Fears are awakened, old enmities invoked: against Europe, against the West in general, against Christians, and against a society which deals critically with its own past.

This is not a situation which can be maintained and it's most harmful for the Turks themselves. It presents a picture of Turkey and the Turks which Turks themselves often complain about, but to which they often contribute themselves.

Indifference has been a mockery of the victims

It is unacceptable to argue for the equivalence of Turkish and Armenian sensitivities. The indifference of the Turks, which even goes as far as denying there's anything to deal with, has continued for the last ninety years and has led to the current situation.

That indifference has been nothing less than a mockery of the victims and a whitewash of the perpetrators. Over several generations a whole people has been living a lie, and this lie has become a fundamental element of its identity. The victims have been wiped out of the national memory, just as their remains have been wiped off the Anatolian soil, so that they've become less and less real.

But history always comes back to haunt one. Repressed history makes its way back into consciousness and disturbs those who suddenly find themselves standing unprepared before their past.

Victims whose commemoration has been refused

It's understandable that the tragic chapter of the persecution and extermination of the Armenian people on Anatolian soil makes Turks deeply insecure and calls forth, at the same time, silence and aggression. This crime has a dimension which could turn the myths of the heroic history of modern Turkey on its head. It's a history which includes many victims – victims whose commemoration has been refused and who are now demanding their tribute.

In Turkey today, the issue is not historical truth; it's a matter of looking history in the eye. It's ridiculous to demand that historians start dealing with the topic – as if they hadn't done so over the last ninety years, as if it were a matter of writing a history book. No, it's an entirely different matter.

It's about realising that a society which doesn't know its own history, or who knows it only from falsehoods, is not in a position to develop. It therefore has no future.

It's about building a society in which critical, even self-critical examination of one's own history forms the basis of a democratic future in which heroic myths no longer make criminals into heroes and in which the next generation deals with dissidents differently from this one.

Recognition of suffering

At the start of every Turkish-Armenian conversation, there must be a willingness to accept the suffering of the victims. It must be clear to the Turkish side that these conversations will not be easy, not like negotiations on trade agreements. The Turkish side will have to learn once more how to speak to the others, and even more important, how to listen to them and their version of history.

The recognition of their suffering comes far too late and has been preceded by a long period of denial and contempt for the victims. Those who open up this difficult chapter find that all those involved exhibit a psychotic structure which makes reconciliation more difficult. But reconciliation can only come from those who themselves have suffered. It can't be demanded by those who are responsible for the suffering and injustice.

Turkey stands today before a fundamental decision, a fateful choice. Will the country go the way of Yugoslavia ten years ago? Will it be a land led astray by demagogues and mythologisers, by history's losers, who are now having to answer for their criminal policies at the international courts of justice? Or will it be a European land, ready to permit and rejoice in a variety of opinion and in democracy, not just on paper but in reality.

One alternative leads to national delusion, to the continuation of a decrepit social structure which is no longer viable, to a model of the national state which has been laid to rest in the war graves of Europe. The other alternative leads to an admittedly somewhat insecure path, largely abandoned by heroes and saints, but the only path likely to lead to success, the only path which is up to the demands of the time. It's a path on which doubt and self-criticism are permanent companions.

The cosy feeling of belonging promised by nationalism has long been a deceptive illusion. And those Turks who let themselves be instrumentalised by current Turkish policies on the denial of the Armenian genocide – a position which cannot be maintained today and which will have to be revised tomorrow – will not only find themselves looking stupid. They'll also find themselves without that feeling of belonging which they didn’t want to do without.

Zafer Senocak

© FAZ/Qantara.de 2005

The writer Zafer Senocak was born in Ankara in 1961, grew up in Istanbul and lives in Berlin.

Translated from the German by Michael Lawton

Qantara.de

The Armenian Genocide
The Search for Truth and the Historical Context
Questions about the young Turkish Republic and the Armenians are still causing waves ninety years later. Now historians who are trying to reconstruct the historical context are increasingly being paid heed. Jürgen Gottschlich reports

Interview Zafer Senocak
The Reductionism of Islam Must Stop
The big-city, Muslim elite that combines Islam with the modern age really does exist: at least in Turkey. Does this elite also embrace democracy? Joachim Güntner interviewed Zafer Senocak, Germany's most prominent author of Turkish origin.

Turkey's Euro-Sceptic Ranks Swell
Fears Grow that EU Membership Would Equate to a Sell-Out of National Interests
For fear of losing national sovereignty, Turks are increasingly critical of the country's possible accession to the EU; Euro-sceptics are warning of a sell-out of national interests. Susanne Güsten reports from Istanbul

Dossier
Turkey and Europe
Discussions about Turkey's EU candidacy tend to be heated and even emotional at times. Are questions of cultural identity more important than political and economic criteria? And what role does Islam play concerning Turkey's integration into Europe?