Samim Akgönül / s.akgonul@todayszaman.com
The end of 2015 in Turkey is the picture of an identity division. Three hermetically sealed groups cohabit in this country without the will to cohabit anymore. A huge opportunistic, submissive and superficially Islamist group does not want to see or understand the secular elite who cannot accept that the formerly oppressed class rules the country. Both, nationalist in the same way, do not want to accept the Kurdish ethno-class, constantly and endlessly oppressed. The entire country is now falling into a bottomless pit of an emphasis on identity, separated by sharp frontiers. There is, without doubt, an inflation of identity in the Turkish society.
I need to say that during the last week I was very happy to follow an intriguing debate among my friends and colleagues on the attitudes of two Armenians of Turkey: Ara Güler and Sevan Nişanyan. Let me explain.
Nişanyan is a versatile intellectual. He is well known for his work on etymology, religions, architecture, history and…tourism. His skilfulness is not merely having a surface level appetite for everything. On the contrary, all his writings are evidence of a person who goes beyond superficiality. He never acts, speaks or behaves as expected, and he is never politically correct. If, by chance, he reads these lines that compliment him, he will certainly find many linguistic errors, factual errors, interpretation errors and he will say what they are without any concern for being polite or gentle.
Because of his uncompromising and complex personality, his well-informed and sincere atheism and because he is an Armenian…he is in jail. He was condemned for constructing an unauthorized stone hut on his own land in Şirince, a village that he rehabilitated and transformed into one of the most attractive authentic villages in Turkey. And he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a country where Pharaonic constructions were unauthorized, including the presidential palace. The main reason for the absence of clemency for him is, of course, his atheism and his Armenian identity. These two characteristics are by themselves unforgivable crimes.
While awaiting trial Nişanyan celebrated his 60th birthday with friends and family in a restaurant in İstanbul. The Cezayir restaurant is a very well-known place that welcomes many intellectual and political events on human rights, minority rights and so on. This celebration was unorthodox, as usual, because there was even a belly dancer! In my circle, I have read two types of criticism of Nişanyan: Feminists accused him of reinforcing a patriarchal attitude by inviting (and giving money) to a belly dancer, a symbol of man’s domination. Leftists criticized him for having dared to organize such a festivity while there is a pitiless war going on in Turkish Kurdistan. And vice versa. I, myself, agree with both. But at the same time, I am happy to see that, again, Nişanyan is being not politically correct and does whatever he wants, even if it displeases his own circle. He is an individual, independent of his ethnic, religious and political identity. That’s very rare.
Ara Güler, at 87 years old, is a photojournalist known worldwide. He has photographed so many celebrities and so many moments of everyday life that without his archive we wouldn’t know İstanbul’s history and the hidden faces of celebrities so well. He has been and still is an “eye” — an independent one and an unorthodox one. He is an Armenian, too. He is also well known for his free speech and his “flowery language.” Last week, Güler went to the private residence of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the strongest man in Turkey, directing an unprecedented attack on the poor people of his own country. And he took his picture. He knew very well that he would be criticized strongly by people who love and cherish him, but he went to do what he knows best: taking pictures. Of course, he was criticized. And I felt the same uneasiness when I saw these pictures that are so unlike his previous works full of humanity.
But still, he acted as an individual, independent of his identity (Erdoğan has expressed his repugnance for Armenians many times) and independent of his milieu, completely politically incorrect. That’s very rare.
And all in all, what pleased me most is to see that during all this polemic over Nişanyan’s and Güler’s attitudes no one mentioned, at least in my environment, their Armenian identity! These two people, through their lives and personalities, won the right of being something other than “Armenian.” In a country where identity is the main reason for social division and even the most used political tool, these two personalities are oases in the desert.
Yorumlar kapatıldı.