July 24, 2008

Why The CIA Funds Me and Other Nonsense

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

If there is one thing that the Kemalists never lack, that is imagination. They can make up, and then believe in, all sorts of fantasy. Their pundits have recently created a vast range of conspiracy theories from the lunacy that “Islamist” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is in fact a crypto Jew who serves the Elders of Zion to the more popular nonsense that the U.S. government aims at establishing a “moderate Islamic republic” in Turkey.

Continue reading "Why The CIA Funds Me and Other Nonsense"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:45 AM | Comments (2)

July 20, 2008

Is Turkey A 'Mistaken Republic?'

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

You should meet Sevan Nişanyan. A Turkish citizen of Armenian decent, he studied philosophy at Yale, political science at Columbia, and now teaches Turkish language and history at Istanbul’s Bilgi University. In the past he has written several books about tourism in Turkey that were all well received by everyone who read them, but his recent title made him a public enemy in the eyes of Turkey's staunch Kemalists. Mr. Nişanyan, with all his boldness, argues that Kemalism is, in essence, what we commonly know as fascism.

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July 17, 2008

Turkey Meets 'Kemalist Terror'

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

On Monday, we heard at least a summary of the indictment in the Ergenekon case from Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Aykut Cengiz Engin. Among the many striking things he noted, one was very new to Turkey. He said that Ergenekon was a “terrorist organization” that “used the ideologies of Kemalism, Atatürkism.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:48 PM | Comments (0)

July 10, 2008

Good Cops Versus Bad Soldiers?

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

In his piece in the Wall Street Journal the other day, Washington-based Turkish researcher Soner Çağaptay was talking about “Turkey versus Turkey.” The “two Turkeys” he was mentioning were the AKP (Justice and Development Party) folks and “secular Turks.” And if the former would “win” the political battle, Mr. Çağaptay was arguing, Turkey would become “less like secular, liberal-democratic Italy and more like authoritarian, semisecular Jordan.”

Continue reading "Good Cops Versus Bad Soldiers?"

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July 7, 2008

The Amazing Adventures of The Ergenekon Mates

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Yesterday, fellow Turkish Daily News columnist Semih İdiz was arguing that the “inconsistent approach from Europe” on Turkey's legal matters was “turning Turks away from not just the EU, but the West as a whole.”

Well, I am a Turk, too, but I have no problem with Europe's approach to Turkey's legal matters. And I bet at the half of the country thinking like me.

Continue reading "The Amazing Adventures of The Ergenekon Mates"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:51 AM | Comments (0)

July 3, 2008

The Arrest of The Untouchables

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Something quite unprecedented happened in Turkey the other day. Early in the morning, a police force of about 6000 launched an operation to arrest 25 influential men, including two retired four-star generals. One of them, Hurşit Tolon, is said to have reminded the police, “I am a general!” Yet, apparently, this did not save him from being taken from Ankara to Istanbul to be questioned by the prosecutors who lead the famous and controversial “Ergenekon” case.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:24 AM | Comments (3)

June 26, 2008

The Atatürk Silhouette on The Holy Mountain

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

The people of Damal, a district of the eastern city of Ardahan, couldn't have imagined that their modest and destitute town would attract droves of visitors and become the focus of the Turkish media. But that is exactly what happened in the past few years with the “"Atatürk miracle"” discovered on the face of the Karadağ heights. Apparently, the silhouette of Turkey's revered founder appears on the shadow that falls on these heights between June 15 and July 5. And thousands of Atatürk lovers, including military officers, bureaucrats and urban professionals, visit the region in order to observe this fascinating solstice.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:20 AM | Comments (7)

June 14, 2008

‘How Dare You Not Love Atatürk?!’

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

The ultra-secular camp in Turkey has just found a new reason to bolster its campaign of fear. Two young ladies wearing the much-hated Islamic headscarf showed up on a TV program, and one of them declared, “I don’t like Atatürk.” The other even said she rather has sympathy for Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian revolution. And hell broke loose.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:26 PM | Comments (8)

June 12, 2008

Imam vs. Teacher: Who Really Won?

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Şerif Mardin, arguably, is the most prominent social scientist that has come out of Turkey. His career posts include top universities such as Stanford, Princeton or John Hopkins. His books are pieces of first class scholarship. He has spent a long time in the United States teaching and doing research about the history of Turkish modernization, and is now professor at Istanbul's Sabancı University.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:29 PM | Comments (2)

June 8, 2008

Introducing the Kemalist Revolutionary Tribunal

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Yesterday I received an email from a Turkish high school student named Sümeyye. She, who seemed to be around 16 years old, was sad and bitter. She wrote:

“With the decision of the Constitutional Court, I feel like a dead person. Next year, I am scheduled to enter the university exams, which I had been so excited about. My biggest dream was to go to university, and I had already started to work hard for it. But now I feel so desperate. I am now forced to make a choice between my belief and my dreams. And I am full of anger at those people who forced me to do so. I used to speak about tolerance and understanding, and quote Rumi and Yunus Emre, but I really don’t feel that way anymore. There is simply no justice or democracy in this country.”

Continue reading "Introducing the Kemalist Revolutionary Tribunal"

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June 5, 2008

Why Is The CHP Such a Disaster?

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Most foreigners who follow Turkish politics are puzzled by the Republican People's Party (CHP). The party, led by Deniz Baykal, claims to be a social democratic one, and is a member of the Socialist International. It also places strong emphasis on concepts such as secularism, modernity and enlightenment — all the principles one needs, supposedly, to have a democratic and open-minded political movement. But there is an irony: The CHP is a far cry from that. It is, on the contrary, extremely illiberal, nationalist and xenophobic.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:43 PM | Comments (1)

June 1, 2008

Yet Another Threat to The Turkish Republic: Pacifism

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Are you familiar with Ms. Bülent Ersoy, the famous Turkish singer? Actually, once upon a time she was Mr. Ersoy, but she had a trans-gender operation in the early ‘80s and said goodbye to masculinity. Since then, she has gradually become one of the most popular divas of Turkey. I personally think that her music is hardly bearable, but millions of fellow Turks, apparently, disagree.

Continue reading "Yet Another Threat to The Turkish Republic: Pacifism"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 8:21 AM | Comments (2)

May 23, 2008

The Liberation of Turkey—From Heavy Smoke

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

I have never understood why people smoke cigarettes. I have tried about a little less than a dozen of them throughout my life, and each and every one was horrible. Therefore, even if they were magical health potions that heal the body and the mind, I would have a hard time using them. So it is completely beyond me why people pay to smoke those stinking white paper tubes, which only kills them slowly.

Continue reading "The Liberation of Turkey—From Heavy Smoke"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:19 PM | Comments (11)

May 17, 2008

Why Most 'Educated' Turks are Hopelessly Illiberal?

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

One of the great benefits of Turkey’s EU adventure is that it unveils some crucial yet often unnoticed facts about this country. Thanks to the accession process, Europeans are taking a closer look at Turkish society, and realizing who is really who in this very complex and often confusing nation. One particular discovery of Europeans has been that the secularist Turkish elite is not sharing some of their fundamental values, such as democracy and individual freedom. These European-looking Turks are also quite militarist and nationalist according to Western standards.

Continue reading "Why Most 'Educated' Turks are Hopelessly Illiberal?"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:18 AM | Comments (4)

May 10, 2008

The Kemalist Crusade Against 'Imperialism' (aka the EU)

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

If someone had handed out a questionnaire these days among Turkey’s Kemalists asking them, “Who do you hate the most,” I bet two names would top the list: Olli Rehn and Joost Lagendijk. These gentlemen are the most-known faces of the European Union in Turkey and they are among the most vocal supporters of Turkish democracy. And, in the eyes of the guardians and apparatchiks of our semi-autocratic regime, democracy is a “counter-revolution” that should be avoided at all costs.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:09 PM | Comments (2)

May 8, 2008

Who Threatens Turkey's Jews?

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Ishak Alaton is one of the most prominent names in Turkey’s tiny Jewish community. He, as the boss of the well-established Alarko Holding, is not just a very successful businessman, but also a man of intellect who comments on social and political problems. As a self-defined social democrat, Mr. Alaton believes in social responsibility – not as a public relations strategy, but as a value in itself.

Continue reading "Who Threatens Turkey's Jews?"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:25 AM | Comments (2)

May 1, 2008

A Righteous Judge Among The Unrighteous

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Once in a while, a righteous judge steps forward in Turkey and makes a speech that bravely defends democracy and freedom – which are heretical concepts for the majority of their colleagues.

Sami Selçuk, for example, who was then the chief judge of the Court of Appeals, had made a series of remarkable speeches at the turn of the century, in which he rigorously argued for a more democratic and liberal system. A similar vision was presented last week by Haşim Kılıç, the chief judge of the Constitutional Court, in his address given at the 46th anniversary of his institution. It was, as a Turkish Daily News columnist and pre-eminent diplomat, İlter Türkmen noted, a very “refreshing speech.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:06 PM | Comments (2)

April 26, 2008

The Trouble With The Theophobes

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

One of the interesting and tell-tale controversies of the past week was the fuss over the recent remarks of Hakan Şükür, Turkey’s famous football star and a pious Muslim. In an interview with daily Zaman, he warned the supporters of his team, Galatasaray, and the other big one, Fenerbahçe, about the impending match between the two. In Turkey, football matches, especially such key derbies, often turn into orgies of violence. But that is very much against the morals of Islam, Şükür noted. And, he added, it would be especially bad to swear and attack fellow human beings during the “week of the holy birth,” that of Prophet Muhammad, in which this match will be played. He reportedly said:

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:23 AM | Comments (18)

April 24, 2008

The Republic and Its Islamic Enemies

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

WASHINGTON - Every country has its own towering figures of intellect, and as a nation torn between several conflicting political philosophies, Turkey has quite many of them. There are prominent liberals, conservatives, socialist, or nationalists. Even the official ideology, i.e., Kemalism, has distinguished supporters, and quite a few of those figures would be as erudite and sophisticated as the eminent law professor, the 79-year-old Mümtaz Soysal.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 7:48 PM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2008

The American Plot to Overthrow The Turkish Republic

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Did you know that the U.S. government is a part of a big conspiracy to destroy Turkey's secular regime and, instead, establish a “moderate Islamic republic”? I have been totally unaware of that heinous plan, and I suspect that even the top officials of the US government itself have been as clueless as I am. But there are extremely smart people in the world, from whose eyes no trick escapes. They discover the hidden truths behind all stones, and they detect all the covert conspiracies that most mortals fail to see.

Continue reading "The American Plot to Overthrow The Turkish Republic"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:31 PM | Comments (6)

April 17, 2008

The Biggest Threat to Turkey is 'Independence'

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

First, congratulations to the head of the EU Commission, Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso and EU's Commissioner for enlargement, Mr. Olli Rehn, for the excellent job they have done by giving bold support for Turkish democracy. The vision that they presented in their recent trip to Ankara and Istanbul is the best hope that this country can really have: Continuing with EU reforms, strengthening democracy, and accepting “democratic secularism,” as opposed to the unabashedly authoritarian one that we have.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:57 PM | Comments (2)

April 12, 2008

Kurds, Turks, and the Tower of Babel

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

One of the interesting episodes in Turkey’s past week was a quarrel between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Diyarbakır Bar President Sezgin Tanrıkulu. In a gathering of NGO’s and government officials, Mr. Tanrıkulu, an ethnic Kurd, asked from the prime minister “not only economic, but also political reforms” for Turkey’s southeast, including the right to “Kurdish education.” Erdoğan didn’t like the idea and, instead, replied with an argument: “Education in a mother tongue does not exist anywhere in the world!”

Continue reading "Kurds, Turks, and the Tower of Babel"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:01 PM | Comments (8)

April 10, 2008

Who Is an Islamist? Who Is a Muslim? And What About Me?

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Political terms can be misleading, especially when used to serve ambitious agendas. For Senator Joseph McCarthy, for example, even a slight of touch of social democracy was “communism” in sheep's clothing. During his heyday in the U.S., it was very easy to de-legitimize a political actor by simply labeling him as “red.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:07 AM | Comments (9)

April 3, 2008

And The Show Trial Begins...

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Maximilien Robespierre was the architect of the Great Terror of the French Revolution, and the behind-the-scenes killer of Georges Danton, who was sentenced to death by a revolutionary tribunal in the year 1794. While accusing Danton with all the bizarre crimes, Robespierre had frankly put the logic behind such show trials. "When the Republic is at stake,” he proudly noted, “we can do anything."

Continue reading "And The Show Trial Begins..."

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:31 AM | Comments (2)

March 30, 2008

The Undivine Rights of Kemalists

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

For centuries “the divine rights of kings” was the justification for autocracy. Absolutist monarchs ruled their subjects with an authority they allegedly received from God. It took some time for those subjects to realize that this was simply an illusory rationalization of arbitrary political power. When the latter realized that no king has blue blood in his veins and divine blessing on his shoulders, they started to favor democracy. It was time for people's power to replace that of the monarchs.

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March 26, 2008

Secular Jihad—A Judicial Attack on Turkish Democracy

[Originally published in Wall Street Journal]

Who would you expect to be zealous enemies of "moderate Islam"? Islamic fundamentalists? You bet. From Osama bin Laden & Co. to less violent but equally fanatic groups, Islamist militants abhor their co-religionists who reject tyranny and violence in the name of God. But they are not alone. In this part of the world, there is another group that holds a totally opposite worldview but shares a similar hatred of moderate Islam: Turkey's secular fundamentalists.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:48 PM | Comments (7)

March 22, 2008

The ‘Crimes’ of Tayyip Erdoğan

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

The latest assault on the elected representatives of the Turkish people, as you might have noted, has come in the form of a judiciary coup d'état attempt. Turkey's chief prosecutor filed a case against the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP). He wants to close the party down, and ban 71 of its top members, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, from politics.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:30 PM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2008

Introducing the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ankara

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Turkey is often called a democracy, but that is a gross mistake. In fact, it is only a quasi-democracy. In democracies, sovereignty rests with the people. In Turkey it is shared between the people and the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ankara (SSRA). The latter lets the people make decisions on trivial issues, but never allows them to mingle with more important ones. When the representatives of the people take steps to make Turkey a real democracy, the SSRA first resists, then warns, then attacks.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:58 PM | Comments (7)

March 16, 2008

The Attempt For a Judiciary Coup D'état

[To be published in Turkish Daily News]

I have been telling you that these people are crazy. And now they proved it beyond any doubt.

You must have heard what I am speaking about. Turkey’s chief prosecutor has just filed a case against the incumbent AKP (Justice and Development Party). He asks for the closure of the party and the banning of Prime Minister Erdoğan and his 70 top colleagues from politics. A political party which has just gained the votes of the 47 percent of the Turkish people is now under threat. Even President Abdullah Gül is on the list of the would-be banned politicians. Unbelievable but true!

Continue reading "The Attempt For a Judiciary Coup D'état"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:55 PM | Comments (6)

March 15, 2008

'Islamization' of Turkey: Not What You Would Think

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

One of the popular themes of the recent years is whether Turkey is being “Islamized.” People ask, and fear, about the change in Turkish society under the incumbency of the conservative AKP (Justice and Development Party) government. The suspicion ranges from extravagant conspiracy theories about the “hidden Taliban-like face of the AKP” to the more reasonable concerns about the rise of moral conservatism in public life. Fellow TDN Mehmet Ali Birand, with whom I agree on many matters, touched upon the latter issue in his successive pieces about “the gradual Islamization of our daily lives.” I bet many readers have found his observations compelling.

Continue reading "'Islamization' of Turkey: Not What You Would Think"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:56 PM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2008

The Heinous Attack on The Penis of Atatürk's Horse

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

You really shouldn’t miss this. Last week, the head of the CHP (People’s Republican Party) in the city of Denizli, Mr. Ali Kavak, unveiled yet another heinous attack on our secular Republic and its founder. He, with all seriousness, posed in front of cameras with a photo of the statue of M. Kemal Atatürk that rests at the center of his city. “As you see,” he said, “the penis of the horse that Atatürk sits on has been broken.” Then he moved on to disclose the wicked plan behind this blasphemy: “We think that the AKP (Justice and Development Party) cadres have broken the penis,” he asserted, “the mindset which covers our women’s heads with scarves is now attacking artworks!”

Continue reading "The Heinous Attack on The Penis of Atatürk's Horse"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:47 AM | Comments (6)

February 23, 2008

The Greatest Turkish Story Ever Sold

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

A very informative piece appeared on these pages last week under the title “Decision to abolish headscarf ban hurts Turkey internationally.” Its writer, Dutch commentator Michael van der Galiën, nicely summarized how Europeans like him see this country. “We often think that the majority of Turks are overly religious,” he wrote, “but that they are kept in check by a modern elite.” He added that his fellow Europeans worry that “this elite cannot control these masses much longer,” and fear that “Islamists will take over and the European Union will have a massive problem.”

Continue reading "The Greatest Turkish Story Ever Sold"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:15 AM | Comments (4)

February 21, 2008

Has The AKP Unveiled Its 'Real Face'?

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

A popular line in the Turkish media these days is that the incumbent AKP (Justice and Development Party) unveiled its “real face” by trying to set the veil free in universities. "We knew that these guys were Islamists," some commentators say, "and lo, they are trying to put the headscarf into the campus!"

But why in the world the AKP shouldn’t try to set the headscarf free? Were they supposed to make reforms that would benefit everybody but the conservative Muslims?

Continue reading "Has The AKP Unveiled Its 'Real Face'?"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:31 AM | Comments (3)

February 15, 2008

The (Turkish) Doctrine of Pre-Emptive Intolerance

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Proverbs are sometimes a good way of getting a sense of a nation's culture. You can especially learn many things about Turkey by looking at it popular maxims. One of them is particularly important vis-à-vis the political mindset. It is short and beautifully simple: “If you give your hand,” it warns, “then you will lose your arm.”

Continue reading "The (Turkish) Doctrine of Pre-Emptive Intolerance"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:58 PM | Comments (5)

February 9, 2008

Celebrating Turkey's ‘Counter-Revolution' (aka Democracy)

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

These days it has become a mantra among secularists that the lifting of the headscarf ban amounts to a "regime change." Even fellow TDN columnist Mr. Yusuf Kanlı, a most reasonable and articulate voice in that camp, was quite strong about this in his piece the other day. "Turkey is facing," he argued, "the most important counter-revolutionary attempt in the republican era."

Continue reading "Celebrating Turkey's ‘Counter-Revolution' (aka Democracy)"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:52 AM | Comments (8)

February 7, 2008

A Politically Incorrect Q&A on The Headscarf

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

You must have noticed that allowing university students to wear headscarves on campus is a very controversial topic in Turkey. The proponents of the ban argue that it will be beginning of the end of the secular state. Some portray it as the victory of “dogma” over “reason.” I, instead, think that it is a step toward a more liberal and democratic Turkey. To explain why, I decided to present a little Q&A. Here we go...

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:13 AM | Comments (2)

February 3, 2008

How Atatürk's Church Became an Ultra-Nationalist Base

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Any quick history of Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, will surely include the institutions he created, from İş Bank to Ankara University to the ideology that bears his name. But who knew the story of the little church that he created until it found itself entangled in the alleged ultra-nationalist criminal gang called “Ergenekon”?

Continue reading "How Atatürk's Church Became an Ultra-Nationalist Base"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:00 AM | Comments (10)

February 2, 2008

Nutty Professor Asks For Atheist Tyranny

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

I have long used the term “secular fundamentalism” to define the self-styled laïcité of the Turkish Republic. This authoritarian system imposes secularity, a worldview and lifestyle devoid of religion upon its citizens by using state powers. It is the mirror image of religious fundamentalism, which, conversely, imposes religion. In both models, the state has a self-declared ideology, and it tries to shape its citizens according to this dogma. It wants to recreate them in its own image.

In Turkey most secular fundamentalists would shy away from putting this so bluntly. But there are some brave figures who don't mince words.

Continue reading "Nutty Professor Asks For Atheist Tyranny"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:03 AM | Comments (5)

January 31, 2008

It Is About Freedom, Not Scarves

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Why in the world does a state care how students dress in its universities? Shouldn't the state respect its citizens' choices and mind its own business?

If you tend to agree with the tone in these rhetorical questions, then you are probably a believer in liberal democracy. But, of course, that is not the only political system in the modern world. There are also autocratic regimesthatimpose their official ideology on their citizens' lives, including dress code. Islamist autocracies such as Saudi Arabia and Iran are the most known current examples.

Continue reading "It Is About Freedom, Not Scarves"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:21 AM | Comments (5)

January 26, 2008

The Turkish Leviathan Under Arrest?

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

The hottest news in Turkey these days is the arrest and questioning of the members of a covert ultra-nationalist cell called “"Ergenekon.”" Among the 33 members of this cell, there are notorious celebrities such as the retired general Veli Küçük, the shadowy name believed to be one of the masterminds of Turkey's “deep state,” and lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz, who has sued many liberal intellectuals for “"insulting Turkishness."” According to their confessions leaked to the press, the group's aim was to stop the EU accession and liberalization process, and force a military coup to overthrow the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government, which they saw as non-nationalist and treacherous.

Continue reading "The Turkish Leviathan Under Arrest?"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 6:36 PM | Comments (4)

January 24, 2008

The Empire Strikes Back (Via Juristocracy)

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

The bureaucratic oligarchy in Turkey experienced a massive defeat last summer, July 22, when the party that they despise was opted for by 47 percent of the Turkish voters. It was one of the milestones in Turkish democracy, by which people's power won over that of the authoritarian state. After that defeat, the Turkish military took a lesson and stopped making implicit threats about launching coup d'etats. And, at least for a few months, the non-military wing of the oligarchy — including its political arm, the CHP (People's Republican Party) — calmed down.

Continue reading "The Empire Strikes Back (Via Juristocracy)"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:18 AM | Comments (3)

January 19, 2008

The Trouble With Self-Hating Turks

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Yesterday's Turkish Daily News had an interesting interview with Marcus Graf, a German cultural scientist and curator. Speaking to our reporter Yasemin Sim Esmen, Graf noted a peculiar problem in the Turkish art community. “They have a problem with their identity,” he said about Turkish artists. “If they use the symbols and forms of Anatolia, they are called ‘orientalists,' ‘kitsch,' or even ‘fascists'.” The culture expert added that Turkish artists hesitate using “Islamic symbols, such as calligraphy,” because they fear being labeled as “religious.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:44 AM | Comments (2)

January 17, 2008

The Alevi Inquisition

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

For the uninitiated foreigner, it might be hard to get who the Alevis are. In a nutshell, they are an unorthodox religious group in Turkey whose folkloric faith seems to be a combination of Shiite Islam and pre-Islamic Turkish pagan myths. Recently the term “"liberalism"” has been often used to describe them. “"The Alevi denomination,"” argued journalist Devrim Sevimay in a recent Milliyet piece translated and published by the Turkish Daily News, "“is a distinct and liberal movement in Islam.”"

Continue reading "The Alevi Inquisition"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:46 AM | Comments (3)

January 12, 2008

The Turkish Blutfahne (Blood Flag)

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Have you heard the news? A group of high school kids from Kırşehir, a central Anatolian city, sent a special Turkish flag to the commander in chief of the Turkish military, Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt. What made the flag special was the stuff it was made of. The red color in the background was not any ordinary paint. It was literally the blood of these students, which they had joyfully spilt to symbolize their devotion “to the homeland.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:28 AM | Comments (8)

January 10, 2008

Why Turkish Women Can't Drive

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

This might not be the most politically correct thing to say, but I cannot resist the temptation to proclaim the truth: Most Turkish women are horrible drivers. You will see what I mean if you spend a couple of years, or even months, in Turkish streets. If there is a car in front of you which is too slow, too undecided, and too paralyzed, there is 95 percent change that a lady will be sitting in its driver seat. Indeed, it is a truism among Turkish men that “women can't drive.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:02 AM | Comments (3)

January 5, 2008

Sexual Abuse alla Turca

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

This week some Turkish newspapers ran annoyed stories about a new billboard on German streets: "“Mach mich nicht an, Ali!,"” it read, which means, "Don't abuse me, Ali!"” The stylish blonde lady that stood beside this cold warning was evidently representative of many other Teutonic females who, apparently, had a problem with sexually abusive Turkish men.

Yet the Turkish media imagined a totally opposite — and cultural, not sexual — abuse behind this German poster. They thought this was a case of racist bigotry against Turks. One of our top selling newspapers ran the story with the headline, “"The latest crusade."” Another one defined the poster as a piece of “"anti-Turkey propaganda.”"

Continue reading "Sexual Abuse alla Turca"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:42 AM | Comments (16)

December 29, 2007

Reflections On The Devolution In France

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Chou En-Lai, the late prime minister of communist China, was once asked what he thought about the French Revolution. He declined to comment, and explained, “It's too early to tell.”

That was in the early 1960s. Perhaps today it is a little bit less early to comment on whether the French Revolution really was a good idea. That seminal event – which inspired not just the French but also many other revolutionaries in many countries all around the world, including Turkey – has borne some notable fruits by which we might judge their political roots.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:39 AM | Comments (9)

December 27, 2007

Kemalist Science and Its Perpetual Motion Machine

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Cautionary note: The country, events and characters in this piece are all real. I am not kidding at all.

Is it possible to build a machine that will work forever without having any energy input? Many mechanics were fascinated by that idea during the Middle Ages, well into the 19th century. But at last, thanks to the discovery of the laws of thermodynamics, the zeal for such a "perpetual motion machine" died out. The scientific community decided that it was impossible to build such a marvelous device — at least in the universe we live in.

But wait a minute... Perhaps the scientists got it wrong. Maybe they did not employ the correct principles that would allow for the creation of a perpetual motion machine. They, particularly, did not take into account the most important guiding light that the Turkish nation has ever seen.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:03 AM | Comments (9)

December 20, 2007

The Secularization of an Islamic Feast

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

It is often said that we owe our weekends to the Israelites. Before they started to refrain from work on the Sabbath some 3500 years ago, human societies did not have the tradition of a weekly resting day. Then came the 10 Commandments of Moses. “The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God,” it decreed. “You shall not do any work.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:06 AM | Comments (2)

Why Turks Love Conspiracy Theories (II)

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Are you on Facebook? I am. It is not just a good social networking Web site used to catch up with friends and classmates, but it is also a good source to feed my personal and amateurish "paranoia watch" project. The groups created on Facebook by its Turkish users give a sense of the psychology among some of them who are impressively Internet-savvy yet desperately out of touch with reality.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:48 AM | Comments (8)

December 15, 2007

Why Turks Love Conspiracy Theories (I)

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Anybody who spends time in Turkey will notice that conspiracy theories are amazingly popular here. Many Turks believe that there are so many evil powers in the world, and in our own society that perpetually play tricks in order to weaken our country. Mapping out these imagined plots is a sort of national pastime.

Since a belief in conspiracies is deeply embedded in culture, politicians use them very often. Most political leaders, or pundits, blame “foreign powers” or “internal enemies” for our problems. Even whey they are caught by paparazzis during inappropriate meetings with their “secretaries,” they confidently accuse their rivals to have designed that “conspiracy.” It is always someone else who must be guilty.

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December 13, 2007

Eastern Kemalists, Too, Do Not Understand Turkey

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

In last weekend's edition of the Turkish Daily News, fellow columnist Orhan Kemal Cengiz had a brilliant piece titled “Western Kemalists do not understand Turkey.” His main point was that “Western Kemalists,” who are “huge fans of Atatürk and the ‘revolution' he and his friends brought about in our country” fail to get Turkey right. They, for example, unquestioningly buy into the creation myth of Republican Turkey — that the pre-Republican (i.e., Ottoman) period was an age of “darkness.” By showing several examples, Mr. Cengiz argued otherwise. “After 80 years of the establishment of the Republic,” he wrote, “it is really difficult to say that, in terms of mentality, we are more advanced than the Ottomans.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:13 AM | Comments (1)

December 6, 2007

Dawkins' 'Delusion' Should Be Free

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Richard Dawkins is probably the world's most famous atheist evangelist. In his numerous books, the Oxford zoologist argues that modern science, and in particular the Darwinian theory of evolution, has disproved God. He is a gifted writer, and his recent volume, The God Delusion, has become a global bestseller. Some call him “the Harry Potter of non-fiction.”

More recently Dr. Dawkins made the news in Turkey, too, yet not by his arguments. As the Turkish Daily News reported on Nov. 29, following a complaint by a Turkish reader that some passages in the The God Delusion were an assault on "sacred values," an Istanbul prosecutor has opened an official investigation on the book's Turkish version. Its publisher, Erol Karaaslan, is said be “questioned” soon.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:05 AM | Comments (6)

December 2, 2007

Secular Apartheid at Work

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

"Injustice anywhere," said Martin Luther King, "is a threat to justice everywhere." Therefore the world should learn and care about the story of Tevhide Kütük, the 17-year-old Turkish schoolgirl who just became the latest victim of Turkey's self-styled apartheid.

It all started several months ago in Kozan, a municipality in the southern city of Adana. The young and bright Tevhide, a student of the state-sponsored quasi-religious "Imam-Hatip" schools, heard about the essay contest that the Education Ministry launched to celebrate the annual Teacher's Day. She wrote a fine piece on the virtues of teaching, and submitted it to the organizing committee. Soon the jury decided that she was the best writer among all the other students in her hometown, and thus she deserved to win the award, which was a very modest present by all standards, but a very inspiring reward for a modest teenager.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:17 PM | Comments (10)

November 24, 2007

Turkey's Veiled Democracy [A Must-Read Article]

This article, published in the November/December issue of The American Interest magazine, is available here online (but in full only for subcribers), and here in full as a PDF file.

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 7:16 PM | Comments (2)

November 17, 2007

The Scandal of The Kemalist Mind

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

I, unluckily, made a lot of people upset with my piece in last weekend's edition of the Turkish Daily News, “The gospel according to Atatürk.” A few dozen readers sent fuming emails, which rebuked me for daring to criticize the level of veneration shown in Turkey to its founder.

If you have been reading the “Letters to The Editor” section, you might have come across two of these reactions, which came from two Turkish readers living in the United States. The one from New Jersey noted that he was “shocked” by my piece, and added, “"someone should tell Akyol that he is dead wrong."” The other one, a lady, expressed “anguish” at me and my "“very naive look.”" I, she also argued, "“cannot be a Turk.”"

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:33 PM | Comments (5)

November 14, 2007

Turkey's European Front

[Originally published in The Wall Street Journal]

ISTANBUL — Last month, all eyes were on Turkey's struggle against the resurgent PKK. While a massive incursion into Kurdish Iraq to smoke out the terrorist "Kurdistan Workers Party" seems to be off the table for now, news came from another front Turks seem to have ignored for a while — Europe.

The European Commission's annual progress report last week on Turkey was mixed at best. It praises recent achievements, notably the resolution of "the political and constitutional crisis which followed the April presidential elections."

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 6:33 PM | Comments (1)

November 12, 2007

The Gospel According to Atatürk

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

DUBLIN - A few weeks ago, while driving through one of the busiest spots in Istanbul, Şişli Square, I came across dozens of Atatürk flags hanging all over the place. They were, apparently, an official prelude to Nov. 10, the anniversary of the death of the country's founder. Yet the flags included not only the usual smiling look of the national leader, but also a message that I had never came across before. "“Sizi izliyorum,"” it read in Turkish, which means, “"I am watching you."”

Apparently the folks who had this brilliant idea have never heard of George Orwell and his classic novel “1984,” in which the Big Brother watches everybody in order to ensure the persistence of his totalitarian regime. And certainly, the state of affairs in Turkey is not as bad as that. Yet it seems no accident that the veneration of Atatürk has reached such absurd heights that its slogans started to resemble Orwellian archetypes.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:56 PM | Comments (4)

October 26, 2007

PKK is Using Al-Qaeda's Strategy

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Fouad Hussein is a radical Jordanian journalist who met Abu Musab Zarqawi and other al-Qaeda leaders as early as 1996. Later on he spent quite sometime with these people and even shared the same prison cell. In 2005, he produced what is probably the most definitive outline of al-Qaeda's master plan: A book titled “Al-Zarqawi: The Second Generation of al-Qaeda.” According to Hussein, before Sept. 11, ideologues within al-Qaeda believed that “the Islamic nation was in a state of hibernation” and some action was needed for the “awakening.” By striking America – “the head of the serpent” – al-Qaeda would cause the United States to “lose consciousness and act chaotically against those who attacked it.” The result would be the popularization of al-Qaeda. “This will entitle the party that hit the serpent,” they wrote, “to lead the Islamic nation.”

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October 18, 2007

An Open Letter to the Armenian Diaspora

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Dear all,

A few days ago a new friend of mine who happens to be an American Armenian played some beautiful songs for me that come from the deepest roots of her ethnic tradition. While I enjoyed the numinous rhythms of that magnetic Armenian music, I realized how similar they were to the tunes of the Turkish classical music that I have grown up hearing. “Despite all the political warfare,” I said to myself, “alas, look how similar we are.” I actually have a similar feeling when I drive along the magnificent mosques and palaces of Istanbul, some of which were built by Armenian architects – men in fez who devoutly worshipped Christ and proudly served the Sultan.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 6:02 PM | Comments (56)

October 8, 2007

The Islamic Case for a Secular State -III-

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

In June 1998, a very significant meeting took place at a hotel near Abant, which is a beautiful lake in the east of Istanbul. The participants included some of the most respected theologians and Islamic intellectuals in Turkey. For three days, the group of nearly 50 scholars discussed the concept of a secular state and its compatibility with Islam. At the end, they all agreed to sign a common declaration that drew some important conclusions

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:14 AM | Comments (6)

October 5, 2007

The Protocols of the Elders of Turkey

[Originally published in The Washington Post]

Look in just about any bookstore in Turkey, and you'll see some strange bestsellers. The cover of "The Children of Moses," the first and most popular book in a series of four, shows the country's devoutly Muslim prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the middle of a six-pointed Star of David. Inside, you'll find a head-spinningly weird argument: that Erdogan and his conservative allies in Turkey's ruling pro-Islamic party are actually crypto-Jews with secret wicked ties to the conspiratorial forces of "global Zionism."

The books are hardly a fringe phenomenon. They're arrayed in chic bookstores along Istiklal Avenue, the funky pedestrian mall that's the heart of secular Istanbul. They're openly displayed alongside Orhan Pamuk novels at Ataturk International Airport. And they're even sold on tiny bookstands on the Princes' Islands, the vacation destinations in the Sea of Marmara that many well-off Turks view the way Manhattanites do the Hamptons. By the publishers' figures, they've sold about 520,000 copies since the books started rolling out this year -- a staggering figure for a nation of about 71 million people.

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October 4, 2007

The Islamic Case for a Secular State -II-

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

There are some myths that many well-educated Turks believe to be true. One of them is the idea that the Ottoman Empire's modernization efforts were continuously resisted and crippled by religion. Italian scholar Rossella Bottoni summarizes the falsity of this cliché well in her article titled, “The Origins of Secularism in Turkey.” “According to received wisdom,” she notes:

“In the Ottoman Empire there was a Manichaean struggle between, on one side, the reformers who were Westernizers, liberals, secularizers and modern, and, on the other side, the opponents, especially the ulema (Islamic scholars), who were obscurantist, backward-looking and hooked on the most obsolete customs dictated by religion.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:23 AM | Comments (11)

October 3, 2007

Voices from the Capital of Sufism

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

KONYA - In Turkey, there are cities that symbolize certain identities. Diyarbakır has made a global name for itself, for example, for being the capital of Kurdish politics. To its north lies Tunceli, which was bombed by the Turkish Armed Forces in 1938 in order to suppress a local rebellion, and has been the crucible of all kinds of radical left groups since then. And at the other end of the country, İzmir stands as the bastion of a secular and westernized lifestyle.

If one is looking for a city that would symbolize conservative Islam, though, none will be more definitive than the central Anatolian city of Konya.

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September 29, 2007

The Islamic Case for a Secular State -I-

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

One reason why Turkey's secularist elite is so obsessed with religious practice is their concern about the secularity of the state. If a society becomes more religious, they believe, then the secular system will be less secure. If more Turks follow God's orders in daily life, they ask themselves, why shouldn't they impose them on others using state power?

There is, to be frank, some justification for this worry. There are religious tyrannies in the Muslim world which impose their narrow interpretation of Islam to their citizens. Moreover, there have been groups and individuals in Turkey who talk about doing the same thing.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:15 PM | Comments (3)

September 20, 2007

Why Are We a Nation Obsessed with the Headscarf?

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

To most outside observers the scene must be looking pretty bizarre: Thousands of otherwise reasonable men and women in this country, who make up much of the social elite, are having panic attacks in the face of the possibility that Turkish universities might tolerate their students wearing the Islamic headscarf. Virtually everyday, bureaucrats, pundits and even university rectors lash out against the proposed article in the proposed constitution to set the headscarf free. "This will be the end of the secular republic," they passionately claim, without realizing that a secular republic that doesn't respect the rights and liberties of its citizens is called a secular tyranny.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:02 AM | Comments (4)

September 15, 2007

And the Winner Is... Muezzin Isa Aydın

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

EDIRNE — The magnificent Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, in Turkey's northwestern end, has hosted millions of prayers since the late 16th century, when the great Ottoman architect Sinan built it. But last Sunday the splendid shrine hosted an usual event: an “ezan contest,” during which 10 competing muezzins (ezan-reciters) performed the Muslim call for prayer with all their artistic skills in order to win the financially modest but spiritually invaluable prize.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:48 AM | Comments (9)

September 9, 2007

Abdullah Gül, a Muslim Modernizer

[Originally published in The Washington Times]

The election of Abdullah Gul as Turkey's 11th president has attracted quite a lot of attention in the world, and there are good reasons for that. Although Turkey is a predominantly Muslim nation, its leaders, and especially presidents, once were people with secular, not Islamic, lifestyles. Yet Mr. Gul is a practicing Muslim, and his similarly devout wife, Hayrunnisa Gul, wears the Islamic headscarf. Hence some people wonder whether this God-fearing First Couple symbolizes a setback in Turkey's two-century-old quest for modernization.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:10 AM | Comments (1)

September 6, 2007

An Open Letter to the Turkish Military

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Dear generals,

We Turks have been through quite a political turmoil in the past five months, which escalated especially with your famous “secularism warning” that appeared on your official Web site on the night of Apr. 27. Since then, Turkey had a very tense and nervous election campaign, held a very popular election, and elected a new president. The widespread hope is that we have come out of the crisis, have passed the political bottleneck, and are heading toward a more normal period. I very much share that optimism, but I also think that we have to reflect on what just happened in our country, and draw some lessons.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:21 AM | Comments (4)

August 30, 2007

A President of the People, for the People, by the People

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

On Aug. 28, 2007, the Turkish Parliament elected Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül as the country's 11th president. By doing so, Parliament not only chose the most eligible man for the top office, but it also proclaimed that Turkey is a democracy, and not a banana republic.

Let me explain what this means. Since the beginning of the Republic, which was announced in 1923, Turkey has been under the rule of a bureaucratic elite which thinks that it knows what is best for the nation, and that it has the right to dictate its goals to the people. While the bureaucratic elite – and their intellectual allies – deemed themselves “enlightened” and refined modernizers, they regarded the people as backward-minded and crude reactionaries. In the ‘30s, their authoritarian strategy was wittily summarized by the motto, “for the people, in spite of the people.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:37 AM | Comments (3)

August 16, 2007

It Is an Honor to be Boycotted by the CHP

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

The expectations came true and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) announced its candidate for the presidency: Foreign minister Abdullah Gül, whose bid was blocked just three months ago by the “secularism memorandum” of the Turkish military and all the legal tricks which followed. The AKP did the right thing by taking that decision, simply because Mr. Gül deserves the presidency and his opponents don't deserve the luxury of freely interfering with the democratic system by using threats and blackmail.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:09 AM | Comments (2)

August 11, 2007

Gül’s Presidency Will Fade Apartheid, Not Secularity

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Nowadays the big question in Turkey is whether Mr. Abdullah Gül, arguably the most successful foreign minister in the history of this country, will be the next president. Actually the same issue was a bone of contention in April, too, when Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan declared Mr. Gül as his candidate for the top post. Mr. Erdoğan's party, the AKP, had enough seats in Parliament to elect Mr. Gül, but the secular elders of Ankara got infuriated, simply because Mr. Gül is a practicing Muslim and his wife wears the headscarf. Hence they blocked the parliamentary process. Consequently Mr. Erdoğan called for early elections, and, alas, won them on July 22 with an astounding victory.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:04 AM | Comments (1)

August 2, 2007

A Post-Kemalist Constitution?.. Not a Bad Idea

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

We Turks love overblown political controversies and simply can't do without them. Right after the general elections, we have created a new one out of a comment made by Dr. Zafer Üskül, who used to be a prominent professor of law, and is now one of the newly elected MP's of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Overnight, Dr. Üskül became the new bête noire of Turkey's hardline secularists – for simply saying that Turkey should have a new liberal constitution in which “Atatürk's principles” should not be referred to.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:09 AM | Comments (12)

July 26, 2007

The Victory and Its Aftermath

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News ]

In my latest article in the TDN, which was published a day before the general elections, I talked about Turkey's authoritarian secularists and made a prediction about their very near future. “My guess is that the election results will be a disappointment for them,” I wrote, “and a blessing for the rest of the country.”

The blessing indeed came with the astonishing victory of the Justice and Development Party, aka the AKP – a result which guaranteed that Turkey will continue on its path toward democratization, economic development and EU membership.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:05 AM | Comments (1)

June 28, 2007

Why Nationalism Works—and How Capitalism Might Help

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

I was taking a nap on Cem Uzan's “election bus” last Wednesday when the shiny vehicle was about to reach Trabzon, a city that has been on the news lately for its rampant nationalism. The loud music and chanting coming from the party convoy woke me up, and the first thing I noticed was a pickup truck which had several youngsters hanging out from its windows. While the boys were cheering for Mr. Uzan's “Genç Parti” (Young Party), I noticed something more interesting on the back of their van. “I would rather have an enemy like a lion,” a rusty plate read, “instead of a friend like a jackal.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:37 AM | Comments (2)

June 22, 2007

Cem Uzan's Case for Nuts—and Neo-Nationalism

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

NEWS ANALYSIS - Who wouldn't prefer to pay just one Lira for gasoline instead of more than YTL two? Or which hazelnut producer wouldn't prefer to sell his product at a state-subsidized rate of eight Liras per kilogram, instead of market prices that don't give even half of that? While it is not hard to answer those questions, it was only Cem Uzan, leader of the up-and-coming Young Party (GP) who grasped its importance before anybody else, and, accordingly, laid out a very promising election strategy.

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June 5, 2007

US News and World Report Reports

The weekly news magazine, US News and World Report published a detailed and very well-writen story about Turkey’s current political debates titled “Continental Divide: Turkey Again Tests Whether Islam Can Coexist With Democracy”. The writer, Mr. Jay Tolson, mentions me in the piece as follows:

[Turkey’s] delicate issues will continue to include Islam and the question of how much religion is permissible in the public sphere. Mustafa Akyol, a bright young columnist for the English-language Turkish Daily News, makes a very convincing case for the moderate traditional religiosity that most AKP supporters embrace.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:58 PM | Comments (1)

May 28, 2007

Speech at The Council on Foreign Relations

Last Friday (May 25, 2007) I delivered a speech at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The event, titled “Turkey’s Political Battle: Secularism vs. Democracy” was presided by CFR fellow Steven A. Cook, and was based on my assessment of the current debate in Turkey over secularism and “the Republic.” You can download and listen to the audio recording of my speech and the Q & A session here. And the full transcript of the meeting is also available here on the CFR website.

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:49 PM | Comments (12)

May 10, 2007

Reductio ad Sharium—A Popular Turkish Demagoguery

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

The Latin term, Reductio ad absurdum (“reduction to the absurd”) refers to a method of proving the falsity of a premise by showing that its logical consequence is absurd. Inspired by this classical expression, modern political philosopher Leo Strauss coined a new term: Reductio ad Hitlerum. Strauss noted that political demagogues employ the “reduction to Hitler” method very often in order to silence their opponents. They just had to find an irrelevant similarity with the Nazis, and then “reduce” their opponents to this deeply and rightfully hated gang.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:24 PM | Comments (2)

May 5, 2007

The Latest Jewish Conspiracy: 'Moderate Islam' & AKP

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Did you know that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife are crypto-Jews who secretly collaborate with the Mossad? And that they are trying to cook-up “moderate Islam” and destroy Turkish secularism for the sake of serving the elders of Zion?

Well, I had no clue about that terrible conspiracy either, until I went into a major Istanbul bookstore last weekend and checked the bestsellers list. There were a few usual titles telling stories about how the beloved Secular Turkish Republic is targeted by internal and external plots — a highly popular and powerful paranoia in the country these days — but none of them were as informative as the one penned by a die-secularist named Ergün Poyraz.

“The Children of Moses” is the title of Mr. Poyraz's masterpiece, and in its subtitle, there are two unexpected names: “Tayyip and Emine.” On the book's cover, there is even a more stunning graphic message: a huge Star of David encircles the photos of Mr. and Mrs. Erdoğan.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:32 AM | Comments (15)

May 2, 2007

The Secularist Hype in Turkey Is a Fact-Free Paranoia

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Nowadays many people say that there is a division in Turkey between “Islamists” and “secularists.” But that's wrong. There is indeed a division, but the sides are rather different. On one side, there are Islamic conservatives (not “Islamists”) and secular liberals whose motto is “democracy.” On the other side, there are illiberal secularists whose motto is “the Republic.”

You can ask what the big difference between democracy and republic is. Both terms vaguely mean “rule by the people,” but in Turkey, there is more than what meets the uninitiated eye.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:14 AM | Comments (5)

April 24, 2007

Abdullah Gül Is the Perfect Choice

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Let me say it loud and clear: The naming of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül as the AK Party’s candidate for president is a perfect decision. It is nearly certain that Mr. Gül will be Turkey’s next president, and I am pretty certain that he will be a good one.

There are many reasons. First, Mr. Gül is a very experienced and refined statesman. His career in academia, finance and politics is impeccable. Moreover, in the past four years, he directed Turkish foreign policy quite successfully and has earned respect and reputation in many foreign capitals — both in the West and the East.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:53 PM | Comments (4)

April 19, 2007

Enough with Christophobia

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

A handful of monsters walked into a Bible publisher in the Turkish city of Malatya the other day. They found three innocent people inside: Two Christian missionaries and a worker. They tied the hands and feet of their victims, tortured them, and then slit their throats. It was a yet another day of barbarism in the dark side of Turkish history.

This heinous crime, which the police is still investigating, is latest one in the horrible chain of attacks against the Christians in our country. And although it was perpetrated by a few young fanatics, there are many other “respectable” people that deserve to be blamed for. They, of course, did not (and would not) support this carnage, but they undoubtedly inspired the killers by continuously spreading a sick ideology: Christophobia, i.e., the fear of Christians and Christianity.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 5:28 PM | Comments (13)

April 11, 2007

Yet Another Illiberal Step by Europe on 'Genocide'

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

One of the interesting themes that conservative and libertarian U.S. intellectuals have been emphasizing in the recent years is the growing gap of freedom in Europe. According to these critics, in continental European countries such as Germany and France — the backbones of the EU — there is a strong tendency towards protecting the welfare state at the expense of individual freedoms.

Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute (a libertarian think tank in Michigan) even argued that there are signs of a “soft-despotism” mindset in the continent, which was apparent in the now-defunct European Constitution. “[The EU Constitution] does not limit itself — as any sound constitution should — to outlining the origins, divisions, and limitations of state-power,” Gregg noted. “Instead, its 511 pages embrace a plethora of subjects ranging from fishing, humanitarian-aid, space policy, sport, tourism, to financial assistance to the former East Germany.” This was a mindset, according to Gregg, which gave the EU officials the right to “meddle in almost anything.”

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:15 PM | Comments (1)

March 31, 2007

Render Unto ‘Akdamar’ What Is Ahtamar’s

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

One of the commonly used quotes from Jesus Christ is his words that put an equal share between the divine and temporal authorities. “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's,” he said according to the New Testament, “and unto God the things that are God's.” Some political theorists think that this particular phrase in the gospels opened the way for the separation of church and state in the West. The state, which we finance by our taxes and serve us in return with earthly goods and services, can have our material loyalty. But it has neither the power nor the right to interfere in our spiritual beliefs and practices. It should, in other words, simply respect the church, the synagogue or the mosque.

Continue reading "Render Unto ‘Akdamar’ What Is Ahtamar’s"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:13 AM | Comments (9)

March 28, 2007

American Neo-Conservatives and the AKP

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Since the beginning of the Iraqi War, the neo-conservatives, an ideological circle influential on the Bush Administration, has been the focus of global interest. They also became quite famous in Turkey and it has been very customary to read opinion pieces in the Turkish press about them. However, much of these comments were based on very little information. People knew that the neo-conservatives (or, the “neocons”) have championed the Iraqi War and continue to argue for an aggressive U.S. foreign policy. But beyond that, there are other facts that have gone unnoticed.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:45 PM | Comments (2)

March 17, 2007

Open Turkey and Its Enemies

[Originally published Turkish Daily News]

In his highly influential work, “The Open Society and Its Enemies” (1945), Sir Karl Popper made a historical overview of political thinkers who opposed the “open society” and instead preferred authoritarianism in various forms. From Plato to Marx, many influential theorists have argued for a political order in which the state and the elites “guide” the people and suppress their “wrong” ideas, beliefs and even identities. Yet such trials of social engineering created not the perfect societies they proposed, Popper noted, but rather brutal tyrannies.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 8:07 PM | Comments (12)

February 15, 2007

After All, Who Remembers The Ottoman Muslims?

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

An oft-repeated quote from Adolf Hitler is the words he uttered to silence the internal resistance to his Final Solution. “But after all,” the Nazi leader asked, "Who remembers the Armenians?”

Of course, history proved Hitler wrong. His evil plan for exterminating the Jews – along with Slavs, Gypsies or the German disabled – could not ultimately triumph; moreover the world remembers his crimes with a justified abhorrence. And nowadays we are repeatedly told to prove him wrong once more by remembering the perished Armenians whom he assumed to be forgotten.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:29 PM | Comments (4)

January 30, 2007

The Hrant Dink Murder and Its Meaning

[Originally published in First Things website]

On January 19, 2007, a journalist named Hrant Dink was shot dead by a seventeen-year-old militant on one of Istanbul’s busiest avenues. In just thirty-two hours, the Turkish police caught the reckless killer, who confessed his crime quite proudly. “I shot the Armenian,” he said smugly, “because he had insulted Turkishness.”

Hrant Dink was a member of Turkey’s seventy-thousand-strong Armenian community. But he was not just any member. As the founder and editor of the weekly Agos, the bilingual Turkish/Armenian newspaper, he was certainly the most prominent Armenian public intellectual in the country. He was, like many Turkish democrats, critical of the authoritarian measures of the state, with a particular emphasis on the taboos about the Armenian tragedy of 1915. Mr. Dink, like many others, believed that the tragedy was indeed a planned genocide. (The Turkish view, on the other hand, is that hundreds of thousands Armenians did indeed perish in 1915, but so did many Turks and Kurds, and what happened should be defined as intercommunal violence, not as a campaign of extermination.)

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 3:38 PM | Comments (2)

January 28, 2007

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Turkish Politics

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

As George Orwell articulated so masterfully in his classic, “1984,” political wisdom begins with discovering the real meanings of political terms.

The real meanings of such terms in Turkey are especially worth finding out — and particularly for the uninitiated foreigner. If you are one of them, I suggest you take note of the following list, which might be helpful in understanding what some Turkish politicians and pundits mean when they speak about this country's big issues.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 3:45 PM | Comments (3)

January 24, 2007

Meet the Monster: Turkish Fascism

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

Hrant Dink, a beacon of conscience and liberty, was shot dead on Jan. 19. Since that black Friday, many Turks have shown the virtue to condemn this heinous murder and cry out for the memory of this noble man. Yet some of our “opinion leaders” have also invented concealed plots against “the Turkish nation” behind this public killing. This is, they rushed to conclude, a maneuver by “foreign powers” and their intelligence services directed at putting Turkey in a difficult situation in the international scene.

But lo and behold! The Turkish police caught the killer and he turned out to be no agent of the CIA. Nor of Mossad, MI6, Mukhabarat, or some People's Army for The Liberation of The Turkish-Occupied Wherever. He is neither Armenian nor Kurdish. He is, as his family proudly noted, “of pure Turkish stock.” Moreover, as he himself proudly noted, he is a die-hard Turkish nationalist who killed Dink out of his zeal for the “Turkish blood.” It also turned out that the 17-year-old apparatchik was directed by his elder “brothers” in Trabzon who have an ugly history of nationalist violence. The city, after all, is the citadel of ultra-nationalism: Catholic priest Father Andrea Santoro was also shot there a year ago by a 16-year-old militant, who had a profile very similar to his comrade who killed Dink.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:22 AM | Comments (6)

January 19, 2007

I Am Armenian Today

Turkey’s most prominent Armenian intellectual, Hrant Dink, was murdered today at the door of the community newspaper he edits, Agos. He was a man of courage and principle. He opposed not only the fascism of Turkey’s ultra-nationalist circles, but also the fanatic anti-Turkism of some members of the Armenian Diaspora. His dream was a Turkey in which Turks and non-Turks, Muslims and Christians, and all others could live in mutual respect and understanding. He was a true freedom fighter—who knew that pen is both mightier and much more humane than the sword.

Alas, there are others in this country, Turkey, who lack the humanity to understand that. One of them killed Hrant Dink today. I denounce this killer and his patrons with all my heart. And respect the memory of Hrant Dink with all my soul. May he rest in peace, and may his dreams come true.

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2006

Rejoice in Kurban Bayramı—It's An Abrahamic Feast

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

This Sunday is a special one for billions all over the world simply because it is the last day of good old 2006. At midnight, fireworks will glitter over cheerful crowds who will be singing, chanting and toasting for new hopes in the 2007th Gregorian year since the birth of Jesus Christ.

However, this Sunday also has a second meaning for the world's 1.2 billion Muslims, including over 70 million in Turkey. It is the first day of the four-day Feast of the Sacrifice, in which countless sheep and cattle will be slain in order to praise God and feed the poor. So if you see men with bloodied knives on the streets of Istanbul or Ankara, don't worry: They will be only observing a ritual that dates back 14 centuries, or — recalling the Judaic past — 4 millennia.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 8:32 PM | Comments (3)

December 19, 2006

Europe, Clash of Civilizations and the Turkish Plumber

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

There was a considerable article in yesterday's The Guardian. "Despite the chorus of pious hope," read its blunt title, "Turkey is not going to join the EU." Its writer, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, was making not an argument against Turkey's EU bid but simply an analysis of the prevailing attitude in the capitals of continental Europe. Despite the efforts of a handful of "soi-disant" leaders — such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair along with Finland's Prime Minister Erkki Tuomioja and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt — Turkey won't be in the EU "in any foreseeable future," according to Wheatcroft.

He might be right. To argue for or against this conclusion would fall into the category of prophecy, which is not what I intend to do here. However, it's worth taking a look into the reasons for this possible disconnect between Turks and Europeans.

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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:32 AM | Comments (3)

December 15, 2006

Christmas Wars—Even In Turkey

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

A couple of decades ago, few Westerners could predict that Christmas would become a bone of contention in their societies. The birth of Christ, which marks the apex of human history according to Western tradition, was taken as granted as tidings of comfort and joy.

Things have changed, however, and now Christmas is losing its meaning in the West. This year nearly 99 percent of Christmas cards sold in Great Britain contain no religious message or imagery. And the Britons are no exception. Other Western nations have the tendency to see D