on blind dates
In summer 2015 I have attended the “Blind Dates Sessions” as a senior participant, at Cittadellarte-Pistoletto Foundation in Biella, Italy. The resident artists later showed their works in İstanbul. Following is my contribution to the related book titled “Ottomans and Europeans” in 2016.
Any commentary on the Blind Dates meetings in retrospect is not suspended in time but filled by the presence of now, “jetztzeit” as Walter Benjamin would say. As I write these, the European Union and the Turkish government are on the verge of an agreement on the fate of Syrian (and Afghan, Iraqi and other) refugees, of plans for re-settlement in return for money and other concessions offered to the Turkish side, in short a “Faustian Pact” (The Guardian) on the livelihood of millions of disposessed. Incidentally, one of these concessions appear to be turning a blind eye to the deeds of the most authoritarian regime that Turkey (an EU candidate) had witnessed, which fights a war against Kurdish guerilla organizations on its soil with no regard for the collateral horrors it inflicts on its citizens, a police regime that supresses not only any hint of dissent on the street, but also unforgivingly cracks down on every expression that is critical of the war and the AKP in media, in academia, among the intelligentsia and the common folk that merely tweet. And all these happening, unsurprisingly, under the conditions of a civil war that could have been averted (not unlike in Syria and Iraq) while the lives of the people in Turkey cannot anymore be protected in the cities. This is the state of affairs as the final chapter (or, an appendix) of Ottomans and Europeans, by the time we recall critical issues that came to the surface in Cittadellarte in summer 2015.
Late Ottoman history is the site of frequent interventions by Europe, mostly on behalf of the empire’s Christian subjects. Interestingly, traces of an Ottoman democratization (constitutions, elected parliaments and minority rights, all turned on and off as the bargaining required) was made possible under pressure, in a situation similar to what a decent citizen in Turkey would expect from the possibility of accession to the EU today. Leading up to the Great War, Nineteenth century liberal-democratic values and humanitarian-missionary efforts were often compromised by the allignment and re-positioning of European powers. Along with every nation’s prime interests, varied egos of diplomatic and military mission in and around the sublime porte, with the power plays and diplomatic blunders, many a catastrophe (including the Armenian genocide) could not be averted, but more importantly, were not loudly addressed at the time. Without a wholesale blame, factions of a divided Europe were complicit in the misdeeds of late Ottomans, as a unified Europe is about to be now facing the Republic of Turkey.
In Cittadellarte last summer, artists of the Blind Dates were all too aware of this past, as they are either direct descendants or their family tree and origins of birth touches the troubled Ottoman history at some point. This context made it possible to talk extensively on history and archaeology, leading up to the varied nationalisms and xenophobia in the face of the heartrending exodus across the Mediterranean that the whole world still witness. Understandably, informal conversations usually revolved around the migrant words and expressions trickled down from the Ottoman domain, a kind of fusion that recalls the right of immigration of bodies in troubled times. March 2016
arkhe (gelibolu)
Arkhe, ilk olan’ı, temel’i vurgular, esasa referans verir. Arşiv bu prensipleri kollarken farkında olmadan kendini açabilir, otoriteyi bazen elinden kaçırır. Arkeoloji ise sesi olmayan objeleri dillendirir, anıtlarla ilgilenirken aslında maddesel bir geçmişi diğer yerel tarihlerle beraber toprak üstüne çıkarır. Öte yandan belgelerden anıtsal söylemler vücuda getirmek tarihyazımının işi olmasa gerektir. Destansı mitler anıtlar gibi önümüzde durur, farklı öykülere ve öznenin kendi anlatısına fırsat vermezler. Troya’daki höyükte savaşın kalıntılarını aramak hayal gücümüze ket vurur, İlyada’nın kör ozanını gözden düşürür. Benjamin’in dediği gibi, geçmişi yorumlamak onu olduğu gibi görmek değil, bir tehlike anında hafızaya sahip çıkılmasıdır. Bu da ‘şimdi’ye ait bir edimdir. Yani tarih, sonsuzdan gelip sonsuza doğru giden ‘boş bir süre’yi dolduran şey değil, yaşadığımız bu ana sıkı sıkıya bağlı bir kolektif hafızadır. Buna rağmen savaşı (devrimler gibi) tarih içindeki tekil dönüm noktaları, dönemleri açıp kapayan eşikler olarak tahayyül etmek tehlikeyi görünmez kılar, yıkımın acısını milli davalara havale edip hafifletir. Tarihyazımı, ayrık kompartmanlar halinde ele aldığı savaşları sebep-sonuç ilişkileri içinde anlatmaya, istatistiklere, ölmüşleri ve her anlamda yaralanmışları sayılara göndermeye meyillidir. Destanlar aracılığı ile geçmiş savaşı bugüne yakınlaştırmak, kitleleri teyakkuz haline sokup hiç bitmeyen ‘acil durum’lar yaratır, düşmanlıkları körükler. Arşiv, eğer savaşan bireyin tekil hissiyatını açığa çıkarabilirse barışa katkı sunabilir, savaşan öznelerin sözcülüğüne soyunanlar ise muktedirlerdir. Topyekun savaş halindeki küresel ahvalde bugün ‘barış’ havada asılı duran ne idüğü belirsiz boş bir kavram değil, herşeyden önce, toplumsal barıştır. 2015
The Massive Neurosis
If nationalism ought to be denounced in all its manifestations, as it should, then surely the wholesale attributes of a nation are outright rubbish. The projects for official histories in nation building and for hate campaigns as their counterpart have proven to be the least trustworthy. That is why one can follow Freud undertaking an archaeology of the Jewish mind late in his life, in analogy to the individual psyche and its formation that he had worked on for so many years. If there is a collective unconscious of a nation, then mass hysteria is a possibility.
The ninety year history of the Turkish republic shows a case of mass neurosis in line with the symptoms laid out by Freud in Moses and Monotheism. Whatever remained in the unconscious of the nation comes back to haunt time and again in view of reflexes shown in the conduct of everyday life today. Although the brutal deeds of the Turkish state go back much earlier, the original sin for modern Turkey appears as the Armenian genocide of 1915. The cadres that have planned, initiated and justified the tone for the atrocities blended into the young republic and their train of hatred and xenophobia has persisted, rarely discretely, in much of the political class, their mentors and followers throughout these years. Unlike the holocaust, the banality of evil, in this case, is through an analogy to the vengeance of a repressed and abused child, that is the late Ottoman psyche, who with all its ‘innocence’ thought it could get away with murder. The practical outcome of such a purification of the population, that is the transfer of capital from Armenians and Greeks to the Turkish subjects is an intended but by no means the sole reason.
Apparently, these facts provide an answer as to why the modern Muslim/Turkish subject is subtly tormented by the signs left by the previous inhabitants of this land, a constant reminder of ghosts from a blurred distant past. This mostly shows itself in attitudes towards archaeology in Anatolia: long viewed as the place for treasure hunting, an ancient site is a constant reminder of a past that the current residents find harder to relate to or to totally forget. One would assume that this was not so in longer Ottoman centuries, where one’s neighbors personified the original builders of the ruins and other buildings, with a talent and craft to match, an object of envy.
In the light of Turkish history, one is pressed hard to explain atrocities committed in the name of the state, religion or the nation. The stereotype of the “Turk” that long circulated in the western world up until early 20th century does not offer a simple answer, just as the notions of Germanic or Slavic or Islamic or Cambodian or the Rwandan despotisms do not offer relief in the face of mass murders. Apart from the trials of reconstructing the past ‘as it is’ in the form of official and non-official histories, and outside all the documents, counter-documents and insinuating circumstances, how should one to understand the the evil deeds of the political class and the frenzy of complacent subjects to commit atrocities? The just and unjust wars waged in the name of the free world, democracy, Islam or else aside, how should one to understand the bloodbath in Anatolia that extends to our time? Why is the human life so worthless in this part of the world? How do the masses turn into a lynching mob, as they did in Sivas, Maraş, Çorum and in larger scale in the rest of the Muslim world? How do groups develop ‘sensitivities’ that when pressed turn them into brutal gangs? How do these compare to the short history of Arab uprisings? How should one explain the brutality of the army in Egypt, and by the same token, the brutality of the police during protests in Turkey?
The Muslim/Turkish (male) subject is a schizoid personality, very much spoiled as a child, but at the same time whose will is frequently broken down brutally by the father whenever necessary. This oscillation in indefinite relations is transferred through generations, bringing up insecure subjects in the face of the figures of authority, who in turn are of a similar mould. In the public sphere, the distrust of the authoritarian father figure in the form of political leaders either create complacent masses, insecure yet obedient, or a revolting camp, branded as the enemy of the state. In an extremely polarized political atmosphere, the ‘debate’ is dominated by accusation and indictment and the democratic culture of peaceful protest, settling disputes and co-existence can never be possible. The head-on collusion of moralizing and authoritarian world views among political actors is contagious and is easily transmitted from top to bottom. This is the state of affairs in the land of utterly insecure and neurotic masses, who, somewhere in between the unconscious and the ego, know well that the wrath of the father can, in an instant, be on the most obedient and the favorite son, as it is now unleashed on the rejected ones at Taksim Square. September 2013