Taking an Exception to 'Three Cheers for Turkey'

By Kani Xulam

May 18, 2002

In Biology, it is a given to say that all cells have membranes. In science, it is assumed that one has to at least test one hundred cells, under the microscopes and in the labs, to ascertain the truth of such a fact and only then declare that all cells have membranes. Reading Tunku Varadarajan's feature article, "É Three Cheers for Turkey É" -- in the Wall Street Journal on May 14, 2002 -- I found myself wondering aloud what in the world brought about this abject pandering, contrary to all the scientific and deductive evidence, to one of the last Kingdoms of Darkness in the world? I still have not found the answer.

In case you missed that ignoble pontification, don't panic, consider yourself fortunate, for you have spared your eyes to an unseemly sight, the likes of which, to be sure, have appeared in the past, but usually in the writings of the disillusioned ZˇmigrZˇ circles who remember fondly, only the goodness, of the old country. But then Mr. Varadarajan is not a Turk. He calls himself a Turkophile. And he would like you to believe that his new love, Turkey, is maligned, nay, subjected to past wrongs and possible future calumnies that simply put, to use a polite expression, are intolerable.

The truth, about Turkey and the Turks, he says, is completely the opposite. If I am stranded on a desolated island "with only a single companion", he says, "I would regard myself fortunate if he or she turned out to be Turkish." The reason, if you wonder, and he is quick to supply, is that the Turks, unlike other hapless children of God which includes more than 99 % of humanity are no match in, get your eyes ready for these gems, "conviviality" and "an ability to be philosophical É".

If so, fortune has thrown my lot, I am a Kurd from Turkey, among a people with zest for life, love for learning, and a Weltanschauung that is the envy of the world, and, pity me, I have tried to run away from it for the past 21 years. I suppose, I should, (to use a Turkish proverb, "Zararin neresinden donulurse kardir", which translates to something like, cutting one's losses is profit,) rush to the U.S. government to withdraw my application for my ongoing political asylum. I would, in so doing, put an end to a legal battle that has gone on for six years, employed four able lawyers and may prove to be one of the costliest, if it were not pro bono, immigration cases in the history of the American Republic.

You see, if I did not know Turkey well, and had not spent the most formative years of my life on that most forsaken of the peninsulas in the whole world, I might have done just that and, today, on the urgings of Mr. Varadarajan, I would have gone to New York City, to join the Turkish-American Parade to hold Mr. Varadarajan's hands, really "tight" I think, and if need be with both hands, to express my own appreciation for him: for enlightening me about Turkey and for Turkey: for being such an "exemplar" ally that has responded to "freedom's call" from Korea to Somalia, and from Bosnia to Afghanistan.

Alas, I can not do that.

And with a heavy heart, I have to tell Mr. Varadarajan and his readers, that he and his likes, in this country as well as the world over, are dead-wrong. The Turks I know are very different than the Turks he describes. Of course, there are exceptions, brave souls who have moved their tongues and their pens in defense of the Kurds, though wanting in numbers, are the truest examples of the greatness of the Turks. But going back to Mr. Varadarajan's panegyric, I have seen or read about more Turks than he will ever meet or befriend or follow as role models -- the last breed are few in numbers, all destroyers of humanity as generals, and hardly a match to the heroes of Athens and Rome and never a copy of the teachers, judges and prophets of the Near East or Far East in the first round of civilization before the Renaissance.

But I don't need to take a journey to the beginnings of history to prove my point. I shall content myself with the lot of the present day Kurds in Turkey to pour some cold water over his feverish and ardent apology on behalf of the Turks. I shall endeavor to prove my point beyond any doubt that he is in a state of trance, and that if he persists in it, he will soon find himself listed alongside such demagogues as Enver Pasha, Goebbels, and Mussolini. I shall do so by citing examples from the existing Turkish constitution, from the memory of people still living, and from my own observations as a Kurd growing up in Turkey.

Let me, first, point to a Mount Everest size omission in Mr. Varadarajan's article. Tunku Varadarajan is an Indian name. If India were ruled by Turkey today, for example, the way Ankara administers half of Kurdistan these days, Mr. Varadarajan would have been unable to call himself neither Tunku nor Varadarajan nor Indian. The Turkish rulers of India would have told his parents that only Turkish names are allowed in the Turkish India. And if his old man were to demur, they would have said, let's name this future apologist of our name, Attila Genghis Turkoglu! The last name, in case the non-Turkish readers miss the pun, means the son of a Turk.

Article 66 of the present Turkish constitution states that all persons born within the borders of Turkey are Turks. Never mind twenty million of these are Kurds who speak a different language, who look different, whose claim to their identity, at least in terms of historical record, predates those of their present rulers, the Turks. They are forced to submit to the Turkish yoke written into the constitution, thought in the school curriculum and inculcated with the zeal of the Taliban and the precision of the Swiss by the Turkish administrators. Though a Kurd, a native of the Middle East, I had to write numerous papers in High School about my "Turkish" ancestors who came from Central Asia with the blind faith of a true believer akin to the article Mr. Varadarajan wrote for the Turks.

I have been thinking about one other thing since reading Mr. Varadarajan's article in his paper. I have wondered what would Mr. Varadarajan have done if he were still a citizen of India and if his country were to ever plunge into a military dictatorship, akin to the one in Burma. Would he have sought asylum in Turkey, to be close to his convivial and philosophic friends? If the answer were yes, he would have found the door closed to his face, for Turkey only accepts refugees from the Occident. Asians and Africans need not apply.

And one last thing, If I were Mr. Varadarajan on that stranded island and found myself condemned to live with a Turk, I don't think I would have slept well lest the Turk threw me into the ocean to make room for a native of Europe.

Sorry Mr. Varadarajan to be the bearer of the bad news for your newfound infatuation with the Turks and Turkey. I think you need some of that strong Arabic coffee, which sells as Turkish in Turkey, to put you out of your trance. In case, you may think that I am being totally unreasonable, just remember that it is not just the Kurds who have to call themselves Turks even the coffee has to do it.

I say free the coffee, free the Kurds.

________________________________________

The Wall Street Journal May 14, 2002

A Friend Indeed

Three cheers for Turkey, stalwart ally and Muslim exemplar

By Tunku Varadarajan*

If I were marooned on an uninhabited island with only a single human companion -- in a situation where conviviality, as well as an ability to be philosophical when the need arose, accounted for a great deal -- I'd regard myself as fortunate if he or she turned out to be Turkish.

I like the Turks, not just as individuals but also because I admire their country. I believe that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, was one of the great politicians of the 20th century, and the nation he constructed from the rubble of a collapsed Ottoman Empire is the most attractive example of social engineering one could hope to observe.

This Saturday, the annual Turkish-American parade will take place in New York City, in which Turks of all stripes -- from doctors to gas-station attendants -- will lay bare their dedication to their adoptive and native countries. As a committed Turkophile and new immigrant to America, I would urge as many of you as can make it to attend the parade too, for the U.S. has had no ally more loyal, more consistent and more principled than Turkey.

In this, Turkey is on a par with Britain and Israel. Yet if you ask the average American the question Which U.S. ally has been the most stalwart?, you are likely to hear the names of a variety of other countries before you hear that of Turkey.

Turkey has a PR problem in this country. This is the result of three factors. The first is the innate modesty of the Turks themselves. They are not a gaudy or boastful people; and since their support for the U.S., and for NATO, wells up from an implacable conviction that Turkey's interests are inseparable from those of a U.S.-led West, they prefer to go about their business quietly.

Besides, the Turkish end of the alliance was not forged opportunistically, or to win cheap brownie points, orinfusions of cash or arms or aid. It endures because the Turks want it to endure, and it endures even though Turkey is treated with contumely by the European Union, a collection of states that, barring Britain, has done far less for U.S. security and strategic well-being than Turkey has. Ask Donald Rumsfeld if he'd prefer a world without France or one without Turkey. See what he says!

The second factor working against a better appreciation of Turkey's contribution is the small size of the Turkish-American population. The most liberal estimates put it at 300,000, though the truest figure might be nearer 200,000. Although they are concentrated in a few urban nodes, such as New York and Chicago, they haven't the collective muscle in any one place to form a voting bloc to which politicians must pay obligatory court. So they're ignored. Or worse.

And here's where the third factor comes in. It is Turkey's misfortune -- and the misfortune of Turkish-Americans -- that there exists in the U.S. a range of Armenian and Greek organizations that dedicate themselves to damaging Turkey's reputation. I was at a conference of Turkish-Americans in Chicago over the weekend and heard numerous tales of harassment from ordinary Turkish professionals who do their best to make Turkey's case in the U.S. A gentleman who runs a Turkish Web site recounted his experiences of death threats from Armenians, as well as instances of hacking into his, and others', sites.

Because of the vocal, and virulent, anti-Turkey organizations that roam unchecked in the American political landscape, politicians are afraid to espouse the cause of Turkey. Ironically, the anti-Turkey rancor in this country, at least where it comes from Greek-Americans, is increasingly anachronistic; in reality, Greece and Turkey are growing closer to each other politically, and it was noticed by all, at a conference I attended in Istanbul earlier this year, that George Papandreou, the Greek foreign minister, addressed his Turkish counterpart in terms so warm one might have mistaken him for the latter's long-lost brother.

May I, therefore, make a suggestion? The bipartisan Turkey Caucus in Congress consists of a mere 20 members (it is headed by the Democrat Robert Wexler, who, though quite insufferable during the Florida presidential recount, proves with his support for Turkey that he's not all bad); this is a piffling size. So why can't those congressmen and -women who constitute the informal Israel caucus take on Turkey's cause?

Israel, like the U.S., counts Turkey as a loyal friend. Muslim Turkey's diplomatic relations with the Jewish state have always been genuine and comprehensive -- and conducted at the risk of great opprobrium in the ummah, or the Muslim world -- unlike the ersatz diplomatic relations Israel has with Egypt or Jordan. What is more, the relations rest on a bedrock of people-to-people affection, and not on some opportunistic calculus. Turkey is alone in the Muslim world -- although one must remember that the country, though a state of Muslims, is not a Muslim state -- as a place that offers a haven to Jews, and in which Jews live and work without fear. (It was a revelation, when I was in Istanbul, to find that one of the most respected newspaper columnists in the country is called Sami Kohen -- the "Cohen," here, being spelled in accordance with Turkish orthography.)

Those Americans who are Israel's friends must declare themselves Turkey's friends too. And those American politicians who work sedulously to ensure the protection of Israeli interests must do the same for Turkey. For Turkey's security affects our security, and our security ensures Israel's. So let the connections be made plain, and obvious, and let them be pursued to their logical conclusion.

March with Turkey -- on Saturday, and after.

Mr. Varadarajan is deputy editorial features editor of The Wall Street Journal. His column appears Tuesdays.