Making sense of irrationality: nationalism in Turkey and its opposite

Sunday, April 30, 2006

These days the Turkish media is assiduously discussing an academic survey which came up with an announcement that took almost no one by surprise: that nationalism was becoming more vocal and visible in Turkey.

These days the Turkish media is assiduously discussing an academic survey which came up with an announcement that took almost no one by surprise: that nationalism was becoming more vocal and visible in Turkey.

  The survey was carried out by one of the most prominent universities in the country in collaboration with a popular weekly magazine that had set its sights on answering a fundamental question: Quo vadimus? Is Turkish nationalism on the rise? When the research results poured in, it looked like the answer was “Yes, indeed.” Fully 53 percent of the respondents had stated that they were proud to be Turks while an additional 30 percent of the people were "very proud" of the same fact. Being “patriotic” and “nationalist” were in high demand. When asked to name the things that were out of tune with an ideal Turkishness, 45 percent said “atheism,” while 23 percent answered “homosexuality.” Overall, the survey demonstrated that not only homophobia runs deep in Turkish society but that also nationalism and sexism make a perfect match. Fervent nationalists tend to be fervent homophobics. 

  The crux of the debate in Turkish society and the media today revolves around the notion of identity. When asked if they were in favor of joining the EU, a whooping majority of Turks wholeheartedly say “Yes!” Yet at the same time, a considerable amount of people harbor deep suspicions about the intentions of European politicians and fear they might destroy Turkish culture and traditions. The European Union is both pined for and distrusted. After all, we are used to conflicts. Making opposites marry -- even if it is not a happy marriage -- is perhaps the most characteristic basic tenet of Turkish identity. No wonder a strikingly high percentage of respondents stated that they see the present-day nation-state as the successor to the Ottoman Empire and yet at the same time they tend to start national history in 1923 and thereby have a sense of chronological rupture. Collective amnesia creates a sense of historical vacuum. We effortlessly believe that we are the heirs to the great Ottomans, but we have nothing to do with them or their mistakes. This schizophrenia impedes coming to terms with the past, not to mention the difficulty of facing the atrocities of the past.  We think it is perfectly possible to hate and love something/someone in the same breath, just as it is possible to be “A” and “non-A” at the same time. Underlying this unique cultural amalgamation, which might seem quite “baffling” to outsiders but is only “standard” to us, is a central question -- a question, to be perfectly honest, we Turks do not like to be asked too often: Who exactly are the Turks?  Are we a Western society and if so, why do the Europeans treat us like a different species? Are we Middle Easterners and if so, why do we feel so aloof to their ways? Are we the symbol of "in-between-dom" and if so, in today s increasingly polarized world is it possible to take up one s abode in a threshold? The thresholds, after all, are culturally believed to be the domain of the djinni. Old women believe they are no good for human beings. Then the question that hovers over the heads of numerous Turks becomes: “Do we have to make a choice between Westerness and Easterness once and for all? Can t we just keep being equally pro-European Union and suspicious of the Europeans? Can t we just have a pro-nationalist ideology and yet at the same time yearn to transcend the boundaries of the nation-state? Can t we carry on with this deep homophobia and at the same time wholeheartedly keep welcoming all these Turkish popular icons who are visibly, openly, homosexual or transsexual? We are a society of quite irrational fusions that oftentimes defy academic explanations and expectations made by positivistic scholars. And deep inside we ponder: Can t we just stay happily situated in this unreasonable synthesis of ours?”   These are the questions no survey heretofore has been able to answer for us.