Sunday, November 5, 2006

Elif Şafak

  One thing that hawkish ideologies in Turkey, like hawkish ideologies anywhere thrive upon is the fear of the “Other” –the unfamiliar, the unknown. At times of deep social transformation this fear becomes all the more visible. The insecurity that accompanies big social transformations constitutes a fertile ground of breeding for xenophobia and ultra-nationalism. Over the last five years Turkey has been going through an important social and political and cultural transformation. The traditional political elite has been replaced by new political actors, while the conventional duality between center-periphery exists no more. As the country got closer to EU and the overall EU bid gained pace, the anxiety on the part of those who would like to see the status quo intact grew stronger. 

  Yet it is not only Turkey that witnesses this clash of opinions. In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the whole world is inexorably swinging to the right. Xenophobia and chauvinism are everywhere, and from everywhere they keep feeding each other.  Hardliners only create more hardliners somewhere else. The dream of Hegel came true, albeit in a most distorted form. Today everything is deeply, fundamentally and almost mystically interconnected. E.g. whenever Islamophobia and Turcophobia are on the rise in this or that European country, lets say France or Germany, it has a triggering effect on ultra-nationalism back here in Turkey, and vice versa. It is always the same old, masculinist tit-for-tat type of politics. “If Europe does not want us, what s the big deal,” exclaim the ultranationalists. “Let the ball drop. Who cares? We do not want them anyway! Let s turn toward Russia and why not, Iran!” Thus they think, or at least pretend to believe, that after more than 100 years of dedicated Westernization, Turkey could and should search for a different direction.  Underlying their flawed approach is what I see as “the desire for a safe and sterile space of existence.” Nationalist Turks believe that Turkey is surrounded with imminent danger on all sides while Turks have no friends other than themselves. They conclude that we cannot live with or within people who are unlike us. Turks should stick to Turks. Beyond this narrow mentality, I believe, lies the fear of being challenged. After all, like-minded people will never challenge, but merely echo us. This is to say that if we are to develop intellectually, spiritually and culturally it can only be with and through “Others”.

  In today s world there is a growing tendency to retreat to safe spaces of the like-minded. The imminent danger that awaits us is an escalating tendency to see the Muslim or non-Western world in general, and the Middle East in particular, as a monolithic whole, a terra extraneus. Unfortunately many Westerners seem to believe that the land outside their borders is a “deviation” from norms, a sui generis so as to be structurally compatible with the fundamental values and ways of the Western World. Significantly, this generalized ahistorical opposition converges too often with yet another “Other”ization -- one that is continually procreated by a range of Islamist or nationalist discourses both within and outside the Middle East. What we have as a result is a trafficking of generalizations on and from both sides.