{"id":7601,"date":"2008-11-24T04:58:45","date_gmt":"2008-11-24T01:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=7601"},"modified":"2023-04-06T15:26:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T12:26:09","slug":"violent-nationalism-blights-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/11\/24\/violent-nationalism-blights-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Violent nationalism blights Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Story from BBC NEWS:
\nhttp:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/europe\/7737413.stm<\/span><\/div>\n
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Turkey is fiercely patriotic and proud of it. But the country’s bid to join the European Union has sparked a nationalist backlash that has turned murderous, the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul. <\/strong><\/div>\n

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Writer Hrant Dink was the first victim, killed last year because some in Turkey could not tolerate what he stood for. To nationalists, he was a traitor.<\/p>\n

In a country where every citizen is defined as a Turk, Hrant Dink defined himself as ethnic Armenian. That was already subversive to some. But Mr Dink went further.<\/p>\n

He wrote about the expulsion and killing of hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians from eastern Turkey in 1915. To Armenians, and others, that was genocide – a claim Ankara vigorously denies.<\/p>\n

Hrant’s cause <\/strong><\/p>\n

Hrant Dink was convicted of insulting the Turkish nation. That is a crime here. Nationalist protesters surrounded his office shouting “Love Turkey or leave it!” and he received hundreds of death threats.<\/p>\n

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Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. <\/p>\n

Rakel Dink on her husband and his murder <\/p>\n

Already low-profile, after Mr Dink’s murder most Armenians retreated into scared silence. But almost two years on, his widow has decided to speak out.<\/p>\n

“Hrant was really affected by those protests,” Rakel says, fighting back tears. “After that, we said only a miracle could help us live here.”<\/p>\n

But the family stayed.<\/p>\n

“Hrant could never abandon his cause,” says Rakel, explaining that he wanted to convince Turkey that diversity and dissent were a strength, not a threat.<\/p>\n

His killers disagreed.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if I should say this, but the origins of this murder go back to 1915,” Rakel says.<\/p>\n

“An Armenian told the truth to the face of the Turkish state and the law. That’s why Hrant was murdered. It offended them, it dishonoured them.”<\/p>\n

Critical flashpoints <\/strong><\/p>\n

To Turks, honour is everything. From childhood they learn of a glorious history: how a soldier – Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – forged a new nation from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.<\/p><\/div>\n

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<\/td>\nTurkey needs time to adjust – the EU process may help, but my husband’s death is their biggest loss <\/strong>
\nRakel Dink <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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To most, the allegation their ancestors were guilty of genocide is an unacceptable slur.<\/p>\n

Turkey’s justice minister underlined that view himself this week, defending his decision to allow the trial of another writer to proceed for referring to “genocide”.<\/p>\n

“The man describes Turkey as a murderer state,” Mehmet Ali Sahin is quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

It seems freedom of expression is no defence.<\/p>\n

“That is why they were against Hrant,” Rakel says. “They could not digest what he was writing about, even though he used very soft language.”<\/p>\n

But Turkey’s drive to enter the EU has made nationalists feel threatened, and that has made them aggressive.<\/p>\n

The Armenian issue, and the treatment of millions of Kurds in Turkey, have become critical flashpoints.<\/p>\n

‘Once-and-for-all fight’ <\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost 50 writers have been brought to trial since May for insulting the nation.<\/p><\/div>\n

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“Democracy means questioning, it means self-critique – and this is the thing they [nationalists] would not like,” explains Umut Ozkirimli, from Istanbul’s Bilgi University.<\/p>\n

“For them, when you start questioning things you become a traitor.”<\/p>\n

That is why Hrant Dink was murdered.<\/p>\n

It is also why at least 20 writers in Istanbul are now living with bodyguards.<\/p>\n

Oral Calislar is one of them. A close friend of Hrant Dink, he is also a well-known critic of the Turkish military – particularly its policy towards ethnic Kurds.<\/p>\n

He has had dozens of death threats. Now, wherever he goes his armed guard goes with him.<\/p>\n

“We want to change this country into a democratic country and the EU accession process is important for that,” the journalist says.<\/p>\n

“I think because of that, some powers in the state want to shut our mouths.”<\/p>\n

Mr Calislar is sure Mr Dink’s murder is part of a far broader resistance to reform. He sees that deep within institutions of the Turkish state; groups clinging to power – and to their own vision of the republic.<\/p>\n

“This is a once-and-for-all fight. It’s been going on in the closet for 80 years, between those who want change and those who don’t,” Mr Ozkirimli agrees.<\/p>\n

“If the whole project of EU membership goes away, [then] the democratic forces will lose, and forever,” he adds.<\/p>\n

‘Ergenekon’ trial <\/strong><\/p>\n

In that battle for democracy, Hrant Dink was on the frontline. Now there is another sign the fight will be fierce.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Eighty ultra-nationalists are currently on trial just outside Istanbul, accused of plotting to overthrow the government and block democratic reforms.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor claims the group – known as Ergenekon – planned a campaign of murder and violence. It was meant to create chaos – and force the military to step in and take control.<\/p>\n

Hrant Dink believed Turkey could change. His vision was of a truly democratic republic and the EU accession process was a vital part of that.<\/p>\n

To his widow, such change now looks a long way off.<\/p>\n

“[Turkey] doesn’t want people to express their ethnic identity, or live freely. That doesn’t fit the founding ideas of this country,\u201d Rakel says.<\/p>\n

“Turkey needs time to adjust. The EU process may help, but my husband’s death is their biggest loss.”<\/p>\n

You can watch Sarah Rainsford’s full report at 2230 GMT tonight on BBC2’s Newsnight programme. <\/em><\/div>\n

Story from BBC NEWS:
\nhttp:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/europe\/7737413.stm<\/span><\/div>\n
\nPublished: 2008\/11\/19 16:31:29 GMT<\/div>\n

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Story from BBC NEWS: http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/europe\/7737413.stm Turkey is fiercely patriotic and proud of it. But the country’s bid to join the European Union has sparked a nationalist backlash that has turned murderous, the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul. Writer Hrant Dink was the first victim, killed last year because some in Turkey could not tolerate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":774855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","category-eu-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}