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ERDOGAN THE AESTHETE
by Veli Sirin
Gatestone Institute
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3029/erdogan-armenian-memorial
April 24 2012
The monument [symbolizing reconciliation between Armenians and Turks],
Erdogan said, was "monstrous;" he issued a categorical order for its
demolition. The minister of culture and tourism tried to calm the
resulting uproar. But Erdogan shut him up, repeating, "Yes, I said
the monument is monstrous and the responsible mayor should make sure
it disappears as quickly as possible."
Early in 2011, while visiting the Turkish city of Kars, less than
20 miles (30 kilometres) from the Armenian frontier. the country's
neo-fundamentalist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Justice
and Development Party (known by its local initials as AKP), discovered
a memorial to the Armenian victims of Turkish massacres in 1915.
The stone sculpture, 115 feet (35 metres) high, entitled "A Statue
of Humanity," represented a human body severed from top to bottom,
with the two halves facing each other. It was intended to include a
hand reaching between the separated forms.
Its creator, artist Mehmet Aksoy, believed the art installation
would symbolize relations between Armenians and Turks, and their
reconciliation. The former mayor of Kars, Naif Alibeyoglu, had
commissioned the art piece in 2006, when Turkish-Armenian relations
were, as so often before, at a low point, so it would be visible
across the border.
Armenians and their supporters have long called on Turkey to recognize
the mass slayings and deadly deportations of Armenians to the Syrian
desert during the first world war as a genocide; and, as the legal
successor to the Ottoman empire, to accept responsibility for these
crimes.
In recent years, attitudes have changed in Turkey. It is no longer
taboo to discuss the tragedy inflicted on the Armenians. Politicians
have shifted position: in 2009 a plan was adopted to establish
diplomatic relations with Armenia and open the borders between the
two countries. But such a normalization has been delayed.
When Erdogan saw the Kars memorial, however, he professed shock. The
monument, he said, was "monstrous;" he issued a categorical order
for its demolition to the Kars mayor, Nevzat Bozkus, a member of
Erdogan's AKP. The minister of culture and tourism, Ertugrul Gunay,
who accompanied Erdogan on his excursion in the eastern districts,
tried to calm the resulting uproar, noting that the creator of the
piece, Aksoy, is his friend. But Erdogan shut him up, repeating,
"Yes, I said the monument is monstrous and the responsible mayor
should make sure it disappears as quickly as possible."
Erdogan argued that the memorial overshadowed the tomb of a spiritual
Sufi, Ebul Hasan Harakani, who lived in the 10th century CE, and a
mosque associated with him, both rebuilt in 1996.
The artist Aksoy replied that when he selected the location the
authorities responsible for preservation of historic buildings and
monuments had approved the proposal without problems.
Aksoy also had recourse to the legal system. He obtained a court order
against the razing of his work, but the decision was ignored. The Kars
town council continued with its vandalism. Hundreds of supporters
of the artist held a protest in Kars. Aksoy compared Erdogan to a
totalitarian dictator and declared that most citizens of Kars opposed
wrecking the monument.
For many opponents of Erdogan and the AKP, the disagreement about a
sculpture revealed several negative aspects of the prime minister's
personality. Erdogan has been accused repeatedly of autocratic and
increasingly dictatorial traits. He is held responsible for the arrests
of Turkish journalists under the AKP administration, whether he did or
did not order the detentions. In addition, the Turkish secular elite
point to the removal of the Kars memorial as evidence that members of
the new, Islamist governing class that Erdogan placed in power lacks
education and culture. Removal of the Kars statue is further seen as a
vindictive act against ex-mayor Alibeyoglu, who left the AKP and joined
the secularist opposition in the Republican People's Party (CHP).
The painter Bedri Baykam, a leading exponent for secularist artists
in Turkey, had demonstrated years before against the Islamist trend of
the Erdogan regime. During the debate over Aksoy's statue, a year ago,
Baykam joined a meeting in Istanbul defending the Kars memorial. After
the event, Baykam and art gallery director Tugba Kurtulmus, who was
with him, were stabbed by Mehmet Celikel, a mental patient who said
he "disliked people of that kind." Celikel had been imprisoned for
stabbing two other people in 1998. Both Baykam and Kurtulmus survived.
Erdogan claimed his criticism involved aesthetics, not human rights.
According to him, the memorial was "monstrous." But can any monument
to the victims of terrible atrocities be uglier than the incidents
they commemorate?
The expulsion of the Armenians, in death marches running here and
there across Turkey, was a precedent for the Holocaust of European
Jews. In Germany, historians are committed permanently to research
about the involvement of the military, other state institutions,
and ordinary people in the horrors of the second world war.
But in Turkey, the prime minister is terrified at the sight of stones
erected one upon another. The stones themselves neither declare
Turkish guilt nor refer to the suffering of Armenians explicitly. But
the monument is gone, and some part of collective memory will have
vanished with it. Erdogan's action was wrong: it just illustrates
his preference for demolition over reconciliation.
by Veli Sirin
Gatestone Institute
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3029/erdogan-armenian-memorial
April 24 2012
The monument [symbolizing reconciliation between Armenians and Turks],
Erdogan said, was "monstrous;" he issued a categorical order for its
demolition. The minister of culture and tourism tried to calm the
resulting uproar. But Erdogan shut him up, repeating, "Yes, I said
the monument is monstrous and the responsible mayor should make sure
it disappears as quickly as possible."
Early in 2011, while visiting the Turkish city of Kars, less than
20 miles (30 kilometres) from the Armenian frontier. the country's
neo-fundamentalist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Justice
and Development Party (known by its local initials as AKP), discovered
a memorial to the Armenian victims of Turkish massacres in 1915.
The stone sculpture, 115 feet (35 metres) high, entitled "A Statue
of Humanity," represented a human body severed from top to bottom,
with the two halves facing each other. It was intended to include a
hand reaching between the separated forms.
Its creator, artist Mehmet Aksoy, believed the art installation
would symbolize relations between Armenians and Turks, and their
reconciliation. The former mayor of Kars, Naif Alibeyoglu, had
commissioned the art piece in 2006, when Turkish-Armenian relations
were, as so often before, at a low point, so it would be visible
across the border.
Armenians and their supporters have long called on Turkey to recognize
the mass slayings and deadly deportations of Armenians to the Syrian
desert during the first world war as a genocide; and, as the legal
successor to the Ottoman empire, to accept responsibility for these
crimes.
In recent years, attitudes have changed in Turkey. It is no longer
taboo to discuss the tragedy inflicted on the Armenians. Politicians
have shifted position: in 2009 a plan was adopted to establish
diplomatic relations with Armenia and open the borders between the
two countries. But such a normalization has been delayed.
When Erdogan saw the Kars memorial, however, he professed shock. The
monument, he said, was "monstrous;" he issued a categorical order
for its demolition to the Kars mayor, Nevzat Bozkus, a member of
Erdogan's AKP. The minister of culture and tourism, Ertugrul Gunay,
who accompanied Erdogan on his excursion in the eastern districts,
tried to calm the resulting uproar, noting that the creator of the
piece, Aksoy, is his friend. But Erdogan shut him up, repeating,
"Yes, I said the monument is monstrous and the responsible mayor
should make sure it disappears as quickly as possible."
Erdogan argued that the memorial overshadowed the tomb of a spiritual
Sufi, Ebul Hasan Harakani, who lived in the 10th century CE, and a
mosque associated with him, both rebuilt in 1996.
The artist Aksoy replied that when he selected the location the
authorities responsible for preservation of historic buildings and
monuments had approved the proposal without problems.
Aksoy also had recourse to the legal system. He obtained a court order
against the razing of his work, but the decision was ignored. The Kars
town council continued with its vandalism. Hundreds of supporters
of the artist held a protest in Kars. Aksoy compared Erdogan to a
totalitarian dictator and declared that most citizens of Kars opposed
wrecking the monument.
For many opponents of Erdogan and the AKP, the disagreement about a
sculpture revealed several negative aspects of the prime minister's
personality. Erdogan has been accused repeatedly of autocratic and
increasingly dictatorial traits. He is held responsible for the arrests
of Turkish journalists under the AKP administration, whether he did or
did not order the detentions. In addition, the Turkish secular elite
point to the removal of the Kars memorial as evidence that members of
the new, Islamist governing class that Erdogan placed in power lacks
education and culture. Removal of the Kars statue is further seen as a
vindictive act against ex-mayor Alibeyoglu, who left the AKP and joined
the secularist opposition in the Republican People's Party (CHP).
The painter Bedri Baykam, a leading exponent for secularist artists
in Turkey, had demonstrated years before against the Islamist trend of
the Erdogan regime. During the debate over Aksoy's statue, a year ago,
Baykam joined a meeting in Istanbul defending the Kars memorial. After
the event, Baykam and art gallery director Tugba Kurtulmus, who was
with him, were stabbed by Mehmet Celikel, a mental patient who said
he "disliked people of that kind." Celikel had been imprisoned for
stabbing two other people in 1998. Both Baykam and Kurtulmus survived.
Erdogan claimed his criticism involved aesthetics, not human rights.
According to him, the memorial was "monstrous." But can any monument
to the victims of terrible atrocities be uglier than the incidents
they commemorate?
The expulsion of the Armenians, in death marches running here and
there across Turkey, was a precedent for the Holocaust of European
Jews. In Germany, historians are committed permanently to research
about the involvement of the military, other state institutions,
and ordinary people in the horrors of the second world war.
But in Turkey, the prime minister is terrified at the sight of stones
erected one upon another. The stones themselves neither declare
Turkish guilt nor refer to the suffering of Armenians explicitly. But
the monument is gone, and some part of collective memory will have
vanished with it. Erdogan's action was wrong: it just illustrates
his preference for demolition over reconciliation.