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AFTER THE VERDICT
NICOLE POPE
Today's Zaman
Jan 19 2012
Turkey
When the verdict fell on the Hrant Dink case, I had just come back
from a press meeting with Ä°shak Alaton, the well-known industrialist
and veteran social-democratic activist, who had been speaking about
anti-Semitism and Turkey's relations with Israel, at the invitation
of the Journalists and Writers' Foundation.
As the disappointing outcome of the judicial case became clear,
some of Alaton's words, which seemed particularly relevant to the
matter at hand, still resonated in my mind. Alaton had spoken movingly
about his father, a businessman and enthusiastic supporter of Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk's young Turkish Republic, whose life and dreams were
shattered when the Turkish state decided to impose a "wealth tax" on
its non-Muslim citizens in 1942. Alaton Senior was among some 2,000
non-Muslim Turkish citizens who, unable to raise the astronomical
sums they were asked to pay at short notice, were sent to AÅ~_kale in
Erzurum province, where they had to endure forced labor in unspeakable
conditions. The family, forced to sell all its belongings, was left
with just mattresses on the floor. When his father came back after a
year, Alaton explained, his hair had turned white and he was a broken
man who suffered from depression for the rest of his life.
As a young man, Alaton acknowledged, he had at times been harsh
and impatient with his father, criticizing him for his inability
to overcome his ordeal. It was only years later that his father
explained the source of his despair. "If a man betrays his country,
he is sentenced and he is punished," he told his son. "But what
happens if the state betrays me, the citizen? Nothing happens, nobody
cares. They discard you like dirty linen."
Nearly 70 years later, a similar despondency could be read on Rakel
Dink's tired face after the verdict was announced, and many in the
country, I'm sure, shared her quiet despair. The system had, once more,
failed the Armenian-Turkish writer Hrant Dink.
Much has changed in Turkey in the past decades, and particularly
in recent years. By confronting elements in the army and the state
institutions that were trying to undermine its power, the Justice and
Development Party (AKP), for a while, fuelled the hope that the state,
in its dragon, anti-democratic form, would finally be slain, after
imposing much suffering on its own citizens, be they Jewish, Sunni,
Christian, Alevi or Kurdish (and the list is not exhaustive). But
while some of the dragon's multiple limbs may have been chopped off --
those that directly threatened the ruling party and its supporters --
it is becoming increasingly evident that its head remains in place.
Dink's assassination was a tragedy for Turkey, which lost one
of its great humanists on the pavement of Å~^iÅ~_li on Jan. 19,
2007. Until the court produced its flawed verdict a few days ago,
those who care passionately about this country's fate and want the
pace of democratization to speed up, still hoped that the authorities
would use the investigation into Dink's murder to pursue the process
of cleansing the state of its rogue elements and its narrow mentality.
Instead, the judiciary, always ready to detect links with illegal
organizations when students unfurl banners in support of free education
or when intellectuals defend Kurdish rights, turned a blind eye to
the trail of evidence.
Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and other politicians have urged
patience, pointing out that the outcome is not yet final. The verdict
will be appealed, and the case may go all the way to the European
Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. But how convincing, at
this stage, is it for the ruling party to hide behind the courts? In
the course of the investigation, the government failed to give clear
signals that it would not let the matter rest until the whole truth
was revealed. The investigation showed that senior officials knew a
plot was afoot, but they did nothing to protect or warn Dink.
I don't know how much outrage the wealth tax generated among the
general Turkish population in 1942. But today in this country,
supporters of an inclusive system that does not see its citizens as
potential enemies are speaking out. As the founder of the Turkish
Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), Alaton, now in his
80s, has long been, and remains, an active supporter of Turkey's
democratization process. Other defenders of a more inclusive and
fair Turkey will gather in their thousands in Taksim to mark the
fifth anniversary of Dink's death on Thursday, and they will no doubt
continue to fight for change and for all the culprits to be punished
for his death. In that sense, the politicians are right: The case is
not over. But it is not thanks to them.
NICOLE POPE
Today's Zaman
Jan 19 2012
Turkey
When the verdict fell on the Hrant Dink case, I had just come back
from a press meeting with Ä°shak Alaton, the well-known industrialist
and veteran social-democratic activist, who had been speaking about
anti-Semitism and Turkey's relations with Israel, at the invitation
of the Journalists and Writers' Foundation.
As the disappointing outcome of the judicial case became clear,
some of Alaton's words, which seemed particularly relevant to the
matter at hand, still resonated in my mind. Alaton had spoken movingly
about his father, a businessman and enthusiastic supporter of Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk's young Turkish Republic, whose life and dreams were
shattered when the Turkish state decided to impose a "wealth tax" on
its non-Muslim citizens in 1942. Alaton Senior was among some 2,000
non-Muslim Turkish citizens who, unable to raise the astronomical
sums they were asked to pay at short notice, were sent to AÅ~_kale in
Erzurum province, where they had to endure forced labor in unspeakable
conditions. The family, forced to sell all its belongings, was left
with just mattresses on the floor. When his father came back after a
year, Alaton explained, his hair had turned white and he was a broken
man who suffered from depression for the rest of his life.
As a young man, Alaton acknowledged, he had at times been harsh
and impatient with his father, criticizing him for his inability
to overcome his ordeal. It was only years later that his father
explained the source of his despair. "If a man betrays his country,
he is sentenced and he is punished," he told his son. "But what
happens if the state betrays me, the citizen? Nothing happens, nobody
cares. They discard you like dirty linen."
Nearly 70 years later, a similar despondency could be read on Rakel
Dink's tired face after the verdict was announced, and many in the
country, I'm sure, shared her quiet despair. The system had, once more,
failed the Armenian-Turkish writer Hrant Dink.
Much has changed in Turkey in the past decades, and particularly
in recent years. By confronting elements in the army and the state
institutions that were trying to undermine its power, the Justice and
Development Party (AKP), for a while, fuelled the hope that the state,
in its dragon, anti-democratic form, would finally be slain, after
imposing much suffering on its own citizens, be they Jewish, Sunni,
Christian, Alevi or Kurdish (and the list is not exhaustive). But
while some of the dragon's multiple limbs may have been chopped off --
those that directly threatened the ruling party and its supporters --
it is becoming increasingly evident that its head remains in place.
Dink's assassination was a tragedy for Turkey, which lost one
of its great humanists on the pavement of Å~^iÅ~_li on Jan. 19,
2007. Until the court produced its flawed verdict a few days ago,
those who care passionately about this country's fate and want the
pace of democratization to speed up, still hoped that the authorities
would use the investigation into Dink's murder to pursue the process
of cleansing the state of its rogue elements and its narrow mentality.
Instead, the judiciary, always ready to detect links with illegal
organizations when students unfurl banners in support of free education
or when intellectuals defend Kurdish rights, turned a blind eye to
the trail of evidence.
Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and other politicians have urged
patience, pointing out that the outcome is not yet final. The verdict
will be appealed, and the case may go all the way to the European
Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. But how convincing, at
this stage, is it for the ruling party to hide behind the courts? In
the course of the investigation, the government failed to give clear
signals that it would not let the matter rest until the whole truth
was revealed. The investigation showed that senior officials knew a
plot was afoot, but they did nothing to protect or warn Dink.
I don't know how much outrage the wealth tax generated among the
general Turkish population in 1942. But today in this country,
supporters of an inclusive system that does not see its citizens as
potential enemies are speaking out. As the founder of the Turkish
Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), Alaton, now in his
80s, has long been, and remains, an active supporter of Turkey's
democratization process. Other defenders of a more inclusive and
fair Turkey will gather in their thousands in Taksim to mark the
fifth anniversary of Dink's death on Thursday, and they will no doubt
continue to fight for change and for all the culprits to be punished
for his death. In that sense, the politicians are right: The case is
not over. But it is not thanks to them.