Atilla Yayla: What happened when I criticized Ataturk
What is the defining line between a civilized and uncivilized country? In my own experience in Turkey since Nov. 19, it is freedom of expression: I have been accused of treason in the press and suspended from my university for defending the common values of civilization and re-evaluating Turkey's history.
I am an academic, a university professor, studying politics, political philosophy and political economy. On Nov. 18, I spoke on a panel in the western coastal city of Izmir organized by the local branch of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).
I explained a definition I call the "common civilization paradigm": it requires private property, free exchange, limited and responsible accountable government, freedom of expression, religious freedom including minorities and non-believers, the absence of political crimes in law, political opposition, the rule of law and freedom of association, leading to horizontal instead of vertical leadership and cooperation.
Applying it to Turkey, I said that despite widespread official propaganda, the single-party era between 1925-1945, led mainly by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was not as progressive as it is claimed and was, in some respects, backward.
There were only 37 participants in the panel, including a local journalist. She asked whether she had misheard my statement that Kemalism was somehow backward. I replied that she had not misunderstood me, and said we needed to discuss these such issues calmly and without animosity.
Turkey's application to join the European Union can only push these issues to the fore, I added. Europeans who see the ubiquitous representations of Ataturk here will ask: "Why are the same man's pictures and statues everywhere?"
Finally, I said I would like a reasoned debate on my views with Kemalists, but feared it was unlikely. I would be proved right the following day.
I expected a bad headline in her newspaper, Yeni Asir, but it surpassed my expectations: I was declared a traitor who "swore at and insulted Ataturk." This was the beginning of a press and TV campaign along the same lines.
Gazi University, instead of defending academic freedom, suspended me for my statements - and for leaving the city limits of the university without official permission. An investigation is sure also to uncover evidence of failing "to educate Turkish students in accordance with Ataturk's principles and revolutions," the legal basis of education here....
Read entire article at International Herald Tribune
I am an academic, a university professor, studying politics, political philosophy and political economy. On Nov. 18, I spoke on a panel in the western coastal city of Izmir organized by the local branch of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).
I explained a definition I call the "common civilization paradigm": it requires private property, free exchange, limited and responsible accountable government, freedom of expression, religious freedom including minorities and non-believers, the absence of political crimes in law, political opposition, the rule of law and freedom of association, leading to horizontal instead of vertical leadership and cooperation.
Applying it to Turkey, I said that despite widespread official propaganda, the single-party era between 1925-1945, led mainly by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was not as progressive as it is claimed and was, in some respects, backward.
There were only 37 participants in the panel, including a local journalist. She asked whether she had misheard my statement that Kemalism was somehow backward. I replied that she had not misunderstood me, and said we needed to discuss these such issues calmly and without animosity.
Turkey's application to join the European Union can only push these issues to the fore, I added. Europeans who see the ubiquitous representations of Ataturk here will ask: "Why are the same man's pictures and statues everywhere?"
Finally, I said I would like a reasoned debate on my views with Kemalists, but feared it was unlikely. I would be proved right the following day.
I expected a bad headline in her newspaper, Yeni Asir, but it surpassed my expectations: I was declared a traitor who "swore at and insulted Ataturk." This was the beginning of a press and TV campaign along the same lines.
Gazi University, instead of defending academic freedom, suspended me for my statements - and for leaving the city limits of the university without official permission. An investigation is sure also to uncover evidence of failing "to educate Turkish students in accordance with Ataturk's principles and revolutions," the legal basis of education here....