Black Turks, White Turks: On the Three ... - Insight Turkey

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MÜCAHİT BİLİCİ Most Black Turks feel much more comfortable in Western democracies than they do at home They get disappointed and angry when they see that the symbol of their assurance has been moving alongside them, thus nullifying their perceived progress and self-legitimation. That some White Turks feel offended when they see a religious woman or man is peculiar. This would be a non-issue if it were only a matter of taste, but it is not. We all ride trains where we travel with all kinds of people and feel not in the least offended so long as everybody rides as an equal, “in his own seat.” In the Turkish case, however, discomfort in the presence of certain others is very strong. It is a feeling of being violated; it generates existential anxiety. Much could be said in psychoanalytical terms about this particular feeling or pathos. Being offended by someone else’s entry into Kantian moral autonomy, thus inflicting their presence on us (and making us self-conscious) seems to generate “ressentiment” among the Turkish ruling elite. Unfortunately this pathos is not confined to individual tastes. It has, indeed, become the ground on which state policies and the infamous Turkish notion of the public sphere is constructed. Not surprisingly most Black Turks feel much more comfortable in Western democracies than they do at home. Who are the White Turks? A Kurd is not an ideal citizen. A religious Turk is not an ideal citizen. An Alevi is not an ideal citizen. An Armenian, a Greek or a Jew is not an ideal citizen. An atheist is not an ideal citizen but a devout believer is not an ideal citizen, either. A woman who wears a miniskirt is not an ideal citizen and a woman wearing a long skirt is not an ideal citizen, either. White Turks are ideal Turkish citizens not by any virtue of their own, but because they belong to the cultural milieu and the constitutive elite that initially defined the notion of Turkishness. An ideal citizen identifies as Muslim, yet harbors reservations about the forms of Islam practiced by the majority of the people. An ideal citizen tends to subsume all ethnic identities—including his own, which is most likely non-Turkish—under the banner of Turkishness. White Turks are typically of immigrant background. They see the new land (Anatolia) and the new country (Turkey) as their final “homeland.” Their experiences and values became the values of the center of the Turkish Republic. In this way, a minority experience and lifestyle acquired the trappings of the majority, while the actual majority of Turks, the Black Turks, found themselves experiencing a discomfort usually reserved for minorities. 34
Black Turks, White Turks: On the Three Requirements of Turkish Citizenship Conclusion Today, with the arrival of the Black Turks and their powersharing claims, what we see is a conflict between two culturally defined “classes” that represent values and conceptions of modernity with origins in different times and places In Turkey, the state is Janus faced. It is Muslim against non-Muslims. It is Sunni against Alevis. It is secular against Sunnis. It is Hanafi against Shafiis. This list can be expanded and other excluded groups identified. The only group about which the Turkish state has no reservations about is the White Turks. One is tempted to think that White Turks are politically represented by the Republican People’s Party (CHP, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), a party which includes the old-style bureaucratic as well as the military elite and public servants. They benefit from official ideology in terms of income— and more importantly in terms of status. They are the true citizens. Despite its relatively small core constituency the Turkish state has been successful in mobilizing various sectors of society against each other while keeping all at bay. It is fair to say that if there were more non-Muslims in Turkey and if their rights were better respected, Muslims who are religious would be freer. One reason the Turkish state does not grant rights to the Greek Patriarchate is for fear that Muslims following a civil Islam will ask for the same rights. In a sense, non-Muslims are also paying the price for the repression of religious Muslims. Unfortunately, the majority of mainstream Muslims are complicit in the Turkish state’s discrimination against non-Muslims, Armenians or missionaries. In the way of a conclusion, one may speculate that the current standoff in Turkey seemingly between the Islamist-rooted AKP and secular forces of the establishment (the judiciary, CHP and most importantly the military) is in fact a conflict between the Balkans and Anatolia. The majority of White Turks belong to an elite class of immigrants from the Balkans and the Caucasus. They built the Turkish Republic on a peculiar diasporic ethos that led to the unhappy marriage of Muslim nationalism and naive nineteenth century secularism. Their headlong rush for modernity created the symbolic capital that allowed them to act as benefactors of the nation and the rightful inheritors of its resources. Today, with the arrival of the Black Turks and their power-sharing claims, what we see is a conflict between two culturally defined “classes” that represent values and conceptions of modernity with origins in different times and places. 35
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Black Turks, White Turks: On the Three ... - Insight Turkey

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