gunduz-aktan-kitap-soyledikleri-ve-yazdiklari

SÖYLEDİKLERİ VE YAZDIKLARI
Europe and Europe in Turkey (Özal, 1991). This book discusses the images
of historic events occurring in Anatolia and Europe starting from the ancient
Ionian and Hellenic civilizations up to 1990, and the influence of these
images on the relations between Turkey and Europe. Turgut Özal and
Gündüz Aktan’s purpose was to clarify that Turkey was a part of Europe in a
way to contribute to science and Turkish diplomacy, in English and in French.
They had argued that Turkey was a part of Europe while it also preserved its
unique character. It was important at the time to underline that Turkey had
a president and high-level diplomats capable of thinking on many high levels
with nuances. In addition to this book, Gündüz Aktan wished for a book in
English, focusing only on Turkish-Greek relations. This is why he supported
me in co-authoring the book Turks and Greeks (Volkan and Itzkowitz, 1994)
with Norman Itzkowitz, a professor of history at Princeton University and my
colleague in the CSMHI, with whom we attempted to make a psycho-political
analysis of Turkish-Greek affairs throughout centuries.
Back then, Gündüz Aktan focused on how the image of the Turk was
perceived in Europe, and its invisible and silent impact on European-Turkish
affairs. He had devised psycho-political and diplomatic theories on the
subject. These were not limited to the images of historical events between
the Ottomans and Europe. Gündüz Aktan was investigating the influence of
Christianity in the conscious and unconscious minds of the peoples of
Europe, and the psychological impact of various subsequent events in
Eastern Europe on the society. Democracy in Europe had emerged after the
monarchs as father figures were overturned. He believed that the
widespread social unconscious guilt shared after such events led to an
externalization as a defense mechanism (for example, “I” am not evil; the
“other” is), which in turn fueled racism in some European societies. He
argued that knowing the social psychologies of European nations would
benefit Turkey in developing better diplomatic relations with them.
His thoughts and ideas may be traced in the speeches and articles in this
book. We also published his opinions in the publication of the CSMHI under
the pseudonym Mehmet Suphi (Suphi, 1996 a,b). Since Gündüz Aktan was
an appointed diplomat at the time, he preferred not to use his real name. As
far as I can remember, Mehmet Suphi was a grandfather of his.
We were making parallel studies on how the images created by historical
and religious events in the histories of societies were reflected on the
political situation in the world today. As I gained more knowledge through my
unofficial diplomatic experiences in many regions of conflict around the
world, I had understood that societies, like individuals, had psychological
rituals, and that the relations between societies would be better understood
by analyzing the psychologies of those societies (Volkan, 1988, 1997, 2004,
Gündüz Aktan
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