PDF Dosyası - Ankara Üniversitesi Kitaplar Veritabanı

His third never-to-be-forgotten deed was one of the most heroic ofan heroic career. Knovving as he must have done that it vvould shorten hislife, in May 1938, vvhen he vvas seriously ili and in great pain, he chose tomake an official visit to south-eastern Anatolia, vvhich succeeded in itspurpose of scaring the French into thinking that he vvas making ready toseize Hatay if they did not agree to give it up.The principal theme of this paper, hovvever, is to consider a strangephenomenon: that the Western press so often ignores or brushes asideTurkey's achievements. A question that has alvvays puzzled me, particularlynovv since the end of the Cold War, vvhen most Western countries -not, I am happy to say, my ovvn country- seem to think that they no longerneed Turkey's friendship. Why are Turkey's efforts at publicity not aseffective as one vvould vvish?I think the ansvver is that Turks have the quality vvhich they cali temkinand vvhich the ancient Romans called gravitas. It is the sturdy senseof responsibility born of many centuries of being an imperial povver, abuilt-in avvareness that you must keep your head or the vvorld may failapart. Turks think it as far beneath their dignity to defend themselvesagainst criticism as to boast of their achievements. One sometimes vvishesthat Turks vvould display a little less temkin and make it plain to thevvorld that they do not claim to be better than other people; they onlyclaim to be no vvorse.A second question is rather more diffıcult: Why are Western journalistsvvho knovv little or nothing of Turkey so eager to share their ignorancevvith a vvider public? Why is it that vvhen the Spanish Governmentfınds it necessary to take action against ETA, Western nevvspapers describethem as Basque terrorists, vvhereas vvhen the Turkish Governmentfînds it necessary to take action against the PKK, Western nevvspapers describethem as Kurdish villagers?Hovv does one account for the man vvho said in a recent article in theFinancial Times that in 1965 a hundred thousand Greeks vvere evictedfrom istanbul? I don't see vvhy one should find a excuse for him, but it ispossible that he meant 1955, in vvhich year, after anti-Greek rioting, anumber of Greeks chose to leave Turkey, though the number vvas nothinglike a hundred thousand and there vvere no evictions; in fact the governmentpaid compensation to those vvho had suffered in the riots. You mayrecall the delightful Ottoman response to multiple mistakes of that kind:'Question: Who vvas the Sultan vvho vvas pulled out of a river by his sisters?Ansvver: It vvasn't a Sultan, it vvas the Prophet Yusuf. It vvasn't a river,it vvas a vvell. It vvasn't his sisters, it vvas his brothers. And they didn'tpull him out, they pushed him in.'783