Meeting the Radical Left

Friday I had a mind-stretching day talking with some incredible individuals who are working to make Turkey a true democracy.

I took the boat from Sariyer (the town down the hill from Koç) to Besiktaş. I saw the sun rising over massive ships heading to the Black Sea. From Besiktaş I jumped on another boat to cross to the Asian side and disembarked at Üsküdar. Thanks to Professor An-Na'im at Emory Law School, I had a meeting with Recep Senturk who was a Human Rights fellow at Emory. Recep earned his PhD at Columbia in Sociology. He teaches at the Center for Islamic Studies (ISAM) and Fatih University. I could have talked with him for days, but he was preparing for a conference that evening- so I was lucky to have an hour of his time. He is an engaging man who I enjoyed speaking with from the moment I met him.

Recep is focused on the legal and moral issues of Islam and human rights. I had a crash course in Islam, learning that Islam has multiple truths. Imans in the same city can rule on issues differently. He said there is a convergence of religion and human rights. Now some minorities in Turkey are fighting for their rights, but Recep said they should be fighting with the Muslims who are advocating for human rights. The government will never give the minorities rights that the Muslim majority does not enjoy.


Recep defines a secularlist as one who is against religion. He defines himself as secular; he believes in God, but wants a separation of religion from the state. When the Turkish republic was founded, Islam was the religion of the state. In 1937, the state accepted secularism. However, secularism is not defined in Turkey. In America, we define it as a separation between church and state. In Turkey, there is some freedom of religion, some separation of religion from the state and some control over religion by the state.

Today thanks to the Internet and other media, Turks are aware of what is going on in the West. No longer can the state say - we are emulating the west in order to be progressive - and this means that religion plays no part in society. Turkey's concept of secularism does not exist anywhere in the west. 88% of Turks want freedom of religion. The EU is requiring Turkey to redefine their relationship with religion. Religion needs autonomy while the army needs less autonomy and should come under the control of the elected government.

Currently the elite in the country- those in control- the wealthy, the army, the highly educated such as university rectors, etc - do not want to enter the EU. Entrance into the EU will require them to obey the rules. Right now they are the ones who are writing the rules. They will lose their power with EU entry. I was confused because I know Koç is involved with an institute that is working on EU acceptance and supposedly I heard that the business community is pro-EU. Recep claimed that they are just playing the game, really they are not interested. The typical response I hear from many Turks is that they are receiving unfair treatment. Croatia and Romania are in worse condition than Turkey, yet they sailed through the process.


When I said to Recep - maybe Europe really doesn't want to admit 70M Muslims to their community - he responded by saying I do not expect them to love us. Protestants and Catholics do not get along - we need to be realistic and look at the broader picture. The extremists on both sides get the media attention, so those are the views that we hear.

My head was spinning as I left. Mats were being laid in the central atrium for the upcoming prayer. Recep gave me a lot to think about. Turkey is a young country undergoing many changes. I have been learning a lot of negative things about the country, but Recep gave me hope that things are moving in the right direction.

I took the boat over to the European side to meet with Surreya, the Fulbright director in Istanbul. He brought me to a Russian restaurant, but alas - this is Turkey - so the food was the same Turkish food (just the eggplant salad was yellow.) Surreya had just returned from NY so unfortunately he was telling me about the tough economic situation. He mentioned that the Fulbright program might be affected. Germany has the largest Fulbright program because the government gives 90% of the funds. Turkey is number 2, with the government providing 25% of the funds.I tried out my new ideas that I learned from Recep on Surreya. He didn't exactly agree; I think he may be a Kemalist!


Then I tried my luck with walking into a hotel to get a good rate and once again my luck held. I wanted to stay in Taksim/ Beyoğlu area. This is the center of the modern, European side. Istiklal Caddesi is a 1.5 km pedestrian shopping area. It is packed day and night. At first I thought I didn't need to be around Western shops, but the side streets are amazing and this is where all the action is.

At 5:00 I met Selma, thanks to David Montgomery at Emory. He organized the International Summer School on Religion and Public Life. Selma just started talking, as if we had been friends for years. As we waited for the bus to Bilgi University, I learned that she is finishing her masters. She is analyzing people's attitudes about being Turkish. She found her interviewees on Facebook and Yahoo Groups! Now she is really interested in making documentary films. She was in Teheran in October and would like to do a fim about everyday life in Iran, using the upcoming election as a focal point. Recently she did a bike ride for peace in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. I asked why no Israelis and she said Israelis would only be able to enter Jordan - not even Palestine. (I want to explore this more with her.)

Bilgi is like the Antioch of Istanbul- real free-thinkers. I only saw it in the dark, but it is amazing. We were on the new Santral campus. Bilgi started out in a poor neighborhood - the philosophy being that the university should be situated in needy neighborhoods and then students could work on projects to benefit the community. This new campus is situated where the Ottoman electric works were located. Now this building is an fascinating hands-on science museum. The library is just half of one floor, but the campus boasts 3 restaurants! We also visited the modern art museum which had an exhibit on 1968- photos from Germany.

Gülnaz joined us at 8- she was also at the International Summer School. She just graduated and is a dynamo of action. She is currently involved in a youth congress. I wish I had a tape recorder (and that I was 30 yrs younger!) These young women are very passionate and active about making Turkey a better place. They stated that there was an Armenian genocide, but they didn't think it was the US business to get involved in the issue. They did not think passing a resolution in the House would promote matters. They talked about Turks being complacent. Soldiers die in the East and no one - not the families, etc. ask why. We talked about the similarities between Israel and Turkey. I asked if they knew about any planned solidarity protests with Greece. Selma responded, "Turkish people are killed every month by police, but no one says anything."

Gulnaz would like to work with NGOs, but the money is not enough. She is Kurdish, first university graduate in her family. A beautiful, articulate young woman who will go far in life. As we parted I knew two new friendships had just begun to blossom.