07.08.2014

Turkey: No laughing matter

Amidst the gathering storms the deputy prime minister provides some light relief. Esen Uslu reports

The silly season in Turkey usually starts after the high school examinations in mid-June, and lasts to the second half of August, when the next crop of army top brass is appointed. During this time most state employees and the more fortunate workers in the private sector take their annual holidays by the sea or in the countryside. Politicians, as well as the judiciary, enjoy a break from their strenuous activities. So there is a shortage of the type of news they generate, which is the mainstay of the Turkish media. And, of course, the silly season also coincides with Ramadan.

This year, however, we have the presidential elections. On August 10 Turks will for the first time go the polls to elect a president by direct popular vote. And the immense propaganda juggernaut of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has not left any stone unturned in promoting the candidacy of the current prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Combined with this, events in neighbouring states have been impacting on Turkish politics. The Islamic State launched a military campaign from its Syrian base and invaded the north-east of Iraq. So we now have a new neighbour, whose militants have taken hostage staff of the Turkish consulate in Mosul - cynics have suggested that Erdoğan might attempt to rescue them just before election day so as to be acclaimed as a national hero.

Of course, it was Turkey that secretly armed the Islamic State. American-made weapons were bought from Libya with Qatari money. But what did Turkey get in return? It was one thing slitting the throats of Shias, Christians, Assyrians and Ezidis, or torturing the odd Iraqi soldier. But now they have taken to driving the Turkomen, our kin, out of their homes and forcing them to flee to Kurdish-controlled territory. How ungrateful.

Meanwhile, the Armenians and Azerbaijanis started a shooting spree over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which may escalate into a full-blown war. More than 40 people have been killed (although most people in western Europe are not aware of this it has to be said). Neither do the Ukrainians nor the Russian separatists spare us. Just when Turkey was starting to increase exports to Russia, the Europeans introduce a complex sanctions regime. How difficult life can be for a Turkish bureaucrat.

Then the Israelis and Palestinians started fighting once more. And to think that Turkey had started to normalise its relationship with Israel, which had deteriorated badly after the ‘Islamic humanitarian aid’ ship, Mavi Marmara, was attacked in 2010. Israeli marines killed several activists. With the outbreak of the current brutality in Gaza, our politicians made the usual thundering speeches, but took no action, preferring to assume the mantle of trusted go-between. However, the warring parties did not buy it, and their efforts came to nothing.

Within Turkey itself, since the end of last year we have been hearing stories about a ‘parallel state’. Mind you, this is not the old ‘deep’ state of the fascist-nationalist junta. There is now a new Islamic junta working within the police and judiciary - it was apparently a trusted partner of the AKP government until last year. But now it seems that this ‘parallel state’ has been framing the army top brass and their intellectual followers over the last decade, fabricating the evidence used in their trials. Now the military have been released by the newly appointed judges and it is top police officers who are being detained.

Virtuous

So, even during the silly season, there has not been much opportunity to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet - not to mention the quips of Mr Bülent Arınç, the deputy prime minister and official spokesperson of the government. We have become so accustomed to his quirky ways that he has to outdo his past performances every year in order to attract our attention.

Actually he is not taken seriously even by his own party and government. For example, when he tried to put his jokes at the service of the prime minister in an attempt to blunt Erdoğan’s gross attacks on human decency, he was promptly rebuffed and put in his place. Arınç considered resigning a couple of times and publicly complained about his treatment, but so far he has kept his position.

Once he referred to the leader of the main opposition party as someone who “speaks tall”, but who, in reality, is “a shorty”. In 2009 he said of a Kurdish MP: “She is a very weird creature. God should have bestowed upon her better mental faculties.” Back in 2006 he referred to sub-Saharans as “African zombies” and, on a visit to Moscow, he remarked: “It’s nice to see Lenin lying there, dead”. On another occasion, after visiting a celebrity who had been shot in the head and was lying in a coma in intensive care, he quipped to the press: “I did ask, but doctors declined to wake him up.”

As can be deduced, political correctness is not his forte. His best known remark to date, indicating the depth and extent of his wisdom, has been: “Life is more than drinks and sex.”

However, last week he really excelled himself. Addressing a meeting of Islamic conservatives, he said: “Virtue is an adornment of a woman, as well as a man. A man ought to be virtuous; he should not be a debauchee, but should be loyal to his wife and love his kids. A woman ought to be virtuous as well. She should know what is allowed and what is not allowed. In public, she should not burst into laughter or behave ostentatiously.”

The government and Arinç himself are renowned for their misogyny, but on this occasion the opposition had a field day. Everybody picked up on his remark about the undesirability of women’s public laughter. However, there was a subtle nuance to note. The comment was actually a reference to the Islamic hadith tradition: it is said that the prophet Mohammad never engaged in laughter, although he always smiled. For him, laughing aloud was an abomination. Yes, everybody should be good-humoured and greet others with a smile - after all, “Smiling to your brother’s face is charity” - but please do not go any further.

So, while the ‘modernists’ went to town in their mocking of Arınç’s remarks, those same remarks struck a chord among the traditionalist religious sections, including women themselves. But for many Arınç provided a couple of days of light relief - although there may well be a lingering, bitter after-taste. However, the silly season has now come to an end and there is the more serious matter of the presidential election.

The weekend will see the first round of the three-man race. If Erdoğan fails to get more than 50%, a second round between the two top-scoring candidates will take place. Such a possibility looms large for the AKP, which is doing its utmost to win in the first round. In any case, by September we will have a new president and a new government - and renewed competition for the top jobs in the AKP before next year’s general election.