Young Peace Magazine Volume #3 by Genç Barış İnisiyatifi Derneği

Interview Wıth Prof. Ferhat Kentel On Gezi Park

On Behalf of Young Peace Initiative Publisher Emre Akkaş

“IDENTITIES ARE FORMED MUTUALLY”

Editor-in-Chief Fatih Kafadar Editor Ahmet Keskin Managing Editor Onur Reha Yıldırım Editorial Board Merve Aksu Nilüfer Yavuz Reyyan Doğan Legal Entity Supervisor Hamza Memişoğlu Graphic Designer Gökhan Kul gokhan@gokhankul.com Marketing Director Furkan Tok furkantok@gbi.org.tr Address: Sinanpaşa Mahallesi Çelebioğlu Sokak 21-23 Daire:4 Beşiktaş / İstanbul dergi@gbi.org.tr Phone: (0212) 227 67 95 Fax: (0212) 227 67 95 www.gbi.org.tr facebook/gbiorgtr twitter/gbiorgtr youtube/gbiorgtr

Type of Publishing: Quarterly Magazine Language: Turkish/English

Press: Turkuvaz Matbaacılık Yayıncılık A.Ş. Barbaros Bulvarı, Cam Han, No: 153, Beşiktaş-İstanbul Address: Akpınar Mah. Hasan Basri Cad. No: 4 Sancaktepe - İstanbul Phone: (0216) 585 90 00

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CONTENTS 04 06 08 14 16

20 22 24 26 27

A Tragedy in the Middle of Europe: BOSNIA After Passing All Rivers Of Bosnia Perspective: Bosnia Herzegovina “With The People, For The People” CONSTITUTION Interview With Prof. Ferhat Kentel On Gezi Park “IDENTITIES ARE FORMED MUTUALLY” Continuity in Transition from the Ottomans to the Republic For What Do They Die? Wise King ALIJA IZETBEGOVIć Book: Dreaming Peace Movie: No Man’s Land

14 CONSTITUTION

“With The People, For The People”

06 After Passing All Rivers Of Bosnia

Perspective: Bosnia Herzegovina

A Tragedy in the Middle of Europe: BOSNIA

For What Do They Die?

Wise King ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC

Continuity in Transition from the Ottomans to the Republic 3

Nilüfer YAVUZ

A TRAGEDY IN THE MIDDLE OF EUROPE:

BOSNIA

Nilüfer YAVUZ

Between 1992-1995 Bosnia witnessed a human tragedy that didn’t attract any attention in the international arena at the heart of Europe which was considered as the center of civilization. The most distinguishing feature of this war in the Balkan Geography was that it broke out among the Slavs who had a common culture unlike wars caused mainly by ethnic diversity. Bosnia-Herzegovina that had been a region in which people having different religious beliefs lived together for years turned into a battle field where different faiths clashed after the breakdown of Yugoslavia. 4

The Balkan Peninsula was home to a variety of religions due to the Bosniaks’ adoption of different religious choices. Being member of Bogomilism-a peculiar sect of Christianity, the Bosniaks converted into Islam probably due to many common points between their sect and Islam after the Ottomans’s arrival in the region. The Bosniaks who were talented in fighting kept northern borders of the Ottoman Empire safe for a long time. Coming under the rule of Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1908 after the decline of the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia and Herzegovina later entered under the rule of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

After the Second World War, Bosnia and Herzegovina were within the borders of the New Yugoslavia based on a totalitarian regime that was set up under Josip Broz Tito’s leadership. Tito united groups that were much different to each other under the theory of collective leadership. Some dissolutions took place with the effect of intense nationalist movement and loss of the notion of “charismatic leader”. Being the playground for power struggles of global actors and having a major jeopolitical importance, the Balkan Geography had to pay a very painful price during the PostCold War period.

A Tragedy in the Middle of Europe: BOSNIA

Recognizing the independence of Solevenia and Crotia that were more developed economically than other regions in June 1991, the European Community and the UN conditioned the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hungary to a referendum. In Yugoslavian independence referendum %99,4 of the votes were in favor of independence. The independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina was declared by Alija Izetbegovic on 3th March 1992. The process triggered by some certain conflicts turned out to be one of the bloodiest war of Europe after the Serbs’ illegal occupation of the borders of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosniaks, resisting against the Serbs with the Croats at the beginning, became isolated in the region after the negotiation carried out behind the scenes between Croatian and Serbian governments at the end of 1992. In order to back up the Bosnian Croats and Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, paramilitary groups were sent, which was one of the factors increasing horrible results of the war. Living conditions especially in Sarajevo which was in the position of a valley surrounded by Serbian villages were getting worse and worse in the environment which became tense due to the statements of Serbian leaders. As of 1993, the crisis in Bosnia turned out to be a terrifying “ethnic cleansing”, more than half of the population became immigrant due to major interventions made by the Serbian paramilitary groups called Chetniks. For the Bosniaks who couldn’t defend themselves because of arms embargo and had difficulty in satisfying their food and health needs, the tunnel-constructed and called “The Tunnel of Life” by them- was of vital importance. Srebrenitsa was the best sample to analyze the attitutes of an organisation like the UN which undertook major responsibi-

lities in the name of peace. The Srebrenitca was the best sample to analyze the attitude of an institution like the UN which undertook major responsibilities in the name of peace. Being the biggest massacre after the Second World War, the Srebrenitca where the Bosniaks concentrated in a site that declared as safe area were surrended to the Serbs by the Dutch soldiers-keeping the control in their hands- caused the UN’s effectiveness to be questioned all over the world. No sooner had the Markale massacres taken place after the Srebrenitca than the UN declared an ultimatom to end the interventions to the safe areas. The end of this bloody war was made possible by the long-awaited interention. The aim of the Dayton Peace Agreement was to put an end to the war and meanwhile prevent the loss of life but it was understood from the problems encountered later that it was not prepared considering the needs. The existence of discrete regions which were ethnically homogeneous posed

a great threat in the name of protecting territorial integrity and independence. The binary structures adopted in the state institutions demonstrated that unity could not be provided. It was observed that the expenses made for the newly-set up state mechanism reached a level which could even affect the economy. Failure to provide majority voting in general which was required for decisionmaking process in the parliament hindered substantial changes planned to be made in the country. Yugoslavian leader Tito’s speech he made before the war was an indicator of his foreseeing what was going to happen: “Our country is a crystal globe. As Josip Broz Tito, I keep this globe above in the air not by holding it with my hands but blowing with my breath. I hope when I run out of breath, someone immediately shows up and takes over this duty. Otherwise, the crystal globe falls down and breaks into smithereens.” What Tito was afraid of came into true: crystal globe was broken down. The pieces of broken globe stuck in every corner of Yugoslavia which dissolved later. This war, portraying cruelty of the modern world that was caused by its staying deaf to the things happening resulted in death of 312 thousands people, mainly civilians and Bosniaks. In this war where approximately 2 million people had to leave the places they were living, the incidents of rape which happened systematically and reached the number of 25 thousands were disgraceful scene in the name of the whole world. In struggle over identity which took place in front of the humanity’s eyes, the world-especially Europe- failed to class of “tolerance to differences” once again. niluferyavuz@gbi.org.tr

Beyza EREN

AFTER PASSING ALL RIVERS OF BOSNIA Beyza EREN

To stay alone and check her feelings, Mina would generally go to the Tunnel instead of going to her room. Even hearing the echo of her voice while she was crying would make her feel safe. We would all know where she was when she didn’t show up for the class or somehow vanished. While I was talking with Leon, I led the word up to Mina. Although the families didn’t like it, these children of two Bosnian neighbor families, one of which is Croatian and the other one ‘s Bosniak, grew up together. Furthermore, they grew up with Mina’s twin who was dragged and taken away during the war and was never seen again. And they would prefer watching the chess tournaments at the square rather than the quarrels of the families! They would even go there before the tournament and would start the game on their own. The game was over when the war began! Neither playgrounds or chess pieces nor their old innocent worlds were left. Like many other families, both families had their own losses. Before all this happened, Mina and her twin would dance on the lawn just like the ballerinas of a music box, without worrying about the invisible border at the garden. They would say that they passed Bosnia’s all rivers with the swans together by pirouetting on their tiptoes and hopping forward. Now neither Mina nor Leon believed that good things happened 6

in their garden once. And the final slap came during locating the mass graves... This rooted town was one of the places which the war hit first. Both families were astonished about how their houses were not destroyed. And the garden... Even after years, they even kept the door of the piazza locked as if an attack would happen from the garden. They learned that after taken away from home, Mina’s twin was killed before going further and thrown to a near quarter. On the other hand, Leon’s father was called for a bounden duty and he left home while his family was sleeping, without even saying goodbye, and he never came back. When they came for mass grave excavations, the garden which they could not share seemed more like a slaughter house. Because Mina’s family felt somehow a bit comforted as they received at least their corpse, they allowed their garden to be excavated, hoping that the other families would be a bit comforted, too. However, Leon’s family could never accept the idea that there was a mass grave in their garden. There was no other destruction under the image of a ruined garden after the excavation. But this final state of the garden scared both families much. And finger grass turned everywhere into a ruined grave. This time in a very late hour, Mina shot all doors of the house and eventually she shot the outer door and went out. As

he was just falling asleep, Leon hopped and dropped the blanket to the ground. It could be heard that her mother was shouting at the top of her voice, but she did not do anything else to stop her daughter. Leon, without thinking, took his coat from the coat hanger and chased Mina with small steps. Mina wasn’t going to the Tunnel this time. She was heading to the public grave where people who died in the war were buried. And there was her sister lying, just under a plane tree. Leon hesitated that Mina would see him, but he could not leave her there alone at that hour, either. Mina, on the other hand, was standing just before the grave and telling her lost twin sister something bursting in tears. After a while, Leon startled with the noise of a falling pickaxe and a shovel behind the plane tree. When he came out of the tree where he was hiding, he was shocked by the scene he even did not want to imagine. He could not hide himself anymore. – For God’s sake! What are you planning to do with that? Mina was so determined to implement her plan. She just asked, – What are you doing here? And she decided to tell Leon what she had in her mind: – Did you think I would leave her here? I will bury her in our own garden! She doesn’t deserve this! I don’t deserve this, she

After Passing All Rivers Of Bosnia

said, and collapsed to the ground, holding the shovel stuck in the ground. Leon gulped and took some steps towards her: – What do you think you will get when you open that grave? Do you believe that she stays there as you left her? Do you want to resume from where we left, Mina? To see her there in that garden... Then forget about digging the grave with a pickaxe and a shovel. Let’s try to do this for our garden! Leon took the shovel from her in one move. Actually Mina was not holding the shovel; she was holding on to it. She was unconscious when her hand slipped down the shovel. After that night, we decided to enjoy all sunny days together. I wouldn’t do with acknowledging Leon to be right when he told me what had happened. I would do everything I could in order to live peacefully with my friends from different nations and my childhood friends in our quarter. Beginning with Leon, Mina and their families’ gardens, we revived many gardens and repaired the parks. We placed pieces of our own happiness to the parks and gardens where we could also meet besides the university. We weren’t scared, we didn’t worry. We were all together, anyway! And do you know? Birds fly low in this continent. Their aim is to air the groups through whom they fly everytime. They flap their wings to take these groups out of the dust clouds they are in, and

fill in the blanks of the buildings and the blanks which ache between their shoulder bones. Therefore, first of all, people have to free themselves and then free the birds from the cages they are captured. If you happen to jump to the Neretva River from the Bridge of Mostar, which is a work of Mimar Sinan’s student Mimar Hayreddin and which can only leave a reflection to the magnificent beauty of Bosnia within greens, you can hear birds’ whispers as cheering. When you eventually hold your hands to the air, it means that they left you on your own. In order to add some reality to these thoughts

we walked together to the Bridge of Mostar, the Miljacka River and to Baščaršija. We proceeded not by picking flowers, but rather by planting new ones. We would do more than what a tourist could do for this country, and as young people we could write a subtext to the photographs they took. We were able to succeed it with our pen, our voice which comes out at once in harmony, our brush, our ruler and mostly when we were hand in hand. Everytime we passed the rivers in Bosnia, we found ourselves in an ocean. We were in an ocean which would never swallow or drag us with a tsunami.

Photograhper: Merve KAVÇAKAR

PERSPECTIVE

BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

Firstly the mountains surrounded Sarajevo as if they imagined what would happen then and white cover left from snowy winters of Bosnia covers the cemeteries even in summer; you can see such many cemeteries with white headstones. The nature bears witness to the war which took place in the very near future in 1995 and after. Snow doesn't cover uncemented traces of bullets on the buildings; no matter how relaxing the glorious greenery of Bosnia is, it doesn't conceal some traces. These photos which were taken by Merve Kavçakar, one of the first graduates of International Sarajevo University both welcome you at Bascarsija (Başçarşı) and take you for a walk along the rivers and invite you to a journey into the near future as well.

Stari Most - Mostar 99

Rijeka Miljacka

Vrelo Bosne 10

Sarajevo

Bacarija - Sarajevo 11

Kova i Shahids Memorial, Alija IzetbegoviÄ&#x2021; Turbe - Sarajevo

Sarajevo 12

Don’t Forget ‘93

Tabija 13

Fatih KAFADAR

“WITH THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE” Fatih KAFADAR

CONSTITUTION

An anectode from Tharist Russia is told: Austrian Emperor Joseph II plans to

pay a visit to Russia and Crimea is included in the schedule as well. Tsaritsa Catherine II assigns Marshall Potemkin to arrange the schedule of this trip. However, the local villages to be visited during the trip are in ruins. To make the region seem prosperous is rather expensive and troublesome, too. But Potemkin neither has time to waste nor financial resource to make expense. And consequently, Marshall Potemkin creates modern villages in prosperity with a decor that is reminiscent of theatre stages by covering the exterior walls of all houses with boards, which the Emperor and Tsaritsa would visit while passing by the Dnieper River during the trip. All in all, Joseph II and Catherine II are impressed by this view and Potemkin is honored by compliments as he saves the day. Yet, Crimea is still neglected and in ruins.

The history of Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey exactly reminds us of “Potemking Village Pantomime”. In 1876 the powers of the padishah are restricted with the Ottoman Basic Law (Kanun-u Esasi) but the authorities of sovereignity are given to the 14

bureaucrats. In fact, this text, so to say, is a “non-agression treaty” between the states elites and the padishah rather than being a constitution. The people are not actually considered as addressee in the constitution presented to the public. Therefore, this constitution conceals the authorities given to the bureacucrats with boards of “transition to the sovereignity of the people along with the restriction of the padishah’s authority.” Constitutions are not texts that set up the state organisation and in which freedoms are scattered. Texts alone do not make sense. A constitution is a set of the state practices put into effect so as to foresee a constitutional order. If these state practices do not pave the way for the freedoms written in the constitution to be lived, a constitution would not be more than “a text standing on the self ”. The Constitution of 1921 is an exception in our constitutional history. Figures winning the war together gather with the urge to set up the state organisation in collaboration and form a Fundamental Law of 1921 (Teşkilat-ı Esasi) with the participation of all sections of the society. Besides the principal of “the

nation’s managing its destiny indeed and personally” which wouldn’t take place in any later constitution. The Constitution of 1921 does not restrict the participation in decision-making process to any faith or ethnicity. However in later periods, there comes the mentality of “Potemkinism” again. The majority of figures preparing the Constitution of 1921 are purged. In 1924 many articles of fundamental rights and freedoms are added to the Constitution. The majority of figures preparing the Constitution of 1921 are purged. In 1924, many articles about fundamental rights and freedoms are added to the constitution. Yet, these rights are defined as “Turkish Public Rights”. All of ethnic groups in the parliament in 1921 are described as “Turkish Nation” in 1924 and with the article “Every Turk is born free and lives freely”, sovereignity is given unconditionally to “Turks”. Considered as the person laying the foundations of Turkish judical system, Mahmut Esat Bozkurt is in this team preparing the constitution. Those remarks he used in one of his speeches are the indicator of what sort of Turkey is envisioned: : “A Turk is the only master of this country and the sole owner.

“With The People, For The People” Constitution

The ones who do not have pure Turkish origin have only one right in this country, which is the right to become a servant, the right to become a slave.”

The articles about freedom scattered in the constitution are not actually more than a “Potemkin Pantomime” in order to conceal the real thing dreamed. On the other hand, considering the expressions “Turkishness” in the constitution, it is not possible to read this as a ethnical privilege given to Turkish identity. It is worth noting: the expression of “Turk” written here embraces the ones walking arm to arm- the state administrative elites, bureaucratic staff; in short “main figures of the state”- in Atatürk Avenue in which Aşık Veysel wasn’t allow to walk at that time as he was a peasant. “Potemkinism” shows greater effects in the Constitution of 1961. The 38member junta staging military coup sees itself as “Turkish Nation”. They speak of a leader who comes to the power with half of the people’s votes as “the one who lost his legitimacy” and try to testify the coup staged as legitimate by saying thay they are awake to “the principal of Peace at Home, Peace in the World, the soul of National Struggle and sovereignity of the nation”. In this way, they represent Pomptekin in Turkey in 20th century. At this point, in the consitutional system being under the control of this junta, the usability of freedoms in the constitution is questioned. This situation is the same as writing “O2” everywhere on a bell jar in which there is no any oxygen and it is a miracle for the ones in the bell jar to survive. Considering the Constitution of 1982, the situation is not much different from the previous ones. A fancy and hackneyed statement is written in second article: “The Republic of Turkey is a de-

mocratic, secular and social State governed by the rule of law; bearing in mind the concepts of public peace, national solidarity and justice; respecting human rights; loyal to the nationalism of Atatürk, and based on the fundamental tenets set forth in the Preamble” and it is tried to create

an image of “ heavenly homeland”. This time, Potemkin neither has time nor financial resource to ensure welfare of the people indeed; he thinks that he carries out his duties in a duly way by only covering “the visible sides” with boards. Even if only we set out from the forementioned article, the Potemkinist soul can be clearly seen in the Constitution of 1982. The ones writing the term “Democratic” in the constitution ovethrew the government

in an anti-democratic way; by means of making the people use colorful envelopes in the referendum, they made the color of the people’s votes definite in advance. If such an anti-democratic situation is experienced in a country whose constitution says it is a democratic rule of law, it means that those statements written in the constitution do not make sense. On the other hand, the concept of secularism is perceived and put into practice in a different way from where it was imported. “In contemporary civilizations secularism is understood as the state’s not intevening in religious affairs, its taking religious freedom of all people under guarantee and so to say, giving the state only the authority to arbitrate in the matters of religion. But, after secularism is imported to Turkey, an authoritarian definition is adopted; secularism is allowed to draw the boundaries of religion. The system called secularism in Turkey is described as the state’s taking firstly religious freedoms of the people, most of which are Muslim, subsequently all of other religions and faiths, religious education under the control. The issue of Djemevi, the problem of headscarf in public institutions and universities, Heybeliada Clergy School etc and the problems that minority citizens have all reflections of this troubled concept of secularism. Nevertheless, the Potemkinist soul of 1982 conceals these problems with this statement “Everyone has the right to freedom of conscience, religious belief and conviction.”

A Potemkin Village Pantomime has been staged on the basis of the constitutions in these lands. The constitutions presented to the people are not prepared by them; as a result of Jacobin attitudes of those who write the constitution, the people have to pay the bill. At this point, the promise of “New Constitution” given to the voters by four political parties in the 24th Parliament of Grand National Assembly is of high importance. Yet, this constitution requires not only a change of text but a change of mentality as well. The result obtained from bitter experiences lived for years shows us that the constitutional texts alone do not make sense. For this reason, the state practices should act in such a way that the statements written in the constitution could be transferred from shelves to real life practices. Starting its works on 19th October 2001, the Costitutional Reconciliation Committee has agreed on only 60 articles up to now. As the Constitutional Reconciliation Com-

mittee consisting of three deputies selected from each of four political parties in the parliament regardless of voting rates, numbers of seats they have in the parliament have adopted the rule of reaching consensus on every article, the works progress very slowly. Hence, the President of Grand National Assembly, Mr. Cemil Çiçek’s statements implying that he is hopeless about the new constitution clearly illustrate in what situations the works are. Therefore, the Constitutional Reconciliation Committee’s ways of working and decision-making procedures should be considered seriously. Rather than worrying about votes, all parties in the parliament should contribute to the Committee with the concern of helping the concept of human rights and freedoms in Turkey to reach modern standards. From this point of view, the Constitutional Reconciliation Committee has undertaken a historical mission. The Committee should write a constitution that will initiate the establishment of a country where Turkish people could live in welfare. But if this constitution is written with Potemkinist soul only in order to fulfill election promises and problems of the country continue again, there will be no need to make efforts. If the constitution, being written now, will not set the base for the establishment of absolute rights and freedoms, provide substantial solutions to the Kurdish issue, ensure absolute freedom of conscience and religion; give an ear to the minorities’ voices, set up the organisation of judical institution in a democratic way, present a more free country to the people; in short if it will not be constitution of “with the people for the people”, there is no need to occupy Turkey’s agenda. More precisely, even if a perfect text is written as long as it doesn’t become more than Potemkinism, “New Constitution” will not make sense. It is evident that future cannot be shaped with the things experienced in the past. Thus, composed of the history of Potemkinism, “constitutional authorship” will not become a trick anymore on which people rely in the 21st Century Turkey. By establishing a democratic constitutional order, the representatives of the people, at this point, should contribute to the welfare of people they represent. Otherwise, the pantomime “Potemkin is not dead but travels across the continents” will be told over and over again for long years. mfatihkafadar@gbi.org.tr

Fatih KAFADAR, Nilüfer YAVUZ, Onur Reha YILDIRIM

Interview with Prof. Ferhat Kentel on Gezi Park

Photography: Onur Reha Yıldırım

“IDENTITIES ARE FORMED MUTUALLY”

Fatih KAFADAR, Nilüfer YAVUZ, Onur Reha YILDIRIM

Young Peace: Sir, first of all thank you

very much for having us here for the interview. A certain time passed over Gezi Park events and now we have chance to approach the events based on the whole picture and evaluate from bird’s eye view. As far as we could follow the media, you’ve described these events as “witty, intelligent and high IQ”. On accounts of your sociologist identity and considering your permanently being in connection with the society, what can you tell us about the relation between Gezi Park events and the society?

Ferhat Kentel: I describe it so but of

course it doesn’t have only these features, there are some others, too. Actually there are two different situations: firstly the rearrangement of Gezi Park, building a shopping mall instead and the issue of people reacting against this. At this point, from the beginning it does really make sense and this is the state of mind that I felt myself in. Like many people approaching sensitively to the mentality which builds skyscrapers-I see when I open my window- in a completely reckless way with arrogance, ignoring the standards and measures, I share their idea of this situation. For this reason, when Gezi Park events started, “Oh God, finally!” I said. When I saw the movement of protesting against the cutting down of trees, I felt myself a part of this movement. So I can say that from the beginning, the beginning of this movement really fit idea of mine. But then, at this point considering the reaction of society against the issue of Gezi Park, we see a pathetic scene divided into two. We can say: Gezi Park almost deviated its aim and turned out to be a pro-AKP or anti-AKP movement. If you talk about positive sides of Gezi Park, you become pro-coup and anti-AKP; on the other hand when you accuse Gezi Park protestors of vandalism, then you become pro-AKP. The current situation is bad, this much is polarization is bad. However, when we look at the results, the events left a residual on somewhere in our hearts, souls and this is a promising residual. Here I can say that people won’t surrender to authorities on the earth. Although it may seem that it’s not possible to impose certain ideas to people’s minds. This is maybe the democracy culture formed by these events which seem like that they’re against AKP and its ten-year rule. Because

let’s face that during AKP’s rule, this tutelage regime was made to lose its effects to a great extent. This doesn’t mean that “Ergenekon” organisations are finished. Still there are a number of opportunities of special operations, certain forces to make any blunder at any time. The murderers of Hrant Dink still couldn’t be found, which is an example of this or protection of them etc. This is a situation inherited from 1960s-70s. Yesterday Fethiye Çetin was telling us that the murderer of Doğan Öz was caught; there was any kind of evidence but he was released. Who released him? A decision was issued at the General Assembly of Supreme Court and he was released. Then the man was almost a “gentleman”. A murderer he is, it’s well-known but now he’s really relaxed, working as a businessman. Who protected these men? The state is still such a state, it is not finished. AKP has been an important actor against the tutelage but what it can do is limited in this regard. On one side, just in this environment Gezi Park events have contributed to Turkey’s culture of democracy but on the other hand, pro-coup groups came out and tried to get a share of these events. Yet, this a situation seen in many social movements.

Young Peace: It’s emhasized that there

was an accumulated anger in the society about the outbreak of the events. Do you think that the events broke out all of a sudden or is it possible to relate these events to anything else?

Ferhat Kentel: I think it is, these are

successive procedures. AKP didn’t get %50 of the votes all at once. Formerly it

was %30 and maybe a process from 28 February Post-modern Coup. Even it was a part of National Vision (Milli Görüş). Now there are also “personalization” of Islam and breakdown of unity. There are no uniformity and homogeneity. There are bourgeois Muslims, Hak-iş, poletarian Muslims; İhsan Eliaçık is on one hand, MUSIAD is on the pther hand. While someone talks about Abudhar, the other one says “Why can’t a Muslim have precious things”. I means, this heteregeneous structure emerged. Enlargement in the section of conservative Anatolian merchants having a small capital and formation of a social actor by places once called as slums of the city; this is a kind of emergence of a new class. Along with the emergence of a section that is culturally different from classical Kemalist identity of white Turk, gradually %50 has been reached and of course successful experience gained in Middle East (I’m not talking about current scene) and Referendum of 12 September 2010 has had great effects on this. We need to say that the same thing for Gezi Park. The appreciation, charisma Erdoğan created had something that everbody couldn’t adore at the same time. He is a successful politician; but it is possible to claim that he began to be overhelmed by this success. With his arrogance, “high and mighty” attitude and roles of “Father Prime Minister” of the society, he started to cause discontent in different sections of the society. For example, “I want 3 children from you” he says and people say “who are you while even my father doesn’t ask for such a thing”. Again as is the case with alcohol, “you drink booze and snog” he says. There are both acoholics and peo17

ple drinking like a gentleman once in a blue moon. There’s a group of people who constantly get insulted. Like about Alawism, “If Alawism means loving Ali, I love Ali, too.” He says; but this is not the all case, aim of that man is different. As the tendency to see all people as “homoheneous creatures” increases, Erdoğan could do anything. Unfortunately, this concept of power is a little bit something like that. The power negatively affected Erdoğan, corrupted him. This accumulation happened like this. I was in Gezi Park, too. Maybe I wasn’t teargassed day and night but I was there in spirit. Those reactions accumulated and exploded in Taksim. In addition to police violence, destruction of tents and use of gas, shouting as “We’ll build shopping mall, We’ll build mosque” caused the case to turn into a public war. This accumulation should be read so. Mehmet Ali Alabora said that the case was not just a tree, then a lynching campaigne was organized. Of course, the case is not just a tree; tree is a symbol, maybe a symbol for concretion of the city, prevention of constuction companies from the top. Kadie Topbaş’s almost saying nothing in the events demonstrates that it’s a situation from top to down. And here, it was normal that anti-democratic steps taken based on not calling people for particpation but abiding by the idea of majority triggered all these reactions.

Ferhat Kentel: Yes, I created a twitter ac-

Young Peace: Sir, we want to talk little

Young Peace: You mentioned about a

bit about dimension of “social media” . Gezi Park events drew you to social media like most of us. How would you assess the effect of social media on us?

count, too but I’m hesitant about this. It’s a really annoying atmosphere. 140 characters, of course don’t fit, so I firstly write in a word file and transfer them as a group of 140-character. Sometimes I do really find pecular things. However, people use it to diss each other. Lately I’ve shared an event in our university about Gezi Park. After that, I’ve suggested that you go to the panel on “Marxism 2013”. As you know, I have Rabia Sign as my profile picture. All of a sudden messages from someone began to come. “Marxist with Rabia Sign” “We cannot care about you, we have a funeral (meant the funeral in Gümüşsuyu) they said and “my condolences to you” I said, what else I could tell. Actually there’s a kind of competition on twitter. Who got most retweets, toptweets and hastags...It’s a place where life loses its plurality. Life is not something that can be dealt with as simple as this. They called me “almond mustached- badem (almond) style, a small and neatly trimmed mustache”. I’m placed like that in the schemas in their minds. I wrote previously about Taksim and then about Morsi, too but they only see the latter. At the same time many I became an enemy for AKP supporters and leftwing people because everbody tries to find statements that will strengthen their own identity and position, so they strengthen themselves, it’s like gathering power. restoration in the context of “democracy” for “people of Turkey” hocam. Well, what could you tell us about the image of Turkey as a state?

Ferhat Kentel: With regard to the state,

the situation of Erdoğan’s image doesn’t seem promising. The tendency to compare Erdoğan to Saddam and Gaddafi appeared. As if Erdoğan became the bad man. But in my opinion, there’s a recovery of Turkey’s image. Of course, there are different situations, too. CNN International’s broadcasts and its declaring AKP demonstration as “an anti-AKP event” were most emphasized things by anti-Gezi Park people. In fact, it’s not possible to understand this. Probably, a lobby in America started operations to overthrow Erdoğan. However, I don’t have such a certain information, I just make speculation. Ads given in newspapers; as if romanticism was created towards 3.World Revolutionism in Europe. To express it in short, France is the most obvious example. In Vietnam, a Vietnamese struggle started, there was no any struggle in France though. In Algeria, for example, a French didn’t fight with an Algerian. In Algeria, Jean Paul Sartre was in favour of Algeria but romanticism wasn’t made about Algeria. As a result, this happened in Vietnam and Cambodia. The Revolution of Pol Pot was one of the most barbaric, fierce one and people slaughtered were innumerable. But if you look at the French, they had a tendency like “3.World resists; yes there’s a revolution, here’s a revolution, too.” I think something like this is happening now. An egocentric mentality like European mentality, itself making all of the revolutions in the world including French Revolution and Industrial Revolution immediately reads what’s going on there as something good is happening as aresult of representing revolutionary road when there happens a revolution outside. When it come from there like this, automatically it is supported in a romantic way.

Young Peace: Maybe resulting from the

media but in Turkey there’s a kind of attitude like “external forces, foreign powers”. If we examine this situation sociologically, what can we say?

Ferhat Kentel: The answer of this ques-

tion is in the issue of nationalism as we mentioned before. To express it in a more detailed way, nationalism is such a thing that it’s a matter of fact that is gone true by disclosing yourself always to the other and telling how good you are. This situation happens in a number of countries in a more polite, decent and moderate ways. For example there’s a state called Germany and German nation, too. Germany 18

refers to itself as “We Germans” against France, Russia and Poland. On the other hand, to tell you roughly, they have the attitude of “We Germans were engaged in this constitution in order to contribute to world peace”. That’s to say, it means “we are engaged in a relation based on peace. Although this is not perceived as restoration of a history having a genocide in the background, this is a sort of nationalist style. At least if we put average Nazi, neo-Nazis and potential racism activities aside, there’s a deep media culture. There comes Germany facing its past in this culture of media and politics. Germanycaused hostility and committed genocideis always facing itself. Well, is there such an inquiry in out history? Not yet. You ban all the time! You banned “Armenian Genocide” and after it came to light, you asserted the contrary, claiming that actually Armenians committed on us. You see that there’s nothing left that tens of people experienced not only Armenians; 6-7 September Events, non-muslim events, Kurds, unidentified murders, Sheikh Said Rebellion and Dersim Issue which should be cited in history books. Let’s see when they will be written. Children need to know, every Turkish child should know that there happened a genocide in Dersim so that they could learn that the life itself is not just composed of heroism. Unfortunately, Baltacı Mehmet Pasha was about to beat Russia but we were defeated like this due to games of the woman called Catherine. Nationalism broke out in the Balkans, Armenians occupied from this side and we were in that situation. To set an example again, you exile Vahdettin Pasha to somewhere else and then he is declared as traitor. Are we really sure that he was a traitor?

Young Peace: Well, what could you say

about the polarization which is a highly debated issue? What’s your perspective on future and when will we become normalized?

Ferhat Kentel: Before the perspective on

future maybe a few things could be highlighted about how we got to the current situation. You can take it as a comforteri when we get lost in high tension events, we think that everthing, as if every scene in the world is just composed of this. Given the story we experienced, you’ll see that actually there are similar scenarios in different parts of the world. We’re not alone in the world. According to sociological theories, school of theories, theoriticans like Ulrich

Beck and Anthony Giddens suggest that we live in risk society or it’s called reflexive modelling. Roughly it means that we experience something changing too fast like the modernazation of modernization. I mean there are a societal struggle, parties and struggle for democracy. But now there’re so many struggles from different environments, groups, cultural identities that they have been turned out not to be expressed under narrow sub-identities saying that formerly there were the Socialis Workers’ Party, the Conservative Parti or the Christian Democratic Party. That’s to say, it’s not possible to become a member of any identity. I’m neither pro-AKP or anti-AKP. Some things don’t fit in classical themes and they might say “who are you?”. When you can’t be placed in a schema in the brain, problems break out. Modernity taught us these categories and schemas. But still there are mainstreams. Ulrich Beck refers to this as “zombie concepts”. Accordingly, this taught us two things; there’s a world of incredible possibilities, so we can create a brand-new mental horizon. For instance, a lot of things are being discussed for the Kurds such as democratic freedom and education in mother tongue, at the same time it causes a lot of fear for us. The concepts that you retreat into such as Atatürk, Diyanet (Directorate of Religious Affairs), Sunnism-Alawism are not steady; they can

be immediately destroyed, corrupted and there are rival alternative ideas. Again if we approach the concept of community, once it disappeared, then we formed a society. However, when you look at Taksim, you see that there’s a search for a community. Taksim is a way of searching for a community. They’re all a search of community including football teams’ search for supporters. We both look for a shelter and our shelters are dangered all the time. I don’t know when this will be overcome, it’s difficult to give it time but evey societal movement gives us the opportunity to grow mature. I also think that Turkish society has a weak memory. Actually we remember but we have a number of techniques that are essential for us to live. When the time comes, we put them into effect. There are polarizations, groupings, conflicts but there’s no any massive attitude against Turkish-Kurdish hostility and Sunni-Alawi conflict. Only special groups try to do this though. Still I’m optimistic and believe that even Gezi Park issue will make positice contribution in the future. We’ll learn lessons from Gezi Park events. I have the belief that there’ll be positive cores driven from here. I’m of the opinion that there’ll be positive outcomes-maybe will not take place itself- even though I don’t find democratization package sufficient. gbi@gbi.org.tr

Merve AKSU

CONTINUITY IN TRANSITION FROM THE OTTOMANS TO THE REPUBLIC Merve AKSU

While the dynamic structures of societies demand change, they continue to contain retrospective factors like culture, tradition and custom in themselves. This makes the continuity in changing inevitable. With nation states’ showing up in 19th century, the nations wanted to prove that this order is a “new” structure by keeping the traditional one in the background and focusing on disengaging factors more than continuity because they were worried about providing the continuation of the new state and regime. The attempt to create a national identity/consciousness using the new values to legitimize the new state, appears to compare itself especially with the old one, even glorify itself by addressing to the old one. This approach takes part in the politics of the Republic of Turkey that appeared after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The government considered the schools in which the new generation got education as a laboratory in order to set the new regime on solid basis and by interfering with the education system it didn’t make enough reference to the factors that took a role in forming the republic in the books. As a result of this, institutions that were supposed build a bridge between the past and the new, divided the history into two in a strict way. This caused the mis20

take that the Empire, which had nearly a history of 600 years disappeared all of a sudden and instead a completely independent state came out of it. To examine the continuity factors that was applied in economic, social, political and legal areas during the transition from the II. Constitutional Era to the Republic with the actors, to present that the foundations of the Republic of Turkey started to be laid in the Ottoman Empire era will be declaratory in understanding the continuity factors. To understand the II. Constitutional Era and developments that came after it better, it’ll be helpful to examine that the efforts to modernize in Ottoman Empire came out as a product of the Empire`s efforts to save itself from the verge of collapsing and to analyze roughly the reforms it correspondingly propounded to in parallel to its relationship with the West. The economy of the Ottoman Empire mainly depends on reclaimed lands from the wars. The military organization and property affairs are carried out in cooperation in these lands that were obtained. The organization of land property in the Ottoman Empire is ensured by the taxes taken from the peasants. The process that the peasants having right to use the land give taxes to the cavalries is carried

out under the military organization called “Manorial System”. Continued until the Industrial Revolution and era when nationalism started to appear, this successful politics is imperiled after the Empire loses its order and welfare as a result of landlords’ arbitrarily dominating the peasants. The politics that was implemented in order to recreate the manorial system wasn’t successful enough to strengthen the Empire’s central authority and the Empire collapsed economically and politically. The Empire which faces the destruction of the central order attempted to initiate reforms in order to obtain old order and these reforms continue in the process of transition from the II. Constitutional Era to the Republic of Turkey. The Ottoman Empire was defeated in the wars since the end of 17th century and along with the cessation of conquests, they started to lose their lands. Besides that, getting off the ground with the French Revolution, the movement of nationalism affected the Ottoman Empire who ruled seventy two and a half nations. The Balkan Nations, Arabs, Rums, Armenians and Kurds rebelled and gained their independence with the support of the European States. Once again, this caused loss of land and domestic disturbance in the Ottoman Empire. The ina-

Continuity in Transition from the Ottomans to the Republic

dequacy in the army was considered as the reason behind the Ottoman Empire’ losing its old power was and they headed for the process of reforms in the army. A modern and equipped army was formed in 1794 beside janissaries. The army which was named as “Nizam-ı Cedid” also named the era itself. However, the changes that were made focused on the army and didn’t affect the other institutions. The Ottoman rule which realized that this restoration carried out in the army wasn’t enough to save the Empire initiated the process of extended reforms and brought the regulations called “Tanzimat”. These reforms made some intelligentsia excited, and slowly put the idea that rules of law should have control over all the rule more than everything else for saving the state in minds. Personal freedoms and the rights entitled to non-Muslim citizens came out for the first time in the Ottoman Empire with this edict, which could be regarded as the starting point of the process of modernization or the change in the Empire. Despite the fact that the edict brought its connections to shariah up in order not to get reactions from conservative groups and although it held the traditional and modern constructions together because of this concern, the edict became the key factor in preparation of other reforms. Even though the dilemma stemming from the traditional and modern institutions’ being together made the new institutions dysfunctional, in terms of the intellectual aspect, the Emperorship entered the Age of Enlightenment. Constitutionalism movements started with the Charter of Alliance, the

Hatt-i Sharif of the Gulhane and in the Tanzimat Era; securing the safety of life, property, and honor of non-Muslim citizens by law and the regime’s being governed with constitutional monarchy by limiting the padishah’s absolute authority, came into agenda with the Ottoman Empire’s first constitution, Kanun-i Esasi-the Ottoman Constitution of 1876. Reformist movements starting in II. Mahmut and III. Selim’s Eras continued with The Young Ottomans who were intelligentsia in the Tanzimat Era, and showed continuity with The Committee of Union and Progress’ members who played role in foundation of the Republic. It is actually a mistake to assess that the election which was held on 21st July 1946 under the rule of single party in the history of the Republic as the transition to multi-party period. Beside Democratic Party that came out of Republican People’s Party, parties like Farmer and Peasant’s Party, Social Democratic Party of Turkey, Socialist Party of Turkey also participated in the election. When we lookback, the fact that two different parties participated in the elections held in the II. Constitutionalist Era shows us that multi-party system was adopted before the elections in 1946. Even though there were secularization attempts in religion-government relations and in other institutions when compared to the Republican Era, this attempt came out after the Tanzimat and

was limited to that. Criminal Law in 1840, Commercial Law in 1850 was formed based on the framework of the laws adopted from Europe. When the new institutions, restricting shariah courts’ power emerged, the duality issue which was the main problem of Tanzimat Era, brought the problems resulting from coexistence of old and new institutions into the agenda again. While limiting the shariah courts’ authority could be considered as a continuity factor in the progress of secularization in the Republican Era, the desire to end this duality in the politics the republic era shows dissolution. When assessing the process of advent of the republic, the effect of modernization efforts in the Ottoman Empire on creating a new government should not be ignored. The existence of this continuity is a natural necessity. Because nations can’t live independently of their past by eluding their culture. By the very nature of societies’ dynamic structure, changing is inevitable; however in this changing process the factors that were inherited from the traditional structure should not be ignored, too. In conclusion, from this point of view, it can be said that the radical changes that were made during the foundation of the Republic of Turkey should be basically regarded as the continuation of the reforms that started in the Ottoman Empire in addition to reflecting the disengagement from the past.

Aslı Hatice SUNGUR

FOR WHAT DO THEY DIE?

Al-Aqsa Mosque on the day of feast, unlike other days, was flooded with visitors from different parts of the world. There everyone celebrated the feast together no matter what their religions, langauges, races etc were and was looking at each other with a pure smiling face. We met two university students, Safa of Gaza and Sajeda of AbuDebis when we were among the enthusiastic crowd. As if we had known each other for ages, we had a sincere conversation with these two Palestinian brothers, who were not allowed to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque as they didn’t have Israeli passport; even we became good friends. Called “Old Jerusalem”, this site surrounded by the walls is comprised of Jewish, Muslim, Armenian and Christian regions. The entrance and exit controls are being made by Israeli soldiers. We learn from our Palestinian friends that the Palestinians should have Israeli identity documents with them to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque. “If a Palestinian-not having Israeli identity documents visits Al-Aqsa Mosque and is realized, normally it’s at the mercy of Israeli soldiers but the Palestinians are generally tortured and sometimes we even witness that they are subjected to other different inhuman treatments.” , they say. Many others like them do their best to get into this region in a war for visiting and feeling this region which is 22

sacred to three religions by heart. Their only aim is not be deprived of these lands which are sacred to all religions and has become the scene of the brotherhoods, not requiring anything else but only being “human”. Almost every Palestinian has a story about the war or Israel. In tears Safa tells us his memories he carved on the steel plate in his mind: “I will never forget the month of

December in 2008 and after then. We heard the sound of a severe bomb in the morning when we were going to the university for the final exam that all medical students would take. When we got out of the bus, everywhere was in dust. Crying children, screams for help, the smell of blood, calls for help from mosques, and the noise of helicopters floating in the sky and spewing death... My family came to my mind. They were also there, smelling the blood and seized with fear. I grabbed my phone and called my dad but I couldn’t reach him; whoever I asked for help, they were also desperate like me. There happened a heavy loss in twenty two-day bombardmen: More than 5,000 injured and more than 1400 martyrs... Thousands of homes were destroyed or heavily damaged. After this 9000 people that were left homeless we had to abondon their places. What happened here was the most brutal massacre against unarmed and defenseless people in the last century.”

The story of our other friend, Sajeda was as heartbreaking as Safa’s story: “I was

four years old. Knocking the door with butts of their guns, Israeli soldiers broke in our house. They beat me and my siblings and my father was arrested. The fear in my father’s eyes was not for himself; instead he was scared that they would do something bad to my mother and sisters. They took my father, putting him in handcuffs and closing his eyes with a scarf; we just watched him go helplessly. I cannot tell you how painful it was for my father to be beaten and arrested in front of his family’s eyes as if he was a murderer and for us to keep our silence despite the inhuman treatment my father exposed to in front of our eyes.”

Suffering...as if it were the fate of everyone who lives here. “What’s all this?”, sometimes people want to cry. The State of Israel claiming that it only acts with the aim of realizing Arz-ı Mev’ud (The Promised Lands) and basing it on Torah is actually drives its into a big dilmemma by ignoring the commandment “You shall not kill” stated in Torah. Both you would take the commandments written in the Holy book as goal and you would contravene the most important commandment in the same book as well; what a grave dilemma! From this point of view, it can be clearly understood that thi event has already gone beyond religious dimension, the weapons came into play for the interests.

Alperen YURTOĞLU

WISE KING ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC Alperen YURTOĞLU

The Bosniaks who felt themselves alone in many respects under the rules of Austro-Hungarian Empire and Yugoslavia which dominated the region after the Ottomans withdrew from the Balkans, would meet a new leader who would seal their country’s future after the Second World War. Called Babo by one generation in the future and Dedo by the following generation, this person who would then be called “Wise King”was not someone else but Alija Izetbegovic. Alija Izetbegovic was born to a family with Islamic sensitivities in 1925 in Bosanski Samac. When he was only two years old, his family moved to Sarajevo due to various reasons. Alija Izetbegovic joined the Mladi Muslimani (Young Muslims) with several friends of him from German High School that he studied at. A communist regime came to the po24

wer in Yugoslavia which gained its independence after the war and Alija was sentenced to 3 years in 1946 for Islamic activities he carried out. When Josip Broz Tito died in 1980, ethnic conflicts and economic crisis began to appear in Yugoslavia. This situation brought about a new debate about the regime. Although he defended democracy throughout his life, he was charged with “trying to change the current system and transform Bosnia-Herzegovina into an Islamic state” due to his work entitled “the Islamic Declaration.” Because this verdict, he was sentenced to 14 years. Then, his sentence was reduced to 11 years and a result of increasing international presssure, he was released in a general amnesty in 1988. He wrote a book entitled “Islam Between East and West”. Alija Izetbegovic who foresaw that the world would change

wrote another book that would be published later. His book, “My Escape to Freedom: Notes From Prison” demonstrated that change in the world could be realized beyond the prison walls. Alija Izetbegovic who was released from the prison during the period when the Communist and Socialist regimes started to collapse established the Party of Democratic Action on March 1990. Elected as the leader of the party on 5th December 1990, Izetbegovic came to the power by getting a great victory in the first election in which his party took part. When it was 14th October 1991, the Assembly of Bosnia-Herzegovina witnessed an interesting dialogue. While the issue of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s being independent of Yugoslavia was being discussed, war criminal Radovan Karadzic who would carry out large-scale massacres in the

Wise King Alija Izzetbegovic

now. From now on, it is your duty. I leave active politics due to my old age and health problems. Thank Allah, there are “thousands of you” to whom I can give in the waving flag I am holding with my mind at peace. And Bosnia is free now! Our flag is waving in our lands. Salam to you, my people. Let our faith, flag and state live long!”

future and was the leader of Bosnian-Serbs at that time said in the Assambly: “The

road you’ve choosed for Bosnia and Herzegovina is the same way to the hell. Don’t you think that we will turn Bosnia into the hell and maybe take all the Muslims into extinction? If there is a war, the Muslim people will not be able to defend themselves.” And the answer of Alija Izetbegovic

against this aggressive and hostile style was: “The messages that Karadzic gave revealed also why others did not want to live in Yugoslavia. What Karadzic wants is Yugoslavia in which there are no any other nation except the Serbs. We hope that the Serbs manage to adopt their tradition of democracy again.”

The hostile attitude of the Serbs was indicator of the fact that the tension between the Bosniaks and the Serbs would rise and Yugoslavia would dissolve. During the days when the war in Bosnia was cruel and irregular; everybody was killed by the sharp shooters regardless of woman, old or children, that’s to say, human tragedies were experienced, Alija Izetbegovic told the people around him about “ethics of revolt” and “principle”. “You shall not be cruel to the people. Only if we become army of the people and they are not afraid of us, we can be successful. An army threatening the people is miserable, so cannot be successful.”

With these remarks, telling his soldiers that the most basic principle, Izetbegovic expressed such a vivid and honorable principle that no any other monument to humanity could present: “We are the people who fight for freedom. We want to reach our goal with courage, wisdom and goodness. Believe me, I still do not hate people even after these bitter experiences. This is what keeps my hope that everything will be good and there is a path to get out of this hell alive.”

As it can be understood from his statements, he never asserted the hatret; on the contrary, he managed to behave in a peaceful and humanist way despite all inhuman, undignified and provacative factors. His internatilization of the peace concept and persistent addressing to it came out again when he signed the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the Bosnian war and Alija likened to taking a bitter medicine: “I did a lot of things throughout my long life. But the most difficult one was to sit at the negotiation table in Dayton. My aim was

not to be called as a victorious commander but to return back to my country with a reasonable agreement under my armpit. The Serbs came to me with proposals which not only contraticted my suggestions but the justice and all the humanity as well. It was really hard to accept such an agreement. However, there was something harder; to return back to home with “We keep fighting”. This was virtually an impossible choice to make and I felt like being crufied.”

After the war, the Federation of BosniaHerzegovina was founded and Alija Izetbegovic was elected as the Founding President of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Being elected for one term more, in 2002 Izetbegovic left the Presidency of his country which he ruled with comprehensive and inclusive attitudes, showing his health problems as a reason. One year later when it was 19th October 2003, he passed away. Alija’s last speech was remembered with the exclamation: “Salam to You, My People!”. In this farewell speech, Alija who expressed all pains and experiences they had after the war, commemorated their loss in the war with gratitude and blessing while he was giving advice. He also stated that he left active politics in this speech. This part of his speech reflects what kind of people and leader he was: “Praise to Allah

Being a unique thinker who was never afraid of expressing his ideas and sentenced due to his ideas, a “victorious commander of the army-doomed to lose“ who got complete support of the people and a modest politician that was loved and respected by all the citizens, Alija Izetbegovic was a pacemaker. Alija Izetbegovic has been the subject of many writers’ works and source of inspiration for many thinkers and is called caurageous commander of his people. One of the writers expressed his idea of Alija Izetbegovic as “Despite all Karadzics of the world, Alijas will live!” and emphasized Alija’s eternity. Also a Bosnian artist Edin Dervishalidovic known by his stage name Dino Merlin would compose and sing songs for Alija Izetbegovic. The singer who brought peace says “Without you Alija, the light would be dark!” Rest in peace Wise King: “Despite all Karadzics of the world, Alijas will live!”

for showing us these days. We wrote our history with blood. Despite all these pains, we still live. We commemorate our martyrs with gratitude. God willing, we are going to meet them in the heaven. At this point, everything is not over, actually we start

Yasemin YAVUZ

Universal Academy of Cultures

DREAMING PEACE Yasemin YAVUZ

“Dreaming Peace” which encourages readers to consider in the name of the establishment of peace through the enlightening interpretations of qualified speakers is the documentation of speeches at the international forum organized by Universal Academy of Cultures in December of 2002. It was set out- for the two-day forum that would be held in Francewith the header which might sound fantastic in the unsecured atmosphere formed after the September 11 attacks and a great deal of serious effort was shown to complete it. The question raised from the president of Academy, Elie Wiser who is also the winner of Nobel Peace Prize actually indicates the idea that played a crucial role in the organisation of the meeting: “Why war is such an easy and convenient option to be applied? While death prevails in the war front-lines; why peace cannot be the main goal?” Again with ElieWiser’s own words, war’s being presented as: “a source of inspiration that on one hand, reproduces new fantasies and filling graves and on the other hand can run from success to success even from victory to victory” to the humankind reveals an essential perspective in terms of problem determination. At the forum; “peace” concept is discussed under the headings of regional and universal concepts. Being among the participants, literary figure and philosopher Umberto Eco’s speech includes practical suggestions intended for the fact that a small peace has power to decrease the tensions of grand wars. Israeli novelist Abraham Yehoshua and Palestenian Philosophy Professor Sari Nusseibeh are also the 26

key figures of the meeting. Both of them have spent many years for peace building process for Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has been continuing for years and they’ve paid the bill for this. Algarian Zazie Sadou highlights the dimension of terrorism that the people in his country exposed to and that government only adopts a common response only when their mutual interests are under threat. Bernard Kouchner, being the former health and foreign minister of France and also one of the co-founders of “Doctors without Borders” organization both draws attention to the health status and differences between developed and underdeveloped countries and people’s life span depending on this and focusses on the concept of bioterrorism as well . It seems that Kant and his perspective of dreaming peace (perpetual peace) which have been cited many times during the meetings has been a source of inspiration for the participants. It is obvious that constructive ideas put forward item by item by Kant in terms of providing permanent peace, not only seek solutions to the social and political events of his time period but also enlighten the future generations. At the forum held approximately 1 year after the September 11 attack; as expected, the concept of political Islam and terrorism associated with this concept also has become one of the issues on the agenda. In the sessions that tensions become significantly higher from time to time, some disagreements on belief and way of interpretation of belief occur between some participants and especially speakers from Muslim countries. In the

book, these kinds of heated debates are presented in an objective way to the readers with all details. Although “Dreaming Peace” is a documentation of the forum which was organized about ten years ago, it makes the readers realize that unfortunately humanity hasn’t made a great progress in the name of world peace since then. Considering the current situation after ten years, humanity has given rise to the new wars, dictatorships and massacres. In that case, does the proposition “Universal peace is like the desire of immortality” presented by Umberto Eco at the end of his speech reflect the truth? Or does the situation we percieve as “peace” only express the absence of animosity? yaseminyavuz@gbi.org.tr

Mustafa ÖZPAÇACI

NO MAN’S

LAND

Mustafa ÖZPAÇACI

Being set in the bloody war in 1993 in Bosnia, No Man’s Land is a 2001 movie which was released with the name “Tarafsız Bölge” in Turkey after Europe and America. Though the movie is about the war, it presents the audience with a dramatic composition more than exciting war and action scenes. No Man’s Land has a internation persfective and objectivity due to being a work which was co-operated by companies in Bosnia-Heregovina, Slovenia, Italy, France, Belgium and the UK. Both being writer and director of the movie and composing soundtracks of it, Danis Tanovic’s first movie perfectly presents the situation of Bosnia in the war and attitude of the UN Protection Forces (UNPROFOR) towards the things going on at that time. Co-starring actors Branko Djuric and Rene Bitorajac portray two Bosnian and Serbian soldiers, Ciki and Nino. One night when the war continues intensively, a group of Bosnian soldiers lose their way in the no man’s land between the Bosnian-Serbian lines of defense. When it is time for dawn, they are noticed, fire is opened on them by Serbian soldiers. One of the Bosnian soldiers, Ciki manages to take refuge in an empty trench and the others lose their lives. One of the two soldiers who are sent to control it is killed during the conflict with Ciki and the other, Nino gets injured. The fact that Bosniak soldier Cera, under whom a land mine was laid by the Serbian soldiers is actually still alive compels Ciki and Nino

to renconcile although they don’t want to do so. The Bosnians and Serbians ask the UNPROFOR for saving the soldiers trapped in the no man’s land. The high commander of the UNPROFOR doesn’t lean towards intervening in the situation but sergeant Marchand-near the area in which the conflicts are going on- tries to help the soldier trapped on the land mine by acting sensitively. An international channel correspondent, Jane Livingstone does her best to accelarete the process by announcing the latest situation in Bosnia, ongoing slaughters and ignorant attitudes of the UNPROFOR to the world with news she reports and a high tension waiting process begins. Being shooted with a low-budget, No Man’s Land managed to impress the audience as a movie which tries to present the despair in the war and soldiers’ state of mind more than being a movie which drives the audience into it with breathtaking visual effects. Due to this success, the movie won more than ten international awards, especially the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film and the Award for the Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. It worths watching No Man’s Land, portraying the UNPROFOR’s siding with deadlock in Bosnia and how Bosnia was left to its fate in 98 minutes without boring the audience and giving unnecessary details. Enjoy the movie. mustafaozpacaci@gbi.org.tr 27