By Mustafa Akyol, Hürriyet, 22 December 2009
By Mustafa Akyol, Hürriyet, 22 December 2009
Those adorable fingers
Enthused by his previous success, Dündar decided to launch another Atatürk documentary two years ago. The Office of the Chief of General Staff, which welcomed the idea, opened its private archives exclusively to Dündar’s service, and the latter worked meticulously to access little-known facts about the national hero. “I want to find the real Atatürk,” he once said in an interview. “I want to show the human being there.”
Ah, he should have known better. When he launched his documentary, “Mustafa,” a year ago, he faced harsh criticism that he did not expect. Soon, one of the critics, Ali Berham Şahbudak, head of a Kemalist nongovernmental organization, took Mr. Dündar to court for “insulting Atatürk,” a serious crime in Turkey. The documentary, Mr. Şahbudak argued, was “eroding the respectability of Atatürk, thus weakening national values, and therefore opening the way to Turkey’s destruction.”
The court first dismissed the charges. But then a higher court, the one in Sincan, Ankara, intervened and opened the way for Dündar’s trial. Now, Mr. Dündar is likely to be tried, and his penalty could be as harsh as seven years in prison.
But what in the world is it in this film that is so “insulting”?
Well, we got the answer from the “expert witness” the prosecutors called to the stand: Professor Ahmet Mumcu of Başkent Law Faculty, another passionate Kemalist. He soon submitted a report about the film to court, which is a must-read.
Let me give you at least a few highlights:
– Dündar’s film mentioned an affair the young Kemal had with a certain Madame Corinna, and said, “Mustafa spent that night in her arms.” This was, according to Mumcu, a cherry-picked note to show the Supreme Leader as an immoral person.
– Dündar’s film mentioned that the young Kemal “got to know women and alcohol in his war academy years.” Professor Mumcu finds this offensive, too. “Why are these themes mentioned,” he asks in his report, “and not Atatürk’s love for books and his brilliant skills in French?”
– The film noted that the young Kemal felt “alone and melancholic” in his days in Sofia, where he went as a military attaché on the eve of the Great War. “How could such a huge charisma feel alone,” Professor Mumcu objects, and finds yet another insult to the Supreme Leader.
– The film also said, “Mustafa could not sleep in the dark.” This, as you can guess, is another offence according to Professor Mumcu. “With this,” he writes, “Atatürk is depicted as a cowardly commander.”
There are many other details of the film, which are just facts about Atatürk’s life, that Professor Mumcu considers as insults in his report. I will give you just one more of his points, which is a real gem. He writes:
“In the scene in which Atatürk’s handwriting was animated, the hand that held the pen had no resemblance to Atatürk’s. He had long and elegant hands, but the fingers in the scene are thick and short.”
Really… I am not kidding, exaggerating or mistranslating … Our official expert witness, in all seriousness, believes that Atatürk is insulted because those lovely fingers of him were not adequately represented in front of the camera.
Bordering on insanity
If you are a foreigner, you might find all this hard to believe. But for us Turks, this is business as usual. It is just a part of our national insanity.
We all grow up by taking oaths of allegiance to the persona of Atatürk. We all start every school week by thanking the Supreme Leader for “giving us this day.” In classes, we are taught that every single thing he did was absolutely right. Our sole mission, we are told, is to fight for his goals and against his “internal and external enemies.” We visit Atatürk’s shrine in drones, and ask for his help and guidance. “Let us go into that grave,” some of us even recite the famous poem, “and you, Father, please get up [to save the nation]!”
We, in other words, live in one of the world’s last remaining regimes based on a cult of personality. It is outdone only by North Korea.
Here lies the answer to the question in my headline. It is so easy to “insult” Atatürk, because we have turned him into a supra-human figure with a spotless beauty, wisdom and virtue. (And don’t forget his adorable fingers.)
To “insult” him, therefore, all you need to do is to show the real, human Atatürk, who was a great man with a great many failings and mistakes.
2 comments
Ataturk
Quem – como eu – já visitou o monumento a Ataturk, em Ankara, sabe muito bem o que é um inacreditável "culto à personalidade" ! Muçulmanos, os turcos deveriam substituir a expressão "Alah é grande e Maomé é seu profeta" por "Alah é grande e Ataturk é seu profeta" ! Nessa visita, estava eu, num museu, observando objetos de uso pessoal de Ataturk (em sua grande maioria, diversos tipos de armas…), quando ingressou no recinto um grande número de jovens estudantes, certamente alucinados, atirando-se loucamente em direção a tudo quanto se referisse a Atatuk. Fiquei pasmo diante de tanta adoração e retirei-me do local, fortemente impressionado com o que vira. E passei a ter compaixão por aqueles jovens, inteiramente deturpados em suas mentes. Qual o futuro que os aguardava, após essa "lavagem cerebral" ? Esse episódio explica tudo, para mim, com relação à deformação das pessoas na Turquia, fato que marca suas instituições e legislação, principalmente a penal. Remember "Midnight Express". Passado, presente e futuro, na Turquia, são imutáveis. E dizer que a Armênia celebrou os maldafados Protocolos…. Esperando o quê ? Certamente, "Esperando Godot"…
It’s unhealthy for a society
It’s unhealthy for a society to idolize a mortal who had more than his share of weaknesses.
"What would Ataturk Do?" "What would Ataturk Say?" attitude fossilizes Turkey. Seeing the million busts of Ataturk, his giant posters, Ataturk riding on a horse, Ataturk profiles in every office, shop and classroom, looking sternly and forbiddingly at Turks, seems psychologically damaging to a society.
Since day one, Christians and Jews have been interpreting, modifying, updating what their founders said and wrote. Turkey, under the so-called secularists, has remained hidebound in a oudated, ultranationalistic Ataturk trance.
Wake up, guys. He probably became hungry at least once a day. He probably went to the washroom, too. I know he liked his raki. He was the issue of his parents, not the Son of God.
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