How could Facebook possibly destroy your relations and your life?

While I was toying with this article in my mind I went to my Facebook account. But there was something wrong. First I thought I’d made a mistake when entering my password. However, when I looked carefully I saw this nasty line on the box: “Your account has been disabled. If you have any questions or concerns…” Oops, cabin pressure is going down, fasten your seat belt and put on your oxygen mask, Orhan. I was shaken but still standing on my feet.

The first thing I thought was that this had happened due to the efforts of the Turkish fascists and ultranationalists who hate me. After all, this happened following the publication in Today’s Zaman of my three consecutive articles on racism, nationalism and the deep state in Turkey.

Since I could not think of any other reason, I wrote to the Facebook “assistance” mail address that I was finally able to find after a long Internet research. I stated: “I strongly believe that this was a mistake and would be grateful if you could help me to continue sharing my articles with my readers and my fun through Facebook. Because of my political stance and the cases I have been dealing with as a human rights advocate, I am targeted by nationalist circles in Turkey, I also believe that their ‘complaints’ may have led to cancelling my account.”

While I waited for a quick response saying that “Yes, there was indeed a mistake,” instead I got this automated answer in Turkish, “Your question has been forwarded to Facebook team.” The following day I got another automated answer listing three items to explain the reasons that may have caused the deletion of my account. But nothing definite. The reason may be one of them, all of them, two of them… And it was also like a threat. As if saying, look we deleted your account but did not create the mess. As if they were sending a message to a nasty teenager who put pornographic pictures on his profile.

I sent another message in English to make a further inquiry. And finally another automated message came back in Turkish. There was my name on it, saying “Hello Orhan.” As if it was a close friend sending me a message. But the message was so cold, so inhumane, trying to convince me that my account had been closed down after careful consideration and that it will never be opened again. There was no explanation why it was closed. It was signed by an official who only put his first name. There was no surname. Big Brother has just decided about your fate, Orhan, and you are condemned to be banished from the Facebook galaxy forever. And this official from Facebook who gave only his first name informed me about this punishment in a matter-of-fact voice.

I had almost 2,400 friends on my Facebook page, including my first and secondary school classmates, my colleagues, people I met during conferences and seminars, intellectuals around the globe, my relatives and so on and so forth. My Facebook page was like a public platform for free discussion. Under each article I posted there were so many brilliant comments by my Facebook friends. They have all gone with the contact details of these people.

The answers to my inquiries always came from the Turkish national team: If I am not a victim of nationalistic fervor due to my unconventional views on the Armenian genocide, minorities, Kemalism and other taboos in Turkey, it appears that I was just deleted because I added some people from some lists. I actually added some people from the list of Orhan Pamuk readers, hoping that I might gain new readers and plus that I may be stimulated by the posts of these sophisticated people. And, indeed, I really met some very sophisticated people whose posts and comments inspired me to write interesting articles. Could I be the victim of a bureaucratic mind who sits all day before his computer and gets extreme pleasure out of “punishing” some people who disobey the rules that are not clearly written anywhere on Facebook? I do not know.