Turkey reconciles with the sons it once disowned

The move also paved the way for Turkey to confront its past mistakes in its treatment of the country’s prolific and successful artists who had to leave due to the state’s lack of tolerance toward their ideological views.

Hikmet, whose remains are in Russia, said he wished to be buried in Turkey in his 1953 poem “Testament,” translated by Ruth Christie. “Friends if it’s not my lot to see the day / of independence... / if I die before that day / -- and it seems I will -- / bury me in a village graveyard in Anatolia / and if it’s fitting / and a plane tree grows at my head, / then there’s no need for a gravestone or anything else.”

Turkey stripped Hikmet of his citizenship in 1951 at the height of the Cold War because of his communist views, branded him a traitor and imprisoned him for more than a decade. He died in exile in Moscow in 1963, but his work lived on, and the government's decision to restore his citizenship, as well as revealing its intentions to reconcile with many of the other artists it has disowned, has been hailed even though it was a long overdue decision.

Radikal daily columnist Oral Çalışlar, who grew up listening to Hikmet's poems read by his father since he was a young child -- without ever knowing that they were written by Hikmet because his poetry remained banned in Turkey until 1965 -- wrote in his column last week that Cabinet's decision to restore Hikmet's citizenship was very meaningful and impressive and will save Turkey from a shame in its history.

"It is not possible for this decision to make Hikmet into something more or less. But it will contribute a lot to us. We will get rid of the shame of being the citizens of a country whose best poet died in exile and was deprived of his citizenship. And the Republic of Turkey will be rid of this shame."

Çalışlar said if the step that has been taken toward the rehabilitation of Hikmet is supported by other steps, Turkey will gain much from this process.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek, who announced the decision following a Cabinet meeting last week, said it was time for the government to change its mind.

"The crimes which forced the government to strip him of his citizenship at that time are no longer considered crimes," he said, noting that it was up to Hikmet's relatives to decide if they wanted to bring his remains back from Moscow.

Turkey's efforts to make peace with the sons it once repudiated is not limited to Hikmet; Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay announced last week that the state would take the necessary steps to clear obstacles in the way of the restoration of the citizenship of Yılmaz Güney, a famous film director, scenarist, novelist and actor of Kurdish origin whose works are still highly regarded by cinema critics.

Güney, who devoted many of his works to highlighting the problems of ordinary middle- and lower-class people, was imprisoned in 1961 for 18 months for publishing a novel allegedly supporting communist views. Güney spent most of his life in prison, but he continued to write film scripts while he was behind bars. In 1974, he was jailed again for shooting a judge who allegedly insulted him and his wife while he was filming a scene in a crowded restaurant in the southern province of Adana. He escaped from prison in 1981 and went to Europe. After his escape, he won an award at the Cannes Film Festival with for his film "Yol." Having been stripped of his citizenship in 1983 by then-President Kenan Evren, Güney died in Paris in 1984.

"The prime minister is very determined to break taboos and lift bans," said Günay, including Güney's denaturalization among them.

Ferhat Kentel, a professor at İstanbul Bilgi University, stated that the state admitting its past mistakes toward artists who dissented from the state ideological view and now taking apologetic steps showed that not everyone shares a homogenous point of view. He said the state openly and courageously acknowledging its mistakes will make a big contribution to the development of a democratic environment in Turkey.

"Without being ashamed, everyone should be able to apologize to each other for their mistakes and admit them. This process can take some time, but it should never be abandoned," added Kentel.

Another move of apology from the state was toward famous Kurdish singer and songwriter Ahmet Kaya, who became the target of a harsh media campaign and was attacked when he expressed his wish to produce music in Kurdish.

At a televised Show TV annual music awards ceremony in 1999, at which Kaya was to be named musician of the year, he spoke out about his Kurdish background, said he wanted to produce music in his native Kurdish as naturally as he does in Turkish and mentioned that he believed there were courageous TV stations in Turkey that would broadcast clips of his Kurdish songs. Following his remarks, he was attacked by some Turkish singers and guests of the awards ceremony with forks and spoons because of his stance on the Kurdish language. Facing various charges in Turkey over his political views and alleged support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), he went to France, where he died of a heart attack in 2000 at the age of 44.

Kaya's heartbreaking quest to produce music in Kurdish was sadly recalled by everyone when the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation's (TRT) Kurdish channel, TRT 6, began broadcasting on Jan. 1 as part of the state's bid to fulfill a long-sought demand from the country's Kurdish population.

Speaking at the channel's inauguration ceremony, Minister Günay engaged in self-criticism over the state's misguided practices in the past, referring to people who had been prosecuted on charges of singing Kurdish songs, in an implicit reference to Kaya.

"Now, we are at the point of abandoning our mistakes. Turkey lived through heated debates to reach this day, and people experienced pain, which we now remember with sorrow, just because they talked about broadcasting in Kurdish, singing a song in Kurdish and producing music in this language. I think we are now fulfilling a moral duty toward their memory," said Günay, in remarks which were interpreted as an apology.

Kaya's spouse, Gülten Kaya, said she welcomed the state's moves to correct and make up for its past mistakes against some artists, but she expressed unease over the presentation of the issue as the "restoration of the dignity" of those artists.

"If we are talking about a state which sent its intellectuals and artists into exile, it means that it is the one that lost its dignity. Only the people who were sent into exile can help the state restore its dignity. I wish the state would not make its artists undergo hardship due to their intellectual diversity. If the state comes to understand that art is one of the dynamics that develop states, it will welcome different views. It does not say, 'If you do not think like me, you are the other'."