Bakhtin believed that language itself had the "recording capacity" whereby each and every word remembered its every instance of use. So, even though human beings could not hear all the sounds of the past and the present, words carried them to our ears in an undetectable but perceivable format. In the feeling a mother gets from a sincere "mom" she hears from her 4-year-old son, there is a part recalling all instances of calls to our moms, starting with Eve, passing from Mary to the present mother. Bakhtin's "great dialogue," however, foresaw an ideal future where we, as human beings, could hear all the sounds recorded and remembered in the words. Yesterday, I wanted to experience an hour of that "great dialogue": to be able to hear all the words cast in Enderun Hall of İstanbul's Çırağan Palace. We were at the official lunch of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, where the fact that the Alliance of Civilizations summit is capturing the interest of the countries of the world was obvious. Tables were surrounded by prime ministers, ex-presidents, ministers, mayors, university rectors, high-level intellectuals, senior diplomats and bureaucrats from all around the world. All were speaking about the future of the world and the alliance. Well, some were speaking about the displaced shoulder of the new NATO secretary-general and what secret meaning should we infer from the fact that this unfortunate accident happened in Turkey.
For the people there, the future of the alliance would be decisive for the future of the world. Words like dialogue, rapprochement and peaceful resolution of conflicts were all in the air. Oh, my Lord! How many zillions of times we have used those words and all were consumed for nothing. But this time at Enderun Hall, they were being cast by the ones who caused their loss in the past. Take, for example, the words of the former prime minister of Denmark and the new secretary-general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Rasmussen was asked, probably according to a previous arrangement, about the Cartoon Crisis, and Rasmussen replied that he personally does not agree with what was done, that he wouldn't do something like that, that he wouldn't let anything offend any religious values and that as the new chief of NATO he would do his best to prevent anything of a similar nature to happen again. Rasmussen referred twice to Prophet of Islam Muhammad as Prophet and not just as "Muhammad," as most Westerners would do. Had Rasmussen adopted such a corrective and constructive approach during the Cartoon Crisis, we wouldn't be using capital letters to refer to that particular crisis. This time, he was speaking and making promises in front of world leaders. This means a lot. The alliance is not only capturing the interests of the countries of the world, it is also conquering them.
In Enderun Hall, while I was listening to the Brazilians' plans for the third forum of the alliance next year, at other tables people were exchanging views, casting words and adding new meanings to the words I have been using without realizing that extra meaning.
How much I would love to be able to hear all of the dialogues produced in that hall. Not that I am the male version of "Gossip Girl." I know -- and I hope -- that the dialogues in that hall will be shaping the future of the world. With, of course, some excerpts from the dialogues of the official dinner with President Abdullah Gül that was to take place at Dolmabahçe Palace, where US President Barack Obama would also be a part of the dialogues.
Because words remember.
In Çırağan Palace, leaders of the world added to the history of the words like dialogue, goodwill, peace, tolerance, negotiation, coexistence, encounter, people-to-people diplomacy and so on. The future will speak a different language with the same words. The second forum of the Alliance of Civilizations had its entries to that linguistic change. I was there, but I couldn't hear all of them.
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