Parallel universes and elites

In the parallel universes of the republicans, the democrats, the Islamists, the Kurds and the Turkish nationalists, the borders are almost very clear; they don't like each other, they don't try to understand each other and they are hostile to one another.

An interesting, but not surprising, survey done by Professor Füsün Üstel and Associate Professor Birol Caymaz strengthen these pessimistic views of mine. The survey, supported by the Open Society Foundation, underlines that the “elites” of this country have their own universe, which is not very open at all toward “others” -- namely, minorities, Kurds and conservatives.

The “Elites and Social Distance” survey was completed by conducting in-depth interviews with members of the upper middle class who have graduated from Turkey's “prestigious” schools, such as Galatasaray High School, St. Joseph's, Ankara College and the like. All the interviewees have good professional positions and perceive themselves as devoted to republican secular values. For me, this is exactly the point at which the tragedy begins; on the one hand, these prestigious schools claim that they are teaching “Western” values and established for the “modernization” of the country, but at the end are under heavy influence of Turkey's nationalistic education system. The sovereign culture of these schools (and I mean sovereign) teaches the students that just being a student there is extremely important; although acting according to “universal” values, the survey openly shows that even graduates of the country's French-built schools are unable to absorb Voltaire's idea “I do not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it” into their subconscious.

The survey points out that it is a matter of prestige for elites to have friends from among members of Turkey's non-Muslim minorities. Most of them are very proud of having them as classmates and as “best friends,” but their sympathies end there. Most of them say they did not talk to “their best friends” about groups' rights nor about the state's unfair acts toward them. According to the survey, most of the interviewees suggested that “minorities can have their own school, but these schools should be run by Turks” or “maybe in the past they were subject to discrimination, but they aren't paying any taxes now.” Some of the elites were also very critical and unable to understand the slogan “We are all Armenians, we are all Hrant” which began to be used after the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

When it comes to the subject of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the elites' attitudes are again not surprising. According to them, the closure of the AK Party is acceptable. The survey points out that the elites think the AK Party and its supporters are making the elites a “minority” and threatening their position; in short, they are not willingly to share their “privileges” with any newcomers. Well, since the basic idea of the elites is this, they have a tendency to think that Ergenekon is a sort of settling of accounts between the new AK Party elites and the former republican elites.

When it comes to Kurds, the position of the elites is also not hopeful. Most of them think the Democratic Society Party (DTP) should be closed down. They say the Kurds are lazy and are not subject to discrimination because they can be seen on İstanbul's upscale Bağdat Avenue. Some of the elites think that if there is a Kurdish problem in Turkey, it is simply because of “foreign powers.”