Impolite Mealtime Conversation Topics #1
Access to YouTube has resumed in Turkey as of late yesterday (Pacific time). Since January 17, 2008, anyone attempting to access YouTube from within Turkey had been greeted with notices in English and Turkish saying it was banned under an Ankara court order. This was a replay of the same ordeal from last March 2007, and based on the same video clip, which, according to the Turkish government and likely to millions of Turks, is disrespectful to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk is considered the founding father of modern Turkey, and insulting him is illegal.
I am waiting to hear what's up with all this on a local level from my friends in Istanbul, who I met last June/July while on vacation there. I spent several afternoons with my travel agent friend drinking coffees and watching AC/DC and Madonna videos on YouTube in his smoky office.
There may be differing opinions on everything else in Turkey, but one thing was very clear while I was there - most Turks living in Turkey will never criticize Ataturk. It isn’t just because it is against the law to do so (don't laugh at the paradox if you haven't been there). It seems to me, as an outsider looking in, that insulting or in any way depreciating the value of the man who founded modern Turkey is experienced as a deeply personal assault on actual identity. Ataturk’s image is everywhere - bills, coins, streets, airports (the one in Istanbul is his namesake)etc. You see the same iconography treatment in other countries with the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, Abraham Lincoln, Fidel Castro (but Fidel is not on Cuban money), etc.
I bring up Cuba because of a similar attitude - Cubans living in Cuba may have differing opinions with the government these days, but everybody respects Fidel to a certain degree. Afterall, he rescued Cuba from Fulgencio Batista, and the Cubans living in Cuba are not the people that profited and got rich with the Batista regime. They couldn't afford to leave for Florida once Fidel and his 11 friends started garnering popular support.
Anyway, back to iconography - It seems that, in these images, there is a reminder of what it means to be a __________ (fill in the blank - Turkish, Brit, American, Cuban, etc). From that, in Turkey, we get the notion of insulting Turkishness, the zeitgeist of the law under which the YouTube ban was reinstated.
No, it should not be illegal to insult Turkishness. Yes, international freedom of expression and access to that expression is a concept I endorse. Yet, every country struggles with this issue, and no culture should be too quick to pat themselves on the back. Remember the 14-year old girl and her myspace page.
I am waiting to hear what's up with all this on a local level from my friends in Istanbul, who I met last June/July while on vacation there. I spent several afternoons with my travel agent friend drinking coffees and watching AC/DC and Madonna videos on YouTube in his smoky office.
There may be differing opinions on everything else in Turkey, but one thing was very clear while I was there - most Turks living in Turkey will never criticize Ataturk. It isn’t just because it is against the law to do so (don't laugh at the paradox if you haven't been there). It seems to me, as an outsider looking in, that insulting or in any way depreciating the value of the man who founded modern Turkey is experienced as a deeply personal assault on actual identity. Ataturk’s image is everywhere - bills, coins, streets, airports (the one in Istanbul is his namesake)etc. You see the same iconography treatment in other countries with the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, Abraham Lincoln, Fidel Castro (but Fidel is not on Cuban money), etc.
I bring up Cuba because of a similar attitude - Cubans living in Cuba may have differing opinions with the government these days, but everybody respects Fidel to a certain degree. Afterall, he rescued Cuba from Fulgencio Batista, and the Cubans living in Cuba are not the people that profited and got rich with the Batista regime. They couldn't afford to leave for Florida once Fidel and his 11 friends started garnering popular support.
Anyway, back to iconography - It seems that, in these images, there is a reminder of what it means to be a __________ (fill in the blank - Turkish, Brit, American, Cuban, etc). From that, in Turkey, we get the notion of insulting Turkishness, the zeitgeist of the law under which the YouTube ban was reinstated.
No, it should not be illegal to insult Turkishness. Yes, international freedom of expression and access to that expression is a concept I endorse. Yet, every country struggles with this issue, and no culture should be too quick to pat themselves on the back. Remember the 14-year old girl and her myspace page.