|
Follow the Middle East Forum
|
|
The
Rise and Fall of a Modern 'Devshirme' in Erdogan's Turkey
|
|
Share:
|
Be the first of
your friends to like this.
Originally published under the title, "How Non-Muslims
"Survive" in Turkey."
Prominent
non-Muslims in Turkey, then and now. Left: an Ottoman Janissary
officer. Right: the Armenian Christian intellectual Etyen Mahcupyan,
who retired as advisor to Turkey's prime minister after saying
"what happened to Armenians in 1915" was
"genocide."
|
Last October, Etyen Mahcupyan, a leading Turkish Armenian
intellectual, "liberal" writer and columnist, was appointed as
"chief advisor" to Turkey's Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. At
first glance, this was good news in a country where Islamists privately
adhere to the old Ottoman millet system, in which non-Muslims were
treated as second-class (if not third-class) citizens.
In reality, Mahcupyan was a reincarnation of the Ottoman "devshirme"
system, in which the Ottoman state machinery produced several non-Muslim
converts who enjoyed a place in the higher echelons of the palace
bureaucracy, and the finer things of life, because their pragmatism
earned them excellent relations with the ruling Muslim elite.
In a December interview with Turkey's leading daily, Hurriyet,
Mahcupyan said, "Whatever has been a [political] asset for Turkey's
Armenian community (they number around 60,000) is an asset for the Jewish
community too. But... there is Israel... As long as the psychology of the
Israel issue continues to influence politics in Turkey and relations
between the two countries do not normalize..." The line, which
Mahcupyan shyly did not finish, probably would have gone on like this:
"Turkey's Jews will keep on paying the price."
Mahcupyan admitted that if Turkey's Jews felt alienated, it was the
government's responsibility to do something about that.
What more? "I have lived through this personally for the past 60
years," he explained. "Among Turkey's non-Muslim minorities,
including Jews and Armenians, there is an opinion about humiliating
Muslims." As Mahcupyan's statement is not true, it therefore just
seems a way to justify Islamists' intimidation of Jews.
Next, Mahcupyan argued, "Both Jews and Armenians are
better-educated [than Muslim Turks] and more open to the West. And this
brings in a feeling of superiority complex." In this view, daily attacks on
Turkey's Jews and other non-Muslims happen because Jews and Armenians
humiliate Muslims -- they are better-educated than Muslims and hence
their superiority complex. The charge is, at best, silly.
As in Ottoman times, just one
unpleasant utterance can suffice to end a devshirme's career in
government service.
|
Only a few months later, Mahcupyan would learn how wrong he was about
the Islamist supremacists in Ankara and their inherent intolerance to
liberal thinking.
Mahcupyan recently commented on Pope Francis's remarks on April 12, in
which the Pope described 1915 as "the first genocide of the 20th
century," and said that the Vatican had "thrown off a
100-year-old psychological burden."
If, Mahcupyan
said, accepting that what happened in Bosnia and Africa were
genocides, "it is impossible not to call what happened to Armenians
in 1915 genocide, too."
It was probably the first time in Turkish history that a senior
government official recognized the Armenian genocide. Once again, at
first glance, that was good news in a country where outright denial has
been the persistent official policy. But it seems Turkey was not quite as
liberal as Mahcupyan had thought.
Immediately after his remarks became public, EU Minister Volkan Bozkir
expressed
unease, saying that "Mahcupyan's description was not appropriate
for his title of adviser." But that was not the only price Mahcupyan
would have to pay.
A few days after his remarks on genocide, Mahcupyan "retired"
as chief adviser to Prime Minister Davutoglu -- after only about six
months in the job.
Officially, Mahcupyan had retired in March after turning 65, the
mandatory retirement age for civil servants. But it was an open secret in
Ankara that his departure came simply because Turkey's Islamists were not
quite the liberals he had claimed they were.
The "Mahcupyan affair" has a message to Turkey's dwindling
non-Muslim minorities: Just like an Ottoman devshirme, a
non-Muslim can rise and become a darling of today's neo-Ottoman Turks. He
can win hearts and minds in important offices in Ankara -- and a bright
career. But to maintain his fortunes he must remain loyal to the official
Islamist line, both in deed and rhetoric. Just one unpleasant utterance
would suffice to end a devshirme's career in government service.
That is the kind of collective psychology into which Turkey's ruling
Islamists force non-Muslims: either become a collaborator, or...
There is another Turkish Armenian columnist who looks more seasoned
than Mahcupyan in his devshirme career. Markar Esayan, a writer
for a fiercely pro-government daily, recently said
in reference to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's 2014 statement about the
Armenian victims of 1915: "[Erdogan's] message of condolences
illustrates how we have achieved the Ottoman spirit in line with this
century and its democratic practice. Furthermore, the practices in the
last 13 years [of the Justice and Development Party's rule] have
positively influenced our [Armenian] community and non-Muslims."
Apparently Esayan is happy with Turkey's neo-Ottomans and their
Islamist rule, including their rigid policies of genocide-denial, which
he claims have done good to Turkey's Armenians and other non-Muslim
citizens. Etyen Mahcupyan may have been punished, but Markar Esayan is being
rewarded for his loyalty: he has been selected to run for parliament on
the ticket of Prime Minister Davutoglu's party!
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is
a columnist for the Turkish daily Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East
Forum.
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment