Orhan Kemal Cengiz

Articles de cet auteur (18)

At the brink of a chaos : Kurds, EU, Army and poor intellectuals of this country
7 June 2007
Are we cursed ? Why do we always have to live in conflict, in tension, in fear, and in terror ? What is wrong in this country ? What is wrong with us ? Why we cannot solve any problems of this country ? Why do we always repeat everything we have lived through before ? Why do we, on the one hand, boast that we have such a strong army and why, on the other hand, we are so afraid of “our enemies” ? Why is everything defined in this country as a security matter ? Why is the army being glorified (...)
The ICC and crimes against humanity in Turkey
7 June 2011
Finally Ratko Mladic, the former chief of staff of the Army of Republika Srpska, has been arrested and he is on his way to The Hague. This is, of course, a step forward for justice for the victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. I am sure it will be a huge relief for Bosnians to see Mladic accounting for the crimes he has committed before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). This news, of course, was also met with great happiness in Turkey (...)
God punished caricaturist that depicted Prophet Mohammed !
23 January 2008
A few days ago an email about the death of the caricaturists that depicted Prophet Mohammed reached my mail box. It made me think a lot and I would like to share my reflections on the subject with you. First let me inform you about the content of this mail message. It reads as follows: “The Danish caricaturist creature which draws caricatures of our master Prophet Mohammed has reportedly lost its life by burning as a result of the outbreak of a fire in his home. The Danes wish nobody (...)
Why the Hrant Dink case is not going anywhere ?
11 October 2011
Last Monday the prosecutor read out his final opinion in the Hrant Dink case, meaning the case has approached its final stages. Basically, the prosecutor said that the Trabzon cell of the Ergenekon terrorist organization carried out this murder. But he also said that he is unable to establish concrete links between Ergenekon and Dink’s murderers. We can interpret his remarks as a confession of a failure to identify the real perpetrators of this murder. However, in spite of this failure, he (...)
Mehmet Agar and Moshe Dayan: ’Illumination’ and the aftermath
24 January 2008
Conflicts, especially the ones that have existed for a long time, create an interesting kind of blindness for the parties to them. Obvious facts for an outsider can become invisible for the parties to the conflict. Look at Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Turkey’s Kurdish problems for examples. From looking Turkey to Israeli-Palestinian conflict it is crystal clear that there will be no solution to the conflict there in the near future. I guess our Kurdish problem is seen similar to the (...)
About an agreement’ between the Patriarchate and government
23 November 2010
Can a ‘secret agreement’ between the Patriarchate and government promote freedom of religion? When I heard that Greek newspaper To Vima had reported that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew had reached a “secret agreement,” I did not find it surprising. This news, of course, needs to be verified, but given the political culture in Turkey and the well-known attitudes of minorities, an unwritten, undeclared agreement would not be a surprise. However, the (...)
Can we discuss the Armenian question ?
2 novembre 2007
There is a book on my bookcase which has been waiting for some time to be read. There is a picture on the cover of the book : Turkish and Armenian flags tied to each other. The name of the book is “The Truth Will Set Us Free” and it is written by George Jerijan, a British citizen of Armenian descent. While I was again considering reading the book I came across a newspaper article and I learned that the book had already been translated into Turkish and Mr. Ragıp Zarakoğlu, the owner of the (...)
Headscarf ban and Islamist feminists
2 December 2010
There is certainly quite a weird paradox in the whole headscarf discussion. So-called “modern Turks” fight against the idea of women covering themselves, in the name of emancipating them, but the ban on the headscarf serves nothing but the maintenance of the patriarchal culture in Turkey. The male-dominant, patriarchal culture in Turkey dictates that women should stay at home, just look after the kids and stay away from social contact where they would interact with men. Does the very ban on (...)
Is Orhan Pamuk a paranoid liar?
7 August 2010
Fatih Altaylı, the editor-in-chief of Habertürk, a major Turkish daily, titled his column yesterday “Students and Pamuk.” I think his article was extremely illuminating to get a picture of the mentality and psychology of secular Turkish elites. He said a group of American college students had visited him to get an idea about the media in Turkey. While they chatted, the students started to talk about how they were very surprised to see dramatic differences between the Turkey they saw with their (...)
Identité sexuelle opprimée : la revanche
14 mars 2008
La société turque est assez « macho » et très masculine. Les comportements efféminés chez les hommes ne sont pas du tout bien vus. L’homosexualité et tous les signes visibles appartenant aux minorités sexuelles sont tabous et interdits. Les transsexuels et les travestis sont condamnés à se prostituer étant donné qu’il n’y a pas d’autre solution possible de survie pour eux. Il est clair que quelque chose est fortement réprimé, n’est-ce pas ? J’ai toujours trouvé la société turque assez hypocrite concernant (...)