Nach dem Coup / Over Time
I cannot write about this; I’d rather go out and work in the garden. Es ist zu kompliziert. Wie soll man sich ein Bild machen?
Artists, newspaper cartoonists and cultural figures are among the 35,000 people who have been detained in Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoan’s crackdown after the failed military coup in July. A further 82,000 people, including journalists and bureaucrats, have been dismissed or suspended from their jobs. […] Cultural projects, especially political ones, are under threat,” says the artist and writer Pinar Ögrenci. “It doesn’t mean they are directly under threat from the government, but we—the artist and activist community in Turkey—feel like we are being controlled.
http://theartnewspaper.com/news/news/crackdown-in-turkey-after-coup-attempt/
Vielleicht an die Freunde schreiben. Maybe there is relief to be found, through correspondence. Maybe some answers. Here is one by Özge Acıkkol from Istanbul-based Oda Projesi:
Something has really changed after that traumatic night, although since so many years, oppression, censorship, was already existing, the situation became wilder now. About the coup attempt, we also try to understand what happened and still happens. […] I think it was the power fight between Erdoan and Fetullah Gülen, and I’m afraid we never will be able to know the truth. What I can tell are mostly the conspiracy theories, and I don’t want to do this, of course. […]
With all the academics, writers, journalists taken into custody or prison, the government uses this situation now to silence all the opponents. For example, just yesterday Çanakkale Biennial was cancelled, did you hear about this? Almost everyday something like this happens…Maybe formats should change or, with the artists moving out of the country, there will be another kind of production. Can we also think about making something positive out of it or is it to naive, considering the violence of the state…? There should be something to do.
It looks like there is no way out, and we are almost loosing hope about the country. I don’t see any future (actually I see a very obscure future) and many friends, artist-friends now are moving abroad because of the oppression. We also started to think about moving maybe to Berlin in some years, because we hardly continue our production and daily life… Of course, looking from your side it may look really horrible, actually it is… But life here seems a bit like as always. It continues. I think after the coup attempt, the racist, violent potential here became more visible and that’s why now it looks more scary.
Özge Acıkkol (Oda Projesi), correspondence with the author
Many do not even write back. Fear of being scrutinized? I look out for more information about the cancellation of the Çanakkale Biennial that Özge mentions. Another friend sends the newsletter from the municipality, adding that the people there are very supportive—but also that people are scared now.
Der Newsletter ist in Türkisch, ein zentraler Absatz lautet:
Bienalin her ne kadar sadece destekleyicisi olsak da, iptal kararını alan asıl ekip gibi emek, özveri ve alın terimiz bulunmasa da, Bienalin gerçekleecei mekânlarda sergi kurmak için sabahlamamıız olsak da Bienal bizim kıymetlimizdir. Bienalin siyasi mülahazalara kurban edilmesi, koparılan gürültüden çekinip kulakların tıkanması ve geri adım atılması bizim de hiç arzu etmediimiz, hiç desteklemediimiz bir durumdur. Ayrıca kamuoyunda ön planda Bienal’in genel sanat yönetmenini, arka planda Bienali ve sanatı, asıl olarak da Çanakkale Belediye Bakanını hedef alan itibarsızlatırma rüzgârına kapılarak, demokrasiyi dillerinden düürmeyenler tarafından yapılan açıklamalar, kendisi gibi düünmeyenin düüncesine tahammülsüzlük, demokrasi, özgürlükler ve barı adına da son derece düündürücü ve kaygı vericidir.
http://www.canakkale.bel.tr/icerik/
13708/uluslararasi-5canakkale-bienali-hakkinda/
There are other sources in English: Most of them state that the decision in Çanakkale was taken under political pressure. There is information to be found about the on-goings just before the cancellation, including comments by the curator, Beral Madra. She speaks openly about her position towards the coup and towards the pro-Kurdish party HDP—I imagine, that this is not without consequences these days.
To our regret, on September 4, the ruling party AKP Çanakkale members have released a press release addressing the Mayor of Çanakkale, who is representing the opposition party CHP. […] Due to the political competition they asked him the question how he can allow Beral Madra to be the curator of the biennial, given the fact that she through her Twitter messages criticized CHP party’s leader (I did), and who is according to her Twitter messages a supporter of the recent military coup (no, I am not) and supported the pro-Kurdish HDP (yes, I did). They challenged the Mayor to fire me and announced me as a persona non grata in the city.
Beral Madra, in: http://hyperallergic.com/321408/organizers-cancel-turkish-biennial-amid-fears-of-government-crackdown/
And there are other Biennials, affected by the coup and its aftermath.
The sixth Sinopale Biennial of contemporary art, which was due to open in July in the north of the country, was postponed. In a statement posted on the biennial’s website, the organizers say: “As we believe in democracy and the will of the people, we are certain that our country will move on from this highly sensitive time as soon as possible.” The event may run next year, coinciding with the 15th Istanbul Biennial in the autumn.
http://theartnewspaper.com/news/news/crackdown-in-turkey-after-coup-attempt/
Was wird eigentlich die Istanbul Biennale machen, wie werden die Kuratoren, Michael Elmgreen und Ingar Dragset, reagieren? Man kann sich vorstellen, dass sie bis zum Ende des Jahres 2016 warten werden. Ich höre das öfters, dass sich Bekannte in der Türkei in diesem oder ähnlichem Sinne äußern: Dass sich bis zum Ende des Jahres hoffentlich eine Art Normalzustand eingestellt haben wird. Und die Kuratoren haben das selbe Problem wie ich: Sie sind nicht Teil der Istanbuler Community. In jedem Falle ist es nicht einfach, auf den Ausnahmezustand zu reagieren, gerade auch wenn dieser verlängert werden sollte.
Schon früher wurden Schriftsteller, KünstlerInnen, und Intellektuelle in der Türkei ihrer Überzeugungen wegen inhaftiert. Seit meinem Aufenthalt in Istanbul im Jahr 2003 begleitet mich die Autobiografie Yaar Kemals, welche in Form eines Interviews erschienen ist. Kemal befand sich Zeit seines langen Schriftstellerlebens immer wieder im Konflikt mit den Autoritäten in der Türkei.
Im April 1950 kam ich ins Gefängnis. In Adana wurde ein Junge aus Kadirli festgenommen, der kommunistische Propaganda betrieb. Damals arbeitete ich in Kadirli als Straßenschreiber. Ein Stand, eine kleine Holzhütte, das war mein Laden. Den Jungen haben sie dermaßen verprügelt, daß er in seiner Not alle Namen, die er kannte, vermischte und sich eine ‚Kommunistische Partei‘ in der Çukurova aus den Fingern sog. Unter den Gründungsmitgliedern sollte auch ich mich befinden. Eines Morgens kamen die Gendarmen mit großem Getöse, legten mir Handschellen an, und führten mich ab.
Yaşar Kemal, Der Baum des Narren. Mein Leben. Im Gespräch mit Alain Bosquet, Gallimard 1992 / Union Verlag 1999, S. 94
Was folgt sind Berichte von Folter und des Versuchs, den Autor zu lynchen. Yaar Kemal verließ daraufhin Kadirli, unter Velust vieler seiner frühen Schriften und Textsammlungen, in Richtung Istanbul.
Das lange Interview mit Kemal führte Alain Bosquet, der französische Journalist und Freund Kemals. They did not speak the same language. I imagine, how the correspondence went back and forth in long letters, to be translated on each side, accompanied by the typical shifts in meanings.
Auch heute korrespondieren die Freunde, erreichen uns die Online-Informationen in verschiedenen Sprachen. Dies ist ein Grund, diesen Text in mehr als einer Sprache zu schreiben. Ein weiterer Grund ist die Verwirrung angesichts der Lage – siehe oben.
Twenty years after Yaar Kemal’s first detention—several were to follow—and after the 1971 military coup, the artist Gülsün Karamustafa was taken into jail for several months. In the aftermath, her passport was taken away, and she could not leave the country for 16 years. I invited her to our project for the 8th Bienal de La Habana. For her installation there, she interviewed three women who were in jail around the same time as herself.
A great number of the intellectuals, students, workers in Turkey were put into prison for their political beliefs by the military regime following the coup d’état in 1971.The prisoners were so high in number that even army barracks were used for the detainees. Later, walls were built around them turning the space into a real prison. The next military coup in 1980 made the conditions for the prisoners much more severe.
Gülsün Karamustafa, Making of the Wall, 2003
I asked Gülsün for the subtitles of her video; here an excerpt:
They wanted us to surrender. First they forbid you from going out into that courtyard. If you refuse to wear what they want, they forbid you from seeing your relatives. If you refuse to repeat what they want you to say, they take away your books. The next day they take away your photographs, take away your paper and even your pencil. It is unbearable, to be away from your books, to be away from your pencil, this really wears you out.
Elif Gönül Tolon, in:
Gülsün Karamustafa, Making of the Wall, 2003
Natürlich sollte man annehmen, dass die Situation heute anders zu lesen wäre: Nicht der Coup, nicht das Militär hat die Macht an sich gerissen, sondern die demokratische Nation hat gesiegt, an der Spitze der gewählte Präsident. Ist es also unangebracht, Parallelen zu früheren Zeiten zu ziehen? Selin Sayek-Böke, die Sprecherin der CHP (Republikanische Volkspartei, z. Zt. größte Oppositionspartei in der Türkei) wird, wie folgt, in der Süddeutschen Zeitung zitiert:
Es finden große Säuberungen statt […] Wer auch immer als Linker oder Kemalist gilt, wird verfolgt. Sie machen genau das, was die Putschisten 1980 machten. Die Regierung sieht es als ihre Aufgabe, alle zu beseitigen, die Ideen produzieren oder in der Wissenschaft tätig sind.
Der Stadtforscher Orhan Esen offeriert eine anders gelagerte Analyse der Vorgänge. Seiner Ansicht nach traut Präsident Erdoğan der AK Partei nicht mehr ganz, sondern sucht Unterstützung bei allen national-orientierten Kräften, auch den Kemalisten. Als eine Konsequenz aus den Vorgängen hätten auch die Militärs – jene, die nicht dem Putsch folgten – insgesamt wieder viel stärkeren Einfluss als noch in den letzten Jahren. Esen, der aber auch immer betont, dass dem Präsidenten in der Türkei, ähnlich wie in Deutschland, soviel Macht gar nicht zukomme, meint:
Das macht Erdoan eher schwächer als vorher (im Gegensatz zur Meinung auch vieler deutscher Medien). Klar versucht er – und vor allem die Staatskemalisten – bei Gelegenheit – zumal Sonderrechtsregelungen aktiv sind – maximales Kapital aus der Situation zu schlagen und möglichst viele Kurden und nicht-nationale Linke kaputt zu machen. Darin sind die beiden, Erdoan (aus taktischen Gründen) und Staatskemalisten (aus Überzeugung) ziemlich einig.
Email an den Autor
Other voices suggest, that especially the German news sources are writing in a paranoid style, if not anti-Turkish. After all:
A majority in Turkey elected the president who is in place right now. And quite some friends underline, that the coup might have been successful, were it not for the aura of the president and his appearance via cellphone-call that very night. And: a majority in Turkey sees the country’s future no longer in the European Union, but that is another story…or isn’t it? Özge Acıkkol tries to describe the artist’s situation within a bigger picture of recent political and urban changes:
I’m interested in how the production of the artist is changing according to the latest situations and if it ever changes…it seems like everything goes like normal and not much people can react since there is a big oppression now… But also everything is related to each other, how the city has changed in the recent years. For example in stiklal street (or Beyolu in general), where all the cultural life takes place, many institutions are moving or are closing, cinemas, bookshops close, under the threat of urban transformation…So it looks like there is a big threat for the cultural production in general, when you also loose the space…
Das Bild der politischen Situation wird eventuell nur langsam klarer, aber ein Eindruck entsteht: Die Türkei ist ein demokratisches Land, doch dass die Entwicklung produktiv fortgesetzt wird, hängt auch von der Teilnahme Europas und der Welt ab. Istanbul ist nur einen Flug, eine E-mail, einen Facebook-Eintrag weit entfernt.
To paraphrase Orhan Esen, from a lecture in Bucharest:
Do not lose confidence into the democratic capacities of a politically activesociety and stay supportive. Visit, discuss, interact. Stay in solidarity.
Florian Zeyfang is a Berlin based artist, filmmaker, and writer. He is a regular contributor for Starship since 1998.
