Dear all,

This is simply unacceptable. It might also be a sign of things to come.

Around 2007, Turkey suffered an ultranationalist uprising. At the pinnacle
of this movement, academics in the US and the West were harassed by e-mail
messages similar in tone and content ("humiliating Turkey," etc.) to the
one forwarded by Ayfer Karakaya-Stump. Ultra-nationalists blamed academics

with denigrating the image of Turkey, on blogs and any other venue they
could use. Other kinds of threats also proliferated. High-profile
academics were threatened with death. Nobody was killed outside Turkey,
but as you might know, ultranationalists assassinated an Armenian
intellectual in Istanbul.

The ultranationalist uprising was put down through police and court
action. However, from very early on, pro-government media, as well as
politicians and others, have persistently associated many unrelated
opposition figures with Ergenekon, the loose network that orchestrated the
uprising. This has led to a political and intellectual environment where
it is hard to tell innocent from guilty, sympathizer of ultranationalism
from its active militant, and leader from follower. It is difficult to
tell, at this point, whether the two journalists recently arrested are
affiliated with Ergenekon. One of them has actually written consistently
against nationalism (and the gangs who tortured, assassinated or attempted
to assassinate intellectuals, activists, and other citizens).

More interestingly, the conservative elements in the broad
ultranationalist coalition have not been implicated, either in public
discourse or in the actual court cases. Many elements from the Great Unity
Party and other conservative forces were a part of this coalition, but
only a few of their members were put on trial. And these specific
trials aren't going anywhere. One speculation is that the new regime in
Turkey is willing to use these elements in future operations and that is
why they are not touched.

Actually, we are not (yet) at the point where the new regime will resort
to such drastic measures. It is quite stable now, it doesn¹t need such
moves. However, the appropriation of old regime techniques and language by
people who call themselves democrats is quite disturbing. Some of the
actos who felt they owned Turkey and had the right to harass anybody who
said critical things about their side are now in prison; and the people
who replaced them apparently inherited their feelings of being the sole
representatives of Turkey (so, criticizing their side is the same with
humiliating Turkey).

This is not an isolated event: just like the email messages of 3-4 years
ago, it fits with the overall threatening and paranoia-generating
environment. I hope we will see a condemnation by the moderators of this
list.

Sincerely,
Cihan Tugal
Associate Professor
Sociology
UC Berkeley