Interview with the Turkish writer and activist who emigrated to Germany: “There have been many Russians who have shown that they do not want the conflict and we have left them alone
“There have been many Russians who have shown that they do not want war and we have left them alone.” She is not tender with the West Ece Temelkuran, a Turkish journalist and writer who emigrated to Germany in 2016 after being fired from the newspaper Haberturk for his articles too critical of the government. “Europe and the United States are using this crisis to take revenge on Putin and create anti-Russian sentiment,” he argues. But what heartens the activist is the reaction to the conflict that has been seen in Europe: “We have been able to accept fear by making it part of our life. Instead of closing in on ourselves, we welcomed refugees. This shows that humanity is not as selfish as they want us to believe ».
The war in Ukraine is getting worse by the day, the images of the Bucha massacres are before our eyes. What do you think?
“I’m in Hamburg, the whole city is painted in yellow and blue, I think it happens to you too, everyone wants to say that they are on the side of Ukraine but then it seems to me an empty only symbolic thing, the Western powers, especially the United States , they have inflamed Ukraine but now they leave it alone to face Putin. This is the thing that bothers me most if the intentions of Europe and the US were sincere today they would make concrete gestures such as canceling the Ukrainian debt instead they use this crisis to take revenge on Putin, confiscate assets from the oligarchs and, even more importantly, from mine point of view, is that they are creating anti-Russian sentiment. Today I heard that a German university has decided to throw out both researchers and students. All this is associated with all the other things we have read such as ending the course on Tchaikovsky or the Vienna orchestra that has closed the contract with the Russian conductor ».
Are they even creating it?
“Yes, the attempt is to create a vacuum around Putin, to leave him alone, but that doesn’t work. I think Europeans don’t understand how authoritarian regimes work. They think the Russians can change the course of history but they don’t want to. It doesn’t work like that, there is extreme pressure on the Russians and many of them have shown that they do not want war. They were very brave, they took risks and ended up in prison. I don’t understand why Europe is compromising those Russians. It’s not right. Europe leaves the Ukrainians alone but also the Russians. And it’s not just the states but the people too. People think they have to distance themselves from the Russians. But we cannot say that Russia and her dictator are the same thing. I have the same problem in Turkey. Erdogan’s politics are so dysfunctional that we can’t even speak because the repression is triggered. This discrimination against the Russians is a dangerous thing, even in the universities, we could get to not control it ».
She is a journalist and this is also an information war. The Russians are trying to build a different narrative about the conflict and some people believe it. What can we do?
“This is a million dollar question, first of all I think the democratization of information, as they called it, has become something else. Here everyone takes and writes what they think on social media. There is no regulation to respect. In this way it is impossible to fight fake news. It is thought that this phenomenon can be combated with fact checking but it is not: this is a political and moral problem. Among other things, journalists are underpaid and always in the crosshairs. We are an endangered, endangered species. This is a good time to discuss an editorial policy. I’m not talking about avoiding violent content or putting a filter but about real editorial control. In the twentieth century, it was there for a reason. Truth is truth, facts are facts. I think the money that Facebook, Twitter and other social networks make should be invested in hiring editors who can tell the true from the false, the good from the bad. Otherwise everything becomes a matter of debate: whether the world is round or flat. Today, if you have the money to set up a troll factory, you can spread your false truth. And there are also those who will believe you ».
There has been a lot of discussion about the sending of weapons to Ukraine by Europe and the United States, what do you think?
«NATO and Putin should sit around a table and talk. Zelensky has already said that Ukraine can be neutral. Send weapons? I find it difficult both from a moral and political point of view to talk about this. I would like to think about how we can stop the war and how we can continue it. This is the right time to talk. But NATO must be at the table because it is a clash between two poles, in fact it is no coincidence that we are talking about the third world war. The clash is not only on Ukraine, it is on something else ».
In his book «Trust and dignity. Ten urgent choices for a better present »she says you shouldn’t be afraid of being afraid. Certainly we have never been more afraid than in this moment. Before the pandemic, time of the third world war. How should we react?
“The subtitle of the book is to become friends with fear. Which means that fear must not be erased. The moments when we are afraid are precious moments because it is then that we become in solidarity with others. In fact, this is what is happening today with the invasion of Ukraine. I wish we had done the same for Syria but that’s another story. We were not afraid, on the contrary, we opened the doors and welcomed the refugees. A lot of people in Germany are hosting Ukrainians, I think it happens to you too. This is the only way to befriend fear. Make it part of our life. It was nice to see this response. It is not true that humanity is selfish, competitive, greedy, as they want us to believe. I think seeing this reality can build trust. Is human being bad? I would say no and this could also be reflected in politics ».
Ukrainians are fighting with all their strength for their country. How do you judge this reaction?
“They are reacting to the situation together in order to fight the fear.”
Erdogan is putting himself at the center of the negotiations and seems convinced that he will be able to bring about a meeting between Putin and Zelensky. Could Turkey be the trump card for resolving the conflict?
«Erdogan seems to me that he has the Tito complex which managed to remain in balance between east and west thanks to his charisma. But clearly it is impossible. Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no international crisis in which Turkey is not involved and this is infuriating for the population struggling with the economic crisis. Here people are exhausted, even the middle class, there are those who are starving. Erdogan therefore cannot play the world leader when he cannot even control the prices of food in his own country. However, when it comes to Erdogan, Putin and similar leaders, one never really knows where they are headed. Journalism doesn’t work in these cases. They are unpredictable. They do not give information ».
You left Turkey in 2016 and wrote a book entitled «How to break up a country in seven steps. The way that leads from populism to dictatorship ». Do you think this is a war between two worlds? On the one hand, who believes in democracy and free thought, on the other dictatorships?
“I think your democracies are not in a good state. What happened in Turkey ten years ago is happening with you. In 2016 I was in London and at a conference I said that Boris Johnson would become the British Prime Minister and that they would have a dark time, at the time they laughed but then it happened. You Westerners think that it cannot happen to you, that you have some kind of exceptionality. I see this feeling in Germany, in the United States, that democracy is untouchable. Instead democratic institutions are collapsing, capitalism is collapsing, the truth is that where there is no social justice there is no democracy. Social justice has been cracked since the 1960s so if you can’t restore social justice there is no hope for democracy and it doesn’t matter how old your parliament is like in Britain or how strong your economy is like in the states. United. This is how it all began in Turkey. The right and authoritarian leaders have relied precisely on the lack of social justice. This is the weak link of democracy. It is a pity that the West’s exceptional nature prevents its population from seeing these facts. This happened in Turkey, Pakistan, India because democratic institutions were not powerful enough to resist populism. But don’t think we haven’t tried to do it. ‘
April 16, 2022 (change April 16, 2022 | 00:30)
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