FEATURE-Best-selling Turkish author too hot for some
By Selcuk Gokoluk
ANKARA, Oct 8 (Reuters) – His books have sold more copies than almost
any other author in Europe this year and are hotly debated by
housewives and intellectuals alike, but newspapers are reluctant to
publish his work.
Meet Ahmet Altan, whose latest collection of essays entitled “A Place
Inside Us” has proved an unlikely hit with Turkish readers, selling
nearly a million copies since May.
In a country where serious literature has traditionally been confined
to the elite, Altan’s book, priced at just $2, is on sale even in some
hairdressers’ salons and village grocery stores.
Muslim clerics have read out extracts from the book during Friday
prayers.
Only four other books have sold more than a million copies in Europe
in the past five years, Altan’s publisher says, and they include such
world-famous titles as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
“A Place Inside Us” is a lyrical meditation on human emotions such as
longing, loneliness and jealousy.
Altan’s six previous novels also focus on the complexity of human
feelings, often against the lavish historical backdrop of the Ottoman
Turkish Empire.
But Altan is as well-known in Turkey for his radical politics as for
his literary talent, and that is what has made him such a
controversial figure in this half-Western, half-Oriental country which
wants to join the European Union.
He sparked outrage in Turkey a few years ago with a newspaper column
where he invoked a fictional land called “Kurdey” — a pun on the
words “Turkey” and “Kurds” — where minority Turks suffer
discrimination from the majority Kurds.
In an ironic reversal of roles that poked criticism at official policy
in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country, he described how
Kurdish troops suppress all emblems of Turkish cultural identity, burn
down Turkish peasants’ houses and battle Turkish rebel guerrillas.
“What would you do if you lived in such a country?” Altan asked his
readers.
MANY ENEMIES
That was too much for Turkey’s nationalist establishment to stomach. A
court, invoking the country’s tough security laws, handed down a
suspended jail sentence of one and a half years.
Since then, the former journalist has not been able to air his views
in the newspapers.
His harsh criticism of Turkish lawyers, journalists and historians
have compounded his unpopularity in some circles.
Altan has said Turkey is a country “founded on lies” because it is too
frightened to look honestly at its own past, for example its treatment
of ethnic minorities.
Speaking to Reuters at his home in Istanbul, Altan said: “They did
things better in Ottoman times. The culture was more tolerant, more
inclusive. We had an Armenian foreign minister, Jewish army officers
— quite unthinkable today.”
“Istanbul also had famous homosexuals accepted by society,” he
said. Modern Istanbul has a lively gay subculture but few Turkish
homosexuals in public life have come out of the closet.
Altan was scathing about literary critics he said refused to accept
that quality literature could be widely read.
“Popularity and quality are not mutually exclusive. Look at the great
novelists of the 19th century like (Honore de) Balzac and (Charles)
Dickens. Ordinary people snatched up their books,” said Altan, who
added his own favourite author was Leo Tolstoy.
“A good book does not respect social divisions. It is read by
everyone, from cleaning ladies to professors,” he said.
Some Turks believe Altan’s success shows the country is moving closer
to Europe culturally as well as politically.
Ahmet Sever, who heads a government campaign to promote Turkey’s image
in the EU, said the soaring sales of Altan’s books showed the country
could compete with the rest of Europe in the literary stakes.
“We talk of the official Copenhagen criteria for joining the EU,” he
said, referring to standards on human rights and political freedoms
Turkey must meet before starting entry talks.
“But there are also unofficial criteria such as the habit of reading
books which are an important indicator (of a country’s European
credentials),” he said.
10/07/04 21:06 ET