FILM CONTROVERSY: TURKEY SHOCKED BY CHAIN SMOKING, RAKI-SWILLING ATATURK
By Daniel Steinvorth in Istanbul
Der Spiegel Online
Nov 14 2008
Germany
Kemal Ataturk: a drunkard and bon vivant? To mark the 70th anniversary
of the death of the founder of modern Turkey, a film reveals some
of the more profane traits of the national hero — enraging devout
Kemalists and sparking suspicion of an conspiracy plot from abroad.
The film "Mustafa" depicts the inner life of a lonely chain smoker and
a national hero — and it has unleashed a furore in Turkey. Every day
the protagonist smokes three packs of cigarettes, drinks one bottle
of Raki and endless cups of Turkish coffee. He is an utter melancholic
but he wins a war, creates a republic and revolutionizes a society.
In Turkey, it is unprecedented for anyone to get so near to Ataturk’s
real life. After all, this is the man whose portrait adorns banknotes
and the walls of homes, who schoolchildren swear allegiance to
every morning and whose image is before their eyes as they doze off
at night. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. To love and fear him is the most
important civic duty for Turks.
Well-known filmmaker Can Dundar is breaking new ground and taboos
by showing the dark side of the nation’s father figure, even though
it is laced with admiration — and all this on the 70th anniversary
of Ataturk’s death. "Mustafa" has already attracted more than a
half-million people. "After this film you won’t look at an Ataturk
statue the same way as before," enthused one viewer.
Foreign Conspiracy
But for devout Kemalists, the film is a declaration of war. Voices like
Deniz Baykal, who heads the opposition party CHP or Israfil Kumbasar,
a columnist at the ultranationalistist daily Yeni Cag, are calling
for a boycott. Critics accuse filmmaker Dundar of trivializing the
legacy of Ataturk. They see it as an impossibility to portray the
"Father of the Turks" as a drunkard and a man about town.
A particularly strong line has been taken by the diehard Ataturk
supporters at the powerful Kemalist Thought Association, which sees
the film as a front for a foreign conspiracy which aims to weaken the
Turkish nation. "The collaborators of imperialism, the supporters of
the Sharia and those pretending to be Republicans have been trying to
demean Ataturk and destroy his revolution for years. But they will
not succeed," it wrote in a statement from the organization’s head
office in Ankara to the local chapters.
Dundar’s adversaries remain unconvinced by assurances that affection
for Ataturk motivated him to make the film. For 15 years he scoured
the archives to portray Mustafa simply "as a private person," he
said. "The statues, busts and flags have all created a portrait of
a leader without human qualities."
But the director is walking on thin ice: the personality cult
is not only supported by the elite. It is also written into the
constitution, which refers to Ataturk as the "immortal leader and
unrivaled hero." Meanwhile, Paragraph 5816 is the "law concerning
crimes committed against Ataturk."
Often, even the slightest departure from the public heroization
of Ataturk is considered taboo. But to question the "historical
achievements" of the man who founded modern Turkey is practically
heresy. And there, the film remains silent.
Strong Words from Defense Minister
On Monday, Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul showed that the
seven-decade anniversary can also be celebrated in another way — one
perhaps more to the liking of the Kemalist Thought Association. At a
ceremony at the Turkish embassy in Brussels, he gave a lecture on the
difficult formation of the Turkish State and the expulsion of Greeks
and Armenians, a fact which Gonul described as a "very important
step." At the end of the day, he said, modern Turkey would not be as
we know it, "if Greeks still lived on the Aegean and Armenians still
lived in different parts of Turkey today."
In other words: the historical expulsion, deportation and extermination
of the two population groups, as the thinking goes, are to be welcomed.
Between 1.5 and 2 million Anatolian Greeks were forced to leave their
home in the process of the population changes. In return, half a
million Greek Muslims came to Turkey. In 1955 another 100,000 Greeks
left their home city of Istanbul following anti-Greek pogroms in a
chapter of Turkish history which the once multicultural metropolis
prefers to keep quiet about.
Later in the week, Gonul would correct himself, saying that Turkish
minority groups, like the Armenians and the Greeks, enrich the country.
Still, Turkey’s official writing of history reveals a deep reluctance
to tackle the "disappearance" of the Armenians. While Armenian sources
say 1.5 million Armenians died in massacres and death marches during
World War I, Turkey speaks of deaths on both sides, claiming there
were 300,000 Armenian victims at the very most.
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Turkish politics professor Baskin Oran was well aware how strong
Gonul’s words sound beyond Turkish borders. "Because the Armenians
and Greeks from Anatolia were sent away, industrialization was been
delayed by at least 50 years," he said.
His colleague Dogu Ergil went a step further: "If the population of the
Ottoman Empire had come to terms with its multiculturalism and many
ethnicities, we would have long been part of the European Union. To
govern such pluralism, a pluralistic democracy would have emerged."