Ibo, حریم سلطان, Ahmet Kaya and کوزی گونی: Turkey's soft-power in Iran

As you may know I'm currently living in a dormitory in Velenjak, an upper-class district in Tehran's fancy North. There is always a cool wind coming from the impressive Alborz mountains, which are basically right in front of my balcony. I'm sure you can imagine how beautiful the view from my balcony is. :)
Across the street there are several nice restaurants that serve traditional Iranian food (ghazaha-ye sanati). You can get some really good Kebab down there. The food is a bit more expensive but believe me, it's worth to pay more. In the evenings these restaurants become really full and you can hear music and laughter coming from there. In the weekends these places are getting even more crowded and the already busy "Boulevard-e Daneshjoo" (Students Boulevard) turns into a highway where young Iranians driving up the hill to "Bam-e Tehran", a very nice viewpoint at the foot of Mt. Tochal.

A couple of days ago, I was sitting on my balcony enjoying the beautiful sunset. Suddenly I heard some very familiar vibes:

"Mavi Mavi masmaviiiii,
Gözleri boncuk mavi
Bir gördüm aşık oldum
Şu gelen kimin yariii..."

It was a very famous song of Ibrahim Tatlıses, better known as "Ibo", one of Turkey's most popular pop-folk singers. Down there someone was listening to Ibo. And apparently he liked it very much because you could hear this catchy tune literally everywhere.
I was amazed. I went out on my balcony hoping to figure out where exactly the music was coming from. I was standing there for several minutes, listening to a song I hadn't listened to in years and smiling all over my face. "What a strange feeling, I'm listening to Turkish pop-folk in Velenjak" I said to myself. :)

On another occasion I was waiting with two friends for my Bus to Mt. Damawand. It was a hot day and I went into a small shop (Baghalli) to buy some water. Once again a noticed a very familiar melody. This time however it was not Ibo but Ahmet Kaya, also a highly popular singer in Turkey who died in 2000. I have to admit that I'm a big fan of Ahmet Kaya. I know his songs very well and recognized the song immediately. It was "Şafak Türküsü", one of his best songs. A guy was sitting in the corner, listening to this very melancholic song. I went there and told him in Turkish that he has a good taste. He looked at me and said "Chiiii?" (What???). Caught by surprise I switched to my terrible Farsi whereupon another guy said that the guy who was listening to Ahmet Kaya is a Kurd and does not speak any Turkish. He begged me to translate the lyrics, an impossible task for me regarding my poor Farsi skills. :(
I wished him a good day and went to my bus realizing once again how popular Turkey is in Iran.

I knew before that Turkish pop-culture was very popular in here. Not only music but also TV shows like "Hurrem Sultan" (better known in Turkey as Muhteşem Yüzyıl), "Kuzey-Güney" or "Lale Devri". These television dramas are very popular in Turkey and in recent years they, and also many other TV shows, have become Turkey's export hit. There is a huge demand for these TV formats in the Middle East. Sometimes they are subtitled, sometimes synchronized, but in Iran people are usually watching them via satellite TV in original language.

If you know Iran, you will also know that there is a huge Azeri minority. Cities like Tabriz, Urmia, Ardabil or Qazvin, mainly located in Iran's North-West, are also known as Azeri cities. It is not surprising that Azeris have an affection for Turkey. But it is not limited to them.
You can find a lot of ethnic Persians able to speak Turkish properly (unfortunately in Turkey this is not the case). They learn it through daily interaction with their Azeri friends, colleagues or neighbors, through satellite TV but also through visiting Turkey intensively. Iranians do not need a Visa for Turkey. According to a report prepared by the Turkish Statistical Institute, almost 1.2 million Iranians visited Turkey in 2012 (Alltogether 31 790 000 Tourists visited Turkey in 2012). In other words, Iranians are among the top ten nations visiting Turkey.

As you can see there is a huge interest for Turkey in Iran. Whenever I speak to Iranians and tell them that I'm of Turkish origin they show me so much love and respect. Turkey is popular here and I think Turkey should use its soft-power in Iran to strengthen relations with its neighbor. The last thing Turkey's government would have to fear concerning a more constructive approach, is public resistance in Iran.

Impressions from Tehran: Interesting 15 minutes at Vanaq Sqare

It has been a week since I arrived in Tehran and it took me a while to get used to the daily chaos. Little by little I get acclimatized to this beautiful city. That's partly based on the fact that I'm pretty busy with my studies at Dekhoda Institute and many other things. Originally I wanted to post an article on Turkish-Iranian relations on which I was working last week. But after today I thought it would be better to write a very short blog entry about my 15 minutes at a bus station near Vanaq Sq.

I was about to meet a very good friend of mine who is living in Pasdaran (district in North-Tehran). We agreed upon meeting around 6.30 PM. That's basically rush-our in Tehran and so I said that I would take the bus from Velenjak (another district in North-Tehran) to Vanaq Sq where we wanted to go to a cafe.

Anyways, I arrived there around 6, took a seat at the bus station and started reading my tremendous book (Jenny White: Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks). The bus station was very crowded. Men and women were waiting in separate rows for the buses. Everything looked very organized and rehearsed. Young fashionable girls, business men, hipsters etc. patiently waiting for their turn. Some girls sat next to me and suddenly I was surrounded by women, so that I became concerned whether I was sitting at the women's area of the bus station. But nobody seemed to be disturbed by my appearance and so I kept on reading my book. After I while I took out my note-book to write down some interesting parts that I've read. A girl in a red "manto" was sitting on my right. I noticed she was spiking in my note-book. Suddenly she said: "You are not Iranian?". "No" I replied, "I'm from Germany.""Ahan, I knew it" she said.

I was surprised by that answer. Normally people here think I'm Iranian because apparently I look pretty much like an ordinary Iranian guy. However, according to Azadeh (the girls name) I wasn't dressed like an average Iranian man and I was reading a book which is (unfortunately) not a very common thing for men in Iran (I was wearing sun-glasses, a white T-shirt with the Union Jack on it and grey jeans).
Anyways, Azadeh is a 20 years old student of electrical engineering at an University in Tehran. Her English was not great but also not too bad which is often the case with young Iranians (my personal experience). She was very curious and I had the feeling that she enjoyed speaking to me very much. I had to answer the "usual" questions, like for instance "What are you doing in Iran?", "Why do you want to learn Farsi?", "Do you like Iran?", "What do the people in your country think about Iran?" etc etc.

After I answered her questions I asked her if she ever met a foreigner. She giggled and said no, further admitting that I'm the first foreigner she was talking to. "My brother and my sister are in America and I want to go there too, but my English has to improve", she continued. I asked her whether she likes Iran and if it's the case, why she wants to leave. She claimed that she loves her life in Iran, even if it's hard sometimes but in the US she would have a greater chance for success and "isn't success what makes life worth living?" she asked me in return. Once again caught by surprise I said "Sure, together with other things."

I think Azadeh is not an exception in Iran. Young, beautiful and self-confident despite all the difficulties she has to face in her daily life. She was very convincing and I had the feeling that she is truly happy. I hope she will achieve her aims and become even more happy. Good luck Azadeh...

Erdogan vs. #occupygezi

A lot of stuff has been written on #occupygezi and Erdogan's reaction on this peaceful movement. Well now there is some more stuff. This time authored by me. The article you hopefully will read with joy is a shortened version of the article I wrote for Mehr News Agency. 

I tried to show the problem in a different light. #occupygezi for me is a generational conflict. While Erdogan is still fighting his old battles, these youngsters at Gezi Park just want to be heard and much more important, they want to be free. Anyways, take your time and read the article. I hope you like it and don't hesitate with criticism or praise:

The recent protests began with a sit-in in the famous Gezi Park. The government was eager to tear down the park in order to rebuild the Ottoman Artillery Barracks, which would serve as a shopping mall. The protesters wanted to preserve the park. While the government and in this case especially prime minister Erdogan, was propagating this huge building project as yet another attempt to make Istanbul even more attractive, critics argued that it is rather the repetition of the past together with a neo-liberal agenda. The initial protests started at 28^th May. The protesting group was pretty small. Around 50 environmentalists gathered at Gezi Park. Moreover there was a really peaceful atmosphere. People were doing Yoga-sessions and reading poems for instance. The situation changed dramatically when the riot police suddenly attacked the protesters with Water canons and tear-gassed them early in the morning of May 31^st. The excessive use of violence against the peaceful protesters outraged people from all segments of the Turkish society. What started as a small protest developed into heavily violent riots and later into nation-wide anti-government protests. Until today three people died, thousands of people got seriously injured, six protesters lost their eyes and over 900 were arrested. Despite the excessive force the police used the protests steadily grew and spread to other cities.

Meanwhile Erdogan did not show any sympathy for the protesters. He argued that this would be a staged protest movement with the primary goal of overthrowing his democratically elected government. Most of the protesters were puzzled after these statements of Erdogan but at the same time became encouraged to teach him a lesson. They agree with him in the point that “it is not just about some trees”. Well, it is far more than that. It is about the growing authoritarian nature of Erdogan. It is about democracy. It is about being heard by the government. It is about being tolerated by the government, even if one has a different lifestyle than the one propagated by the government. It is about the systematic marginalization of religious minorities, like the Alevis or Christians. It is about press freedom. It is about respect for the principles people believe in. It is about Reyhanli and Turkey’s Syria policy and much more.

The protests are not anymore about the Gezi Park and the trees only. Many protesters feel intimidated by their prime minister. The Economist portrayed Erdogan as a medieval Ottoman Sultan in its last issue. Of course this was an exaggerated image, but many Turks believe that their Prime Minister became more and more authoritarian and arrogant in recent years. He does not accept any criticism, neither in the political arena nor from the civil society or the press. Although 50 per cent of Turkish population did not vote for the AK Party, Erdogan rules like he had won 100 per cent of the votes and could govern without taking other opinions and needs into consideration. This type of “majoritarian authoritarianism” is the most significant grievance of the protesters.

Another significant point mentioned by many protesters is police brutality. This was basically the trigger that escalated the peaceful protests and led to nationwide riots and anti-government protests. It is not the first time that the Turkish police approach that way. In recent years it has become a modus operandi. Similar scenes have happened several times in the past, for instance at May Day marches, before and after football matches and other protests criticising the political or social situation in Turkey. People are used to get tear-gassed by the police, which have become clearly an effective tool of dispersing peaceful demonstrations.

Yet another major grievance is about the Turkish press. Most of the TV stations and newspapers can be categorized as “pro-governmental”— may it be for ideological reasons or may it be since ongoing trials against critical journalists initiated by the AK Party intimidate them to speak out. This became very obvious in the very first days of the protests. There was basically no news coverage about the violent riots occurring around Taksim Square and other cities of Turkey. For instance, while CNN International was broadcasting live from Taksim Square, its Turkish sister channel CNN Türk was showing a documentary about arctic Penguins. One of the few Turkish TV stations broadcasting live footage from Istanbul and Ankara was Halk TV. Therefore, social media were crucial in spreading information about the events, but they were also used to organize the protest among the participants. Twitter for instance transmitted eyewitness accounts, pictures and videos that did not find their way into Turkish TV stations or newspapers.

Erdogan has not shown any sign of making concessions so far. The contrary is the case. He dismissed and insulted the protesters by calling them “çapulcu” which means plunderer or vagabond in Turkish. The protesters embraced this word and it became a running gag among them. As the evil brain behind the Gezi protests Erdogan blamed the now major opposition party CHP together with foreign powers (he didn’t mention a country though) and the so-called “high-interest-rates lobby” (nobody really knows what he means with this). He showed a complete and concerning lack of insight with the protests and threatened the protesters repeatedly by saying things like “there are 50 per cent and we can barely keep them at home”, or that his patience is not endless and if the protests do not stop immediately “I will talk to you in the language you understand.”

However, the protesters at Gezi Park and those in other major cities of Turkey seem widely unimpressed by their prime minister’s obstinacy. They know that they are not just a “bunch of plunderers and vagabonds.” Erdogan’s stereotypes do not apply to them. These protests are very different and its major advantage is that its participants are highly heterogeneous. People of all segments of Turkish society are taking part in it. It is astonishing to see how such contrary groups like for instance pious Muslims and rather secular Socialists are getting along. Even the flags of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK organization that fought until recently for Kurdish separatism, and the flags of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who stands for Turkish nationalism and the indivisible integrity of the Turkish nation, can be seen side by side at Gezi Park. Another example are the supporters of Istanbul’s three major football clubs Besiktas, Fenerbahce and Galatasaray that unified and joined the protests—regardless the well-known enmity among each other.

The heterogeneity of the groups protesting at Gezi Park makes it impossible for Erdogan and his government to stigmatize them. These groups have not had anything in common, until the police raided Gezi Park. It was the trigger and suddenly contrary parts of the already highly polarized Turkish society welded together through their common frustration with the government. It is not a Kemalist-motivated movement, nor a communist or extremist backed uprising. No, not at all. It is simply the onset of a civil awakening and the possible formation of a viable opposition to Erdogan’s undisputed rule. For now it is only a non-parliamentary opposition, comparable to 1968 movement in several European countries. Currently there is no political party that could canalize the demands of this unsatisfied group on a parliamentary level. The Gezi Park movement is a melting pot of different and partly contrary interests. The majority of the protesters are very young. According to a recent survey conducted by two social scientists of Bilgi University Istanbul, 39 per cent of the protesters are between 19-25 years old and 14 per cent are between 26-30 years old. 80 per cent of the protesters called themselves secular. 70 per cent did not feel close to any political party though. To make a long story short, the protesters are very young and without a clear political line. This generation developed its political awareness and sensitivity when Erdogan was already in power. They did not experience the tumultuous 1980s and 1990s. They do not care about Erdogan’s earlier achievements as mayor of Istanbul or as prime minister of Turkey. They want to be heard by their government. They also want the government to stop barging in their lives. However, their heterogeneity becomes a disadvantage when it comes to the articulation of political interests and parliamentary representation. For now it does not seem realistic to call the Gezi Park protests a thread to Erdogan’s political power. The chances that his AK Party will win the next elections are high. However it is also possible that a political party will emerge out of this jumble of young, modern, educated and unsatisfied people. They will not tolerate any longer authoritarianism and patriarchal or paternalistic policies by their prime minister. This is clearly a clash of generations and Erdogan has not understood the core of the issue yet. He keeps on characterizing these youngsters to his political archenemy, the Kemalists. Pro-governmental newspapers picked up this false accusation and compared the Gezi Park protests to the so-called “Republic protests”, which occurred in 2007 and were initiated by the Kemalist Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Republican Party) and the military in order to present Erdogan’s AK Party as anti-republican and a threat to the country’s secular order. Several pro-governmental journalists scrutinized the protesters by asking “where they have been in 1997”, when the democratically elected government of Erbakan was illegally forced out of office by the military. However, the protesters answered this ridiculous accusation in a typical humoristic manner, by referring to their age and arguing that “they were wetting their pants as they were babies back then.” Erdogan however is stuck in his past. He is regarding #occupygezi as a Kemalist-backed conspiracy that aims to force him out of office like it happened to his political mentor Erbakan in 1997. However, #occupygezi is not about modernists vs. conservatives. It is about being heard and treated as an equal part of the society.

It is up to Erdogan if these protests become a serious threat for his rule or not. For now the people are demanding to be heard. If the Prime Minister does not show serious constructive attempts to solve the problem peacefully, the protesters will get more support. Recently Erdogan showed the willingness to meet with representatives of the protesters. The fact that some of these representatives had been chosen by the government and were not related to the Gezi protests in any kind, were disillusioning to the majority of the protesters.

However, it is wrong to speak of a “Turkish Spring”, following the “Arab Spring”. Turkey is still a democracy. Erdogan has been elected and his destiny will be decided at the ballot box. However, the Prime Minister’s stubborn behaviour cost Turkey credibility in the world. Once Erdogan’s “Islamic-Democracy” was propagated as a role model for post-revolutionary Arab States. After 14 days of protests against the government the “Turkish model” has lost its attraction and confirmed critics that also AK Party has not worked out yet how to govern a pluralistic society. Moreover Turks realized that they still have to quest hard for a deeper and just democracy.