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COMING TO TERMS WITH THE PAST: REWRITING HISTORY THROUGH A THERAPEUTIC PUBLIC DISCOURSE IN TURKEY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2015
Abstract
This article examines the growing interest in questions of memory, trauma, and justice in Turkey, with a special focus on the notion of “coming to terms with the past.” Through an analysis of key academic and popular texts published between 2002 and 2013, it argues that “coming to terms with the past” is a therapeutic public discourse that rewrites national history through the temporality of trauma. In other words, this discourse reconfigures the sequence of past, present, and future as the beginning, development, and end of a case of collective trauma, applying the psychotherapeutic terminology of victimhood, healing, and forgiveness to social realities. The article offers new perspective on existing debates over “coming to terms with the past” by analyzing the limits of this therapeutic discourse and by exploring the potential and open-endedness of the politics of memory in Turkey.
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NOTES
Author's note: Earlier versions of this article were presented in Toronto, Istanbul, Ankara, and Washington, D.C. in 2013–14. I am greatly indebted to all of those who helped me think through these issues. I especially thank Sedef Arat-Koç, Kathy Bischoping, Erkan Ercel, Yasin Kaya, and Michael Nijhawan for their insights, suggestions, and support. Thanks are also due to the anonymous IJMES reviewers for their valuable comments and insights.
1 Kadıoğlu, Ayşe, “Denationalization of Citizenship? The Turkish Experience,” Citizenship Studies 11 (2007): 283–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sancar, Mithat, Geçmişle Hesaplaşma: Unutma Kültüründen Hatırlama Kültürüne (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2007)Google Scholar; Ümit Kurt, “Hafaza-I Beşer Nisyanla Malûl Mü?,” Birikim, 22 February 2009, accessed 1 January 2013, http://www.birikimdergisi.com/birikim/makale.aspx?mid=526&makale=Hafazai%20Be%FEer%20Nisyanla%20Mal%FBl%20m%FC?; Söyler, Mehtap, “Memory, Collective Trauma and Coming to Terms with the Past: A Post-Kemalist Treatise on Social Peace in Turkey,” in Concerning Peace: New Perspectives on Utopia, ed. Gregor, Kai and Spetschinsky, Sergueï (New Castle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), 167–87Google Scholar; Gellman, Mneesha, “Remembering Violence: The Role of Apology and Dialogue in Turkey's Democratization Process,” Democratization 20 (2012): 771–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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4 Nonetheless, despite its popularity, “coming to terms with the past” is not the one and only prevailing discourse on the past. On the contrary, it is strongly contested by competing accounts put forth by Kemalists, ultranationalists, and Islamists. On these accounts, see Özyürek, Esra, The Politics of Public Memory in TurkeyGoogle Scholar; and Çolak, Yılmaz, “Ottomanism vs. Kemalism: Collective Memory and Cultural Pluralism in 1990s Turkey,” Middle Eastern Studies 1 (2006): 587–602CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Mithat Sancar refers to vergangenheitsbewältigung, a term that emerged in post-1945 Germany to describe efforts to remember, reflect on, and confront the horrors of the Holocaust. He translates the term as geçmişle hesaplaşma (coming to terms with the past), mainly because of the latter's reference to judicial, reparative, and retributive processes. Hesaplaşma is usually used interchangeably with yüzleşme, another word meaning “confrontation.” However, there are other possible translations of the term as well. For instance, Ayşe Hür prefers tarihle barışma (making peace with history) due to its “positive tonation.” Similar to Hür, Gaye Boralıoglu translates it as geçmişle barışma (making peace with the past). Sancar's translation is perhaps the most widely accepted and circulated mainly because it seems to encompass these other possible meanings. See Sancar, Geçmişle Hesaplaşma. Hür, Ayşe, “Unutma Kültüründen Hatırlama Kültürüne,” Taraf, 10 May 2008Google Scholar, accessed 1 November 2012, http://www.taraf.com.tr/ayse-hur/makale-unutma-kulturunden-hatirlama-kulturune.htm; and Boralıoğlu, Gaye, “İhtiyacımız Bilgiden Ziyade Bilgeliktir,” Birikim 248 (2009): 37–40Google Scholar.
6 Activism focusing on issues of memory is sometimes called “memory entrepreneurship.” See Jelin, Elizabeth, “Public Memorialization in Perspective: Truth, Justice and Memory of Past Repression in the Southern Cone of South America,” International Journal of Transitional Justice 1 (2007): 138–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Conway, Brian, “New Directions in the Sociology of Collective Memory and Commemoration,” Sociology Compass 4 (2010): 442–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 Kadıoğlu, “Denationalization of Citizenship.” Kadıoğlu mentions two books published in 2004: Anneannem (My Grandmother), a personal history of Fethiye Çetin (Istanbul: Metis Yayınları, 2004), and Sofranız Şen Olsun (May Your Table Be Jolly), a cookbook-memoir written by Takuhi Tovmasyan (Istanbul: Aras Yayıncılık, 2004).
8 For documentaries, see 38 (2006); Diyarbakir Cezaevi No. 5 (Diyarbakir Prison No. 5) (2009); Bir Tutam Saç: Dersimin Kayıp Kızları (Two Locks of Hair: The Missing Girls of Dersim) (2010); Faîlî Dewlet (Official Murders) (2012); and Bukâ Baranê (2013). Examples of feature films are Bulutları Beklerken (Waiting for the Clouds) (2003); Pandora'nin Kutusu (Pandora's Box) (2008); Gelecek Uzun Sürer (The Future Lasts Forever) (2011); and Dengê Bavê Min (My Father's Voice) (2012). The most popular TV series has been Hatırla Sevgili (Remember Darling) (2006). Exhibitions include Sireli Yegpayris (My Dear Brother) (2005); Never Again! Coming to Terms with the Past and Apology (2013); Bearing Witness to the Lost History of an Armenian Family—through the Lens of the Dildilian Brothers (2013); and Mobilizing Memory: Women Witnessing (2014).
9 Examples include but are not limited to: International Conference for Coming to Terms with the Past, organized by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Centre (February 2007); Symposium at Bilgi University (March 2008); The 12th Human Rights Movement Conference: “The Trauma of Truth” (November 2012); Hrant Dink Memorial Workshop 2013: Coming to Terms with War, Genocide, and Political Violence (June 2013); Memory and Culture Symposium by the Turkish Cultural Studies Association (September 2013); and Mobilizing Memory: Women Witnessing Workshop and Exhibit (September 2014).
10 “Özür Diliyorum,” accessed 1 March 2013, http://www.ozurdiliyoruz.com.
11 “Siz Özür Dileyin,” accessed 1 March 2013, http://www.sizozurdileyin.com.
12 Bruinessen, Martin Van, “Genocide in Kurdistan? The Suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in Turkey (1937–38) and the Chemical War against the Iraqi Kurds (1988),” in Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions, ed. Andreopoulos, George J. (Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988), 141–70Google Scholar. Dersim, the current name of which is Tunceli, is a city located in the eastern part of Turkey and populated predominantly by Kurdish Alevis. In 1937–38, troops of the newly formed Turkish Republic killed tens of thousands of civilians under the pretext of controlling the “unruly” population of the region. The operation was part of a broader agenda of homogenizing the nation-state by suppressing and assimilating the Kurdish Alevi population of the region.
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15 Klein, “On the Emergence of Memory in Historical Discourse,” 136.
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17 For more on “the therapeutic turn” in Anglo-American societies in recent decades, see Furedi, Frank, Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age (New York: Routledge, 2004)Google Scholar.
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26 Moon, “Healing Past Violence.”
27 Colvin, “Ambivalent Narrations.”
28 Kantola, “The Therapeutic Imaginary in Memory Work.”
29 Moon, “Healing Past Violence,” 79.
30 Igarashi, Yoshikuni, Bodies of Memory: Narratives of War in Postwar Japanese Culture, 1945–1970 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000), 207Google Scholar.
31 Million, “Trauma, Power, and the Therapeutic,” 169.
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35 Ibid.
36 Hamber and Wilson, “Symbolic Closure through Memory, Reparation and Revenge in Post-Conflict Societies.”
37 Ibid., 36.
38 Moon, “Healing Past Violence,” 82.
39 Torpey, John, Making Whole What Has Been Smashed: On Reparations Politics (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.
40 This concern has resonated among other scholars as well, especially in regard to the limitations of memory discourses and memory politics in a broader sense. See Nora, Pierre, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire,” Representations (1989): 7–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Maier, Charles, “A Surfeit of Memory? Reflections of History, Melancholy and Denial,” History and Memory 5 (1994): 136–52Google Scholar; Misztal, “The Sacralization of Memory”; and Klein, “On the Emergence of Memory in Historical Discourse.”
41 Brown, Wendy, “Wounded Attachments,” in States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), 52–76.Google Scholar
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45 I analyze texts by Ayşe Hür, Ayşe Kadıoğlu, Baskın Oran, Cengiz Çandar, Cem Kaptanoğlu, Elif Akgül, Elif Şafak, Fuat Keyman, Gaye Boralıoğlu, Leyla Neyzi, Markar Esayan, Mehtap Söyler, Meltem Ahıska, Mithat Sancar, Mneesha Gellman, Murat Paker, Nazan Üstündağ, Oya Baydar, Tanıl Bora, Turgut Tarhanlı, and Ümit Kurt. The semiacademic journal Birikim, “a monthly socialist culture journal,” has served as a hub for many of these authors.
46 Kaptanoğlu, Cem, “Yapısal Travmadan Tarihsel Travmaya Türkiye Solu ve Kafka,” Birikim 198 (2005): 71–78Google Scholar; Boralıoğlu, “İhtiyacımız Bilgiden Ziyade Bilgeliktir.”
47 Neyzi, Leyla, “Remembering to Forget: Sabbateanism, National Identity, and Subjectivity in Turkey,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 44 (2002): 137–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kaptanoğlu, Cem, “Travma, Toplumsal Yas ve Bağışlama,” Birikim 248 (2009): 32–36Google Scholar.
48 Ayşe Hür, “‘Forgetting’ as a Constituent Element of Our National Identity,” in From the Burden of the Past to Societal Peace and Democracy: Coming to Terms with the Past: Why? When? How?, ed. Ulrike Dufner (Istanbul: Heinrich Böll Stiftung Derneği Türkiye Temsilciliği Yayını, 2007), 37–40.
49 Kaptanoğlu, Cem, “‘Ben’ Hayali, Ulusal Kimlik ve Travma,” Birikim 134–35 (2000)Google Scholar: 87–91.
50 Paker, Murat, Psiko-politik Yüzleşmeler (Istanbul: Birikim Yayinlari, 2007), 11Google Scholar.
51 Paker, Murat, “Maskeli Baloyu Bitirmek İçin Karşı-Psikolojik Harekat,” Birikim 248 (2009): 24–31Google Scholar; Paker, Psiko-politik Yüzleşmeler, 143–47.
52 Yıldız, Celal, “Pandoranın kutusu yeni açıldı,” Birgün, 29 November 2011Google Scholar, accessed 11 September 2012, http://www.birgunabone.net/actuels_index.php?news_code=1322573344&year=2011&month=11&day=29.
53 Markar Esayan, “Geçmişin Hayaletleri. . .,” Taraf, 26 June 2008, accessed 1 November 2012, http://www.taraf.com.tr/markar-esayan/makale-gecmisin-hayaletleri.htm.
54 Oya Baydar, “Yüzleşmek, Ödeşmek, İyileşmek,” T24, 27 December 2011, accessed 5 January 2012, http://t24.com.tr/yazi/yuzlesmek-odesmek-iyilesmek/4448.
55 Söyler, “Memory, Collective Trauma and Coming to Terms with the Past.”
56 Paker, “Maskeli Baloyu Bitirmek İçin Karşı-Psikolojik Harekat.”
57 Freud, Sigmund, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, trans. Strachey, James, new ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1991Google Scholar).
58 Kaptanoğlu, “Travma, Toplumsal Yas ve Bağışlama,” 33; Paker, “Maskeli Baloyu Bitirmek İçin Karşı-Psikolojik Harekat”; Ahıska, Meltem, Occidentalism in Turkey: Questions of Modernity and National Identity in Turkish Radio Broadcasting (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010)Google Scholar.
59 Oya Baydar, “Size Bir Masal Anlatayım: Tarihin Pandora Kutusundan Çıkan Kötülükler,” T24, 5 August 2013, accessed 10 August 2013, http://t24.com.tr/yazi/size-bir-masal-anlatayim-tarihin-pandora-kutusundan-cikan-kotulukler/6661.
60 Sancar, Geçmişle Hesaplaşma; Kurt, “Hafaza-I Beşer.”
61 Oya Baydar, “Yalan Dünya Çökerken,” T24, 20 December 2011, accessed 25 December 2011, http://t24.com.tr/yazi/yalan-dunya-cokerken/4422.
62 Leyla Neyzi, “Better Late than Never: Modern Turkey Remembers Its Past,” H-Memory, October 2008, accessed 1 December 2012, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=15709.
63 Ahıska, Occidentalism in Turkey, 39.
64 In his illuminating book, Memory, History, Forgetting, Paul Ricoeur discusses memory in two senses: things remembered and the act of remembering. These two meanings can be detected in “coming to terms with the past” discourse in Turkey. Memory refers both to memories of past traumas and to individual and collective acts of remembering. Ricoeur, Paul, Memory, History, Forgetting, trans. Blamey, Kathleen and Pellauer, David, 1st ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
65 Kaptanoğlu, “Travma, Toplumsal Yas ve Bağışlama.” See also Sedler, M. J., “Freud's Concept of Working Through,” Psychoanalytic Quarterly 52 (1983): 73–98Google ScholarPubMed. Simply put, the concept of working through “characterizes the role of the patient in analysis. Conceived as the labor of the patient, rather than as an analytic technique, working through consists of two phases: recognizing resistances (insight) and overcoming resistances (change).” Sedler, “Freud's concept,” 72.
66 Kaptanoğlu, “‘Ben’ Hayali, Ulusal Kimlik ve Travma,” 91.
67 Igarashi, Bodies of Memory, 207.
68 Baskın Oran, “. . . Kemalistlerden Çektiği Kadar,” Radikal Iki, 21 November 2010, accessed 12 November 2012, http://www.radikal.com.tr/radikal2/_kemalistlerden_cektigi_kadar-1029866; Baskın Oran, “Dersim'in Öğrettikleri,” Radikal Iki, 27 November 2011, accessed 12 November 2012, http://www.radikal.com.tr/radikal2/dersimin_ogrettikleri-1070898.
69 Spence, Louise and Kotaman Avcı, Aslı, “The Talking Witness Documentary: Remembrance and the Politics of Truth,” Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice 17 (2013): 295–311CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
70 Ahıska, Occidentalism in Turkey, 39.
71 Ibid., 63.
72 Nazan Üstündağ, “Dünyada ve Türkiye'de Barış Süreçleri III,” Özgür Gündem, 4 October 2013, accessed 5 November 2013, http://www.ozgur-gundem.com/index.php?module=nuce&action=haber_detay&haberID=69961&haberBaslik=D%C3%BCnyada%20ve%20T%C3%BCrkiye%E2%80%99de%20bar%C4%B1%C5%9F%20s%C3%BCre%C3%A7leri%20III&categoryName=&authorName=%20&categoryID=&authorID=.
73 Paker, Murat, “Turkey's Problem of Coming to Terms with the Past: What and How?,” in From the Burden of the Past to Societal Peace and Democracy. Coming to Terms with the Past: Why? When? How?, ed. Dufner, Ulrike (Istanbul: Heinrich Böll Stiftung Derneği Türkiye Temsilciliği, 2007), 41–45Google Scholar; Nazan Üstündağ, “Dünyada ve Türkiye'de Barış Süreçleri I, II, III”; Zana Kaya and Günay Aksoy, “Adalet Için Hakikat,” Özgür Gündem, 17 May 2013, accessed 30 May 2013, http://www.ozgur-gundem.com/?haberID=73126&haberBaslik=ADALET%20%C4%B0%C3%87%C4%B0N%20HAK%C4%B0KAT%20I&action=haber_detay&module=nuce.
74 Turgut Tarhanlı, “The Contribution of the Restorative Justice Approach in the Context of Coming to Terms with the Past,” in From the Burden of the Past to Societal Peace and Democracy, 20–28; Elif Akgül, “Yüzleşmenin Neresindeyiz?,” Bianet, 16 April 2013, accessed 20 April 2013, http://bianet.org/bianet/yasam/145870-yuzlesmenin-neresindeyiz; Zana Kaya and Günay Aksoy, “Adalet Için Hakikat,” Özgür Gündem, 17 May 2013, accessed 1 June 2013, http://www.ozgur-gundem.com/?haberID=73126&haberBaslik=ADALET%20%C4%B0%C3%87%C4%B0N%20HAK%C4%B0KAT%20I&action=haber_detay&module=nuce.
75 Forgiveness has become a central topic in “coming to terms with the past” discourse, particularly since the peace talks between the AKP government and the Kurdish guerillas recommenced in late 2012. The word helalleşmek can be translated into English as “forgiveness,” “setting the record straight,” or “leaving the past behind upon agreement and forgiving each other's mistakes.” However, due to its Islamic and cultural connotations, it also carries a distinctive meaning that exceeds these translations. In the Islamic context, helalleşmek refers to both parties' mutual agreement to give up any concerns with past misdoings. During funerals, the Imam asks the crowd on behalf of the deceased person whether they forgive him for all his past misdeeds. The question is, hakkınızı helal ediyor musunuz? (do you forgive him/her?). The typical answer would be helal olsun, which means, “yes, we do.” Overall, as the popular Turkish novelist Elif Şafak has pointed out, helalleşmek cannot be reduced to a singular meaning, for it combines different meanings such as “making peace,” “compromise,” and “agreement” together. For Şafak, the act of helalleşmek has “a deeper, a more emotional dimension” compared to all these other words individually. Elif şafak, “‘Âkıl’ Adamlar, ‘Âkıle’ Kadınlar ve ‘Makul’ Bir Barış,” Habertürk, 28 March 2013, accessed 30 April 2013, http://www.haberturk.com/yazarlar/elif-safak/831246-akil-adamlar-akile-kadinlar-ve-makul-bir-baris.
76 Tileagӑ, Cristian, “The Social Organization of Representations of History: The Textual Accomplishment of Coming to Terms with the Past,” British Journal of Social Psychology 48 (2009): 350CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
77 Kaptanoğlu, “Travma, Toplumsal Yas ve Bağışlama,” 36.
78 Hür, “Unutma Kültüründen Hatırlama Kültürüne.”
79 Söyler, “Memory, Collective Trauma and Coming to Terms with the Past,” 178.
80 Paker, “Maskeli Baloyu Bitirmek İçin Karşı-Psikolojik Harekat,” 25.
81 Boralıoğlu, “İhtiyacımız Bilgiden Ziyade Bilgeliktir”; Sancar, Geçmişle Hesaplaşma.
82 Trouillot, “Abortive Rituals: Historical Apologies in the Global Era,” 182.
83 Ahıska, Occidentalism in Turkey.
84 Sancar, Geçmişle Hesaplaşma: Unutma Kültüründen Hatırlama Kültürüne; Cengiz Çandar, “Kuzey İrlanda'dan Güney Afrika'ya (1–7),” Radikal, 3–12 May 2013, accessed 1 June 2013, http://www.radikal.com.tr/yazarlar/cengiz_candar/kuzey_irlandadan_guney_afrikaya_1–1132008.
85 Ibid., 97.
86 The idea that “coming to terms with the past” is Turkey's “entry ticket” to the EU is not merely Sancar's or others' personal opinion. Rather, as Nienass has cogently pointed out, it is reinforced by EU diplomats, not as a formal requirement, but as an informal condition that needs to be met. Benjamin Nienass, “Europe's Postnational Relations to the Past: Provincializing the Ethics of Memory” (PhD diss., The New School for Social Research, 2012).
87 Keyman, Fuat, “Türkiye'nin Başarısı,” Milliyet, 27 March 2013Google Scholar, accessed 1 April 2013, http://siyaset.milliyet.com.tr/turkiye-nin-basarisi/siyaset/siyasetyazardetay/27.03.2013/1685636/default.htm.
88 Brandon Hamber and Richard A. Wilson, “Symbolic Closure through Memory, Reparation and Revenge in Post-Conflict Societies.”
89 Brudholm, Thomas, “Revisiting Resentments: Jean Améry and the Dark Side of Forgiveness and Reconciliation,” Journal of Human Rights 5 (2006): 7–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
90 Rousso, Henry, The Haunting Past: History, Memory and Justice in Contemporary France (Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 5Google Scholar.
91 Radstone, Susannah, “Memory Studies: For and Against,” Memory Studies 1 (2008): 36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
92 Aktan, Hamza, Kürt Vatandaş (Istanbul: Iletişim Yayınları, 2012)Google Scholar; İrfan Aktan, “Şahane Mazlumluğa Karşı Demirtaş Söylemi,” 13 August 2014, accessed 15 August 2014, http://zete.com/sahane-mazlumluga-karsi-demirtas-soylemi/.
93 Ayata and Hakyemez, “The AKP's Engagement with Turkey's Past Crimes.”
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