Deadly Eggs in Your Pockets: News and Noteworthy Events, 3

Sir Willie the Wise, Fall/2011 

Esteemed Readers,

I arrived to my other home, on the west side of the Atlantic, in February. Let me start with the bad news:

* The climate change is upon us! I was stuck at the airport in Ankara for 3 hours, and then in Istanbul for 7, due to excessive snow. Turkey is supposedly the land of sun and fun.  This much snow belongs to Buffalo or Chicago!

* The bright side is: contrary to the last bloody winter, there is almost no snow in Iowa this year. The weather is really nice, which makes me feel all bubbly and perky!… 

But, a quick glance at the Turkish papers on-line lets the grim realities sink:

* Turkey is having yet another round of Constitution Drafting… Yep, it is that time of the year… Yet, there is hardly an atmosphere of deliberation, which would ideally lead to a new social contract, and we can live democratically and happily ever after...

* Instead, there is a subtle atmosphere of bullying and submission. The number of students, academics and journalists behind bars –without any indictment, as of yet- has passed thousands long ago!

* A university student caught with 3 eggs (in writing: THREE EGGS) that he meant to use at a protest is behind bars, waiting for his verdict. The prosecutor demands that he stays behind bars for 11 years! That makes almost 4 years in prison per egg! Hence, my cautionary title: When in Turkey, beware of walking with eggs in your pockets!

* Another group of students who threw eggs at the leading members of the Constitutional Committee (from both the government and opposition parties) are also arrested. If the prosecutor gets his way, they'll be behind bars for 48 years! (in writing: FOURTY-EIGHT YEARS)

*Meanwhile, police officers that shoot and kill students/activists cannot even be brought in front of justice…

* Even if Turkish Courts were to consider broken eggs as infringement of the life of unborn chicken fetuses, I still think this is a highly disproportionate and unfair punishment. 20-some year old kids die, the killers walk free…. Eggs broken, 48 years behind bars!

* If the Prime Minister thinks your speech has offended him, he sues you. The courts generously grant you at least one-year in prison, if they feel charitable that day…. Plus, you pay financial compensation to I-Don't-Accept-Anything-But-Yes Minister…

    We need many things in Turkey. But above all, a decent system of justice…

    Wishing you all conscientious judges and prosecutors,

    The permanent opposition, Academic Mommy

PS: and what’s with the photo, you may ask. 

There is a Turkish expression; the finger that’s cut by the sword of justice wouldn’t hurt. Above is my son’s sword of justice. At 6 years old, he displays a much more sophisticated sense of fairness, than the judges involved in the above mentioned cases.

The “Ping-pong Theory” of Democratic (Un)Consolidation

The time I’ve spent as a student and scholar of democratization is more than a decade now. Part of my effort was to see whether the Latin American experiences on the long and arduous path to democratization could be relevant for Turkey or the Mid East.

Looking at the transformation of civil-military relations in Latin America, I was taken aback by how the civilian regimes that took over handled this delicate matter. Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) was achieved in most of these countries. Militaries retreated back to their professional boundaries, and political space was left to the civilians. In Chile, Argentina and Peru, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions were established in order to uncover the heinous crimes committed under military rules. The days of impunity were over. Institutions to ensure the transparency and accountability of the military were set in place.

However, the civilian governments also granted comprehensive amnesties to the perpetrators. It was this part that I had harder time to comprehend…

In most cases, leftist governments gained electoral victory after the military regimes ran out of steam. They were treated brutally during the authoritarian era. Thanks to the unfettered support from the US during the Cold War, military regimes of Latin America unleashed vicious campaigns over these ‘commies’.

General Pinochet of Chile was notorious with his Caravans of Death. These were military helicopters that airlifted leftist dissidents and conveniently dropped them off over the Pacific Ocean. The last three Presidents of Brazil (Dilma, Lula and Cardoso) all experienced either jail time and torture, or exile during the military rule in Brazil. The Dirty War of Argentina left over 10,000 desaparecidos.* The Argentine military caused yet another tragedy by handing over the orphaned children of the disappeared to the military families.

Despite all the torture, summary executions, displaced/disappeared individuals and forced adoptions, the civilian leaders of Latin America allowed a graceful exit for the ex-military autocrats. More importantly, they uncovered the past military crimes and brought closure to the families of the victims.

Today, I realize that this was neither a sign of weakness, nor pity. It was a superior understanding of rule of law that carefully avoided regressing into a vendetta.

Seeking revenge, making your opponents pay back, are unsurprisingly human feelings. Yet, in polarized societies that seek democratic healing, an eye-for-an-eye attitude could hardly be the harbinger of lasting peace.

-Dude, why R U showing your ID to the bomb?
+ Dunno, what should I do instead?

These are my thoughts, as I see the last Joint Chiefs of Staff in Turkey go behind bars. For some, this settles the score for the jailing of Prime Minister Erdogan. Yet, settling scores could hardly be the best path to democratic consolidation. It would’ve been more constructive, had we seen genuine signs of transparency on the side of military, which had incidentally bombed 35 civilians by accident past week!

As much as I would like to see the normalization of civil-military relations in Turkey, I doubt placing more than half the acting or retired top brass behind bars on dubious legal grounds is the way to go. Instead of resolving the military issue, this approach simultaneously leads to two important problems:

It fuels the social polarization by making the weaker party (the secularists and pro-military sectors in the Turkish case) hold onto its grudge, and sharpen its weapons, until it gets its turn. Hence the ping-pong match of settling scores and undermining democracy…

Secondly, it undermines the sense of justice in the general society. If government can bend the judiciary branch at will, how can you expect the public to uphold the rule of law and respect it as impartial?...

Democratic consolidation cannot be achieved, if anyone with the biggest stick starts to corner its opponents into submission. Yes, those who committed crimes should be punished. But this should not come at the expense of rule of law. Nor should it amount to a vendetta.

Wishing you all sound legal systems in the New Year,

The Academic Mommy in a Quandary…

* A friend from Argentina kindly asked me to amend the number of desaparecidos. Upon close monitoring from the Human Rights NGOs, the official figures amounted to more than 30,000.