Charlie Hebdo & The Appearance Of Solidarity

Pregnant by its pointed absence from the Paris march

against terrorism, the American Administration

displayed its geopolitical ineptitude. But, pregnant by

its Prime Minister’s presence at that rally, the Turkish

Administration of Recip Tayyip Erdogan
demonstrated its consummate duplicity.

 

Inexplicably, no prominent American was present

in Paris to lock arms with other world leaders who

gathered to denounce radicalism. They joined in

exclaiming: “Je Suis Charlie.” The deafening absence 

of a distinguished American official was palpable. A

pity it is. But, the visibly attending Turkish Prime

Minister was politically precluded from even mouthing

“Je Suis Charlie.” A pity it was. But why?

 

Long story short, President Erdogan’s Turkish regime

unceremoniously disrespects free journalistic expression. 

The current Turkish government is contemptuous of

journalists and cartoonists. So, in 2005 when a Danish 

paper printed an unflattering cartoon of the Prophet

Muhammad, Erdogan (who was then Prime Minister)

rushed headlong to condemn that publication.

 

Mr. Erdogan was adamant that such cartoons cross

the red line of tolerable free speech. For Mr. Erdogan,

lampooning Mohammed was not only insulting to his

Moslem sensibilities, it was also akin to shouting

“fire” in the theater of worldwide Islam.

 

For Erdogan’s aggressively Islamist regime, Charlie

Hebdo’s satirical cartoons are abhorrent.  Had they

been published in Turkey, those cartoonists would

have been subject to incarceration. In fact, Turkish

cartoonists are customarily prosecuted for lesser

offenses. Just last year,  Erdogan ordered that

Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart be prosecuted

(or did he also mean persecuted!) for mocking

Erdogan’s own squashing of corruption charges

that had been levelled against his regime.

 

It is no wonder that Turkish Prime Minister

Davutoglu’s very presence at the Paris rally

actually outraged Reporters Without Borders.

They recognized the crystal clear perfidy patent

in Davutoglu’s attendance. They needed no

introduction to Turkey’s abysmal antagonism to

journalistic freedom. They know that an unseemly

cadre of columnists and commentators are rotting

in Turkish prisons.

 

That said, Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Davutoglu had

an indecorous dilemna. That is because Turkey is

a member of NATO. At the same time, Turkey has

long sought admission to the European Union.

Turkey was also secularized by Ataturk who

introduced European values, culture and conduct

into Turkey. So, Turkish leaders deemed it

expedient to have an official presence and to

display the appearance of solidarity with the

marchers in Paris.

 

But, while Istanbul physically vibrates on European

soil, most Turks actually live on the Asian side of

the Bosphorus. They inhale that atmosphere where

the population of the Mideast is overarchingly

Moslem. They tend to act accordingly. Under

Erdogan, Turkey has become increasingly and

aggressively Islamist. Furthermore, it is no secret

that Erdogan’s Turkey aspires to hegemony over

the entire Islamic Mideast.

 

Those geopolitical realities predispose Erdogan and

his deeply-entrenched Justice & Development Party

 (AKP) to disdain virtually everything that Charlie

Hebdo stands for. Even more pointedly, Charlie

Hebdo’s murdered journalists paid with their lives

for allegiance to the very same secularism and liberal

freedoms to which Ataturk paid obeisance. To a great

extent, those values reflect the polar opposite of

attitudes traditionally esteemed across the Moslem

Mideast.

 

Thus, Ataturk, modern Turkey’s founding father,

rejected the benighted Ottoman mentality in

favor of divorcing temporal power from the
Islam of the Ottomans. He modeled his vision
for Turkey on French notions of liberty, equality,
fraternity and free expression. Not so Erdogan.
He and his conservative followers (arguably the
majority of Turks) pursue an almost diametrically
opposite approach.

 

So, Erdogan was geopolitcally compelled by Turkey’s

alliance and aspirational ties to Europe to send his

Prime Minister to the rally in Paris. But Erdogan was

also geopolitcally constrained by his predilections to

exert influence in the Islamic Mideast to bar his

Prime Minister from verbalizing any identification

with Charlie Hebdo. As a result, the Turkish Prime

Minister’s lips may have moved, but they certainly

did not dare to utter "Je Suis Charlie."

 

All the forgoing simply suggests that the growing

number of Turks (and Moslems) living in Europe 

have great latitude to lampoon any religion they

choose. They have broad liberty to disparage any

politician who incurs their displeasure. They have

the expansive freedom to demonize any government 

that does not accommodate their demands. But

 -more often than not- they did not and would not 

have that quality or quantity of free expression in

the Islamic Mideast and, pointedly, not in Turkey.

 

So, it has been caustically argued elsewhere that

“satire is an act of being a wise-ass while

pretending it is for a higher purpose.” Upon

reflection, is it not substantially more accurate to

suggest that satire is rarely an empty charade,

that its practitioners should not be denounced as

smart-alecks and that their objectives are 

frequently laudable, often enlightening and sometimes

even ennobling? That may be precisely why the

world needs more -not fewer- cartoonists.

 

Je Suis Charlie!

Postscript:  On 14 January 2015, Charlie Hebdo

published its first edition after its journalists

were slaughtered. Not unexpectedly, the cover

featured yet another cartoon of Mohammed. 

But, also not unexpectedly, a Turkish court

promptly banned that edition while authorities

rushed to shut down an Istanbul publishing house

that was about to print a Turkish version of that

edition. A pity it continues to be!