Istanbul
My Turkish conversations began with a mens-room attendant in Göreme, the staggeringly weird and glorious post-volcanic natural rock-and-cave garden that covers many square miles in the middle of Anatolia.
Where are you from? the man asked.
New York. America.
Ah. You have many problems.
He sounded sympathetic, so I asked him, What do you think of the war in Iraq?
We dont like it, he said. Why every time war on Muslim people?
I decided to let that pass. What will happen now? I asked lamely.
He shrugged. Not good.
Since meeting this man, its mattered little what subject I speak on in Turkey, or whether the audience consists of journalists, professors, students, or businessmen, or whether the locale is governmental Ankara or industrial Bursa or cosmopolitan Istanbul. I start out with a lecture on questions of media, globalization, and democracy; or on the torrent of media images; or on media and war since Vietnam, and the same questions instantly come flying: Are the U. S. media able to give factual information about the Iraq war? What does the U S Greater Middle East project mean, really? What does Bush have in mind for Turkey? Why is Bush misleading the American public?
And then, one-to-one, the after-dinner corridor talk: Will Bush lose? (And then, with some trepidation: How different would Kerry be?) If wishes were votes, Turks would suffice to send John Kerry to Washington no matter how many vote machines anyone tinkers with in Florida.
Left-wing, center-right, moderate Islamists, young, middle-aged, you name it theyre voting with their tongues in this years election of elections. Crusading America scares them. And these are the professionals, the ones who live in comfort. They admire our universities. They like free expression. A gruesome Van Damme movie dubbed into loud Turkish on the Göreme-Ankara bus is not their idea of Americas prime cultural gift to the world, but still, these are not America-haters. They are not the ones who, as George Bush would say, hate our freedom.
When I met him the other day, the executive secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in the industrial center of Bursa, Turkeys fifth-largest city, had just returned from a Turkish-American confab in Washington. He speaks of Pentagon and State Department officials with respect. He doesnt sound like a ranter. Yet he says that such discussions are monologues.
The tough-talking PR chief of the moderate Islamic newspaper Zaman - circulation 200,000 and growing says firmly, America has lost the respect of the world. We go back and forth on a number of questions. I make plain my opposition to Bushs war, but also my distaste for the pro-Saddam propaganda Ive seen on al-Jazeeras English-language website. After what diplomats might call a full and frank exchange of views, he says to me, I dont know whether this kind of discussion will be possible in 20 years.
An eloquent columnist for Zaman, a secular social democrat, says equally firmly, Take this message home. Clinton was beloved here. We didnt even understand how Bush could win without a majority vote. But one thing is clear: since Bush arrived, the prestige of the United States has suffered a terrible loss.
All this takes place in NATO-member, adamantly secular Turkey, which is predictably touchy on the subject of the state religion: militant secularism. (Secretary of State Powell had to apologize, more or less, last week for calling it an Islamic Republic this from the most diplomatic of Americas present rulers!).
If the White House had its way, Turkey would be the jewel in the new Middle Eastern crown. It would partake of a deal with Greece over Cyprus. It would enter the EU to bridge the Christian West and the Muslim East. (Despite snobbish French allergies, Turkey has other allies in Europe. As John Vinocur of the International Herald Tribune put it (14 April), quoting from interviews with foreign minister Joschka Fischer in the German press, if the EU wants to be a Christian club, it should say so and accept the consequences.
Turkey has become a premium stop on the career paths of American diplomats. Europe may be old, annoying, at worst irrelevant, but Turkey is in Washingtons eyes prime strategic territory. So can Turkish disbelief be greeted with sneers, waved away as the smog of public opinion, like the domestic polls that Bush insists dont and wont turn his head, and the famous Arab street of which neo-cons speak with such casual contempt?
Talk about democratic prototypes! Arabs would continue to be as squeamish about Turkish power and glory as their ancestors were toward their Ottoman rulers, but Turkey properly progressive and properly listened to would indeed be a linchpin of a democratizing Middle East, if there is ever to be one. As it is, Turkish papers of varying persuasions run variously unflattering photos of Bush as a matter of course.
Meanwhile, on leave from Crawford that is, at home in the White House Bush stands before the press in prime time for the third time in his more than 3 years in office, plays and replays his broken record no matter what question he gets. Ask him why he insists on speaking to the 11 September Commission in the company of Dick Cheney and he gives you a speech about how much he hates terrorism. Ask the question again and he repeats the speech with so much aplomb its hard to say he knows whether hes taking conscious evasive action or simply forgot the question.
Watching him from here, he seems like a hard-wired, wind-up figure. Can it be that, at home, very many of the unpersuaded can be won over by these non-stop mantras?
