Throwing the Book at Pamuk

[hulegu]

The TLS has a couple of articles well worth perusing: an analysis of the recent trial of Orhan Pamuk; and a review of a biography of Musa Sanib (Iurii Shanibov) a would-be Circassian nationalist.

The case against Pamuk may have been dropped (see here and here at Blogrel - thanks Katy & Hovakim - for good round ups) but now a whole new tranche of

Comments

[hulegu]

Thanks. As I said, the deeper I get into this stuff, the more my nerd quotient increases - kinda alike Superman getting stronger the closer he gets to the sun.

[river_rain44]

Yay, nerds!!
What an interesting case--I've not quite finished Pamuk's Snow, it is a really interesting approach to the issues of rising fundamentalism and the "old guard" secularist presence, and how those issues play out among more rural people.
I adore Turkey. I love the people, the culture, art, food, language...the way the air smells in Ankara, the sound of the muezzin, the taste of simit and seftaliler, the way Ankara and Istanbul are ancient and totally modern at the same time, the deep tradition of hospitality. And at the same time I had a really hard time with the way educated urban Turks talk and think about the Kurds. I understand their frustration with the violence and terrorist activities and with the way the west has treated these events as "revlotutionary." Yet, there is a real...dare I say it?...basically a racist attitude that I encountered over and over towards Kurds especially but also any other tribal or ethnic minority (Laz, Armenian, Azerbaijani, etc.). I've had difficulty talking about it because I'm not

[hulegu]

Thanks. Fan-mail always appreciated.

As re: Turkish attitudes re: Kurds, I never met anyone who expressed outright dislike of the Kurds, just stuff along the lines of: "But we always used to get on fine, but ever since this late unpleasantness ... " etc.

I suppose it's always the same wherever you go:

"You're not local, you don't understand ... " etc.

But that's a point of view that really p****s me off sometime - it's like cultural isolationism. I don't like it in my fellow Brits, and I don't much like it anyone else.

finally

[lessesne]

I'm just glad you've finally got a topic!! Even though you didn't tell me first!

You've read benedict anderson's imagined communities, yes??

Re: finally

[gangur]

I was supposed to bring Imagined Communities from the U.S. to loan to Hugalu... but I couldn't find the box it was in. :(