Symbols
and rituals play a very important role in socializing the student
to the national identity and building the enemy image. They are
strong ideological apparatuses in reproducing the system and making
continuity. According to Comaroff and Comaroff
“ rituals become cultural means to preserve tradition and to reproduce
“continuity” in theoretically constructed bounded communities.”
I will talk about several Turkish Cypriot school rituals as a
means to reproduce the paradigm of conflict and justify the status
quo. I also want to make some semiotic readings about the photographs
of atrocities and bring some thoughts on their role in reproducing
the paradigm of conflict. Symbolism coming through nationalist
poetry is also an important means in building a collective consciousness
and it constructs an important part of national ceremonies.
“Now we have become part of school
And filled up the classes
School is our home
Long live our school”
This famous Turkish children’s song is a celebration
of being part of the school. School is their home and school belongs
to the nation and each student is given education, which is also
named as national education. A student is expected to be a productive
and valuable member of the nation.
School is a colorful place. It is decorated with flags, pictures
and scripts on the walls.
Children have to declare that they are part of
the nation with the morning prayer which starts with the words;
“I am a Turc, I am right, I am hard-working “ and it ends with
these words “I give my whole existence as a present to
the existence of Turkishness.” Then there is the national
anthem, which starts as “Don’t fear! The red flag floating in
these horizons will not extinguish.”
Remembering the poem of the famous Turkish poet
Can Yucel regarding the first day experience of a school child
makes me smile
Annecigim Bugun okulda hicbirseyden korkmadim
ama su Korkma Sonmezden cok korktum
Mummy
Today I feared nothing at school
I only feared from
Don’t fear
Fear has always been a strong element in Turkish
education. In Islam moral values are achieved through fear of
God. It is believed that respect to the elder ones could be achieved
through fear. It is a means for decipline and the school environment
has to provide this fear.
I want to start by taking you to a certain Turkish
Cypriot school building with its two flags: the TRNC and the Turkish
flags and a statue of Kemal Atatürk at the entrance.
It is very probable that the school may be carrying the name of
a martyr. The second strong probability is that the school is
situated in a street which is also named after a martyr (“Sehit
“something “sokaðý” and “Sehit “something “okulu.”)
I want to speak more about this building because
it is very probable that the school building was a Greek Cypriot
school building and is being used by the Turkish Cypriots after
74. I don’t think any teacher would give an assignment to the
students about the history of the school building. Or even if
she or he would talk about it the historical narrative will very
probably justify the situation. Very probably it would be like
this:” Our oppressed people were liberated one day thanks to the
Turkish Army who gave us all these opportunities for the future.”
The evil persons (the bad other) of the narrative
have to be known better by the students. The most important encounter
with the enemy is realized through a visit to the Museum of Barbarism
The most important aspect about this Museum is
that it is a place where history of violence persists to live.
For many children the first visit to the Museum is when they attend
the Elementary school and the museum is the exact spot where violence
took place. A Turkish Cypriot official Internet site describes
the museum like this:
The date is the 24th December, 1963... The onslaught of
the Greeks against the Turks, which started three days ago, has
been going on with all its ferocity; and defenceless women, old
men and children are being brutally killed by Greeks. And Kumsal
Area of Lefkosa witnesses the worst example of the Greeks savage
bloodshed...
The wife and the three infant children of Dr. Nihat Ilhan, a Major
on duty at the camp of the Cyprus Turkish Army Contingent, are
mercilessly and dastardly shot dead while hiding in the bathrooms
of their house, by maddened Greeks who broke into their home.
This incident is a glaring example of Greek barbarism.
The photograph of the dead children and their
mother is like a stamp of Greek Cypriot violence to the Turkish
Cypriots psyche and being one of the atrocity photographs in the
world has become the main tool for propaganda and lobbying. It
is a symbol for victimisation. The victims are mother and children.
The most innocent subjects in life. They are killed in their own
home while they just wanted to hide in the bath tube.
This horror story is lived by the visitors of
the museum on the spot. Everything is left untouched the bloodstains;
hair and parts of the dresses and shoes of the children are there.
Other rooms of the Museum are also filled with photographs of
dead bodies. One of the other striking things about this museum
is that it is actually a habitat for one of the survivors of the
incident. Yusuf Gudum is still living in one
of the rooms of the museum. The building is his own property and
he lost his wife during the incident. When visitors come he comes
out of his room and narrates the event.
One of my later visits to the Museum I asked Yusuf Gudum
to interview him but he said that he can not answer questions,
he just has to start narrate and finish. But he answered to this
question that I have asked him. I asked “ Uncle Yusuf, why are
you living here with all these bitter memories and with all this
sad atmosphere?” and he replied “I am living here because of the garden. I have to look
after it. If I leave the trees would die!”
Part of his narration is as follows: "On the night of the 24th of December, 1963 my wife
Feride Hasan and I were paying a visit to the family of Major
Dr. Nihat ilhan. Our neighbours Mrs. Ayshe of Mora, her daughter
lshin and Mrs. Ayshe's sister Novber were also with us. We were
all having supper. All of a sudden bullets from the Pedieos River
direction started to riddle the house, sounding like heavy rain.
Thinking that the dining-room where we were sitting was dangerous,
we ran to the bathroom and toilet which we thought would be safer.
Altogether we were nine persons. We all hid in the bathroom except
my wife who took refuge in the toilet. We waited in fear. Mrs.
ilhan the wife of Major Doctor, was standing in the bath with
her three children Murat, Kutsi and Hakan in her arms. Suddenly
with a great noise we heard the front door open. Greeks had come
in and were combing, every corner of the house with their machine
gun bullets. During these moments I heard voice saying, In Greek
"You want Taksim eh!" and then bullets started flying
in the bathroom. Mrs. ilhan and her three children fell into the
bath. They were shot. At this moment the Greeks, who broke into
the bathroom, emptied their guns on us again. I heard one of the
Major's children moan, then I fainted.
When I came to myself 2 or 3 hours later, I saw Mrs. Ilhan and
her three children lying dead in the bath. I and the rest of the
neighbours in the bathroom were all seriously wounded. But what
had happened to my wife? Then I remembered and immediately ran
to the toilet, where, in the doorway, I saw her body. She was
brutally murdered.
The visits to the Museum is usually done at the
martyrs week which starts on the 21st of December which is the
anniversary of 1963 Bloody Noel events. In those days some corners
with photographs and writings are prepared in the schools. These
photographs are either photographs of dead people sometimes photographs
of dead bodies and women and children crying.
Dogus Ertac a Turkish Cypriot
student now member of one of the bicommunal groups talks about
his visit to the Museum as follows:
“I visited the Museum of Barbarism: I was in the primary
school and at that week (Sehitler haftasý) they (the teachers)
took us to that museum and it was really bad in my opinion because
when we see those things at those days we had the idea that “Greeks
are bad people”But now I have the right idea; Only some Greek
Cypriots did this so I don’t say they
are bad people…”
The main theme of the Martyrs week is that these
heroes have died for us to have today’s liberated atmosphere and
the land we have today as our “vatan”(homeland) and State and
in order to keep their memory we have to protect this land which
is washed by their blood and due to this is a holy place that
you can not give away even a single stone of it.
Another theme is to show the character of the
enemy who is merciless and who have done all these masaccares
to the innocent people with the aim to terminate the existence
of the ethnic group that we belong to on this island.
Poems are read during the ceremonies. You can find a good collection
of poems in Turkish Cypriot literature about Greek Cypriot atrocities.
Poetry has always been a strong weapon for nationalism. Nationalism
works a lot with the emotions and especially popular poetry can
serve this function successfully. Here I want to quote some lines
from an introductory letter Rauf Denktas wrote
to a theme anthology compiled by Gulgun Serdar
. “Through bringing together all these poets who stress
our attachment to Turkey ýn terms of culture, our longing to Anatolia,
to the flag. Our determination to own Cyprus which we believe
is Turkish land then this book serves as a big guide in our search
for an identity and character.”1
Dogus talks about the effect of these poems on
him:
“The kind of poetry: Generally sensitive poems,
which really affect all the Turkish Cypriots deeply, even me.
They do this because they don’t want us to be friends again. These
days in my opinion are days to increase the malice that has been
slowly disappeared through the years.”
An other theme of the week of Martyrs is revenge
which is already taken by the Turkish Army which saved all our
lives and protected us from becoming like one of those photographs
.We are reminded that this enemy is living not very far and we
have to watch and be careful. Usually all the ceremonies start
with the wreath putting to the statue of Atatürk.
Many schools have one of these statues in their
yards. Loyalty to Atatürk and his basic principles is connected
with pride of being part of the wider Turkish nation it is embodied
in the published aims for national education which require that:
“Every member of the community have at heart
the reforms of Atatürk and be a dedicated nationalist; and adopt,
uphold, protect and improve nationalism, morals, human, spiritual
values of the Turkish nation”
Tanyel Cemal, another member
of the bicommunal groups describes the activities of the Atatürk
week like this:
“ At 10 kasim we have a competition between classes,
which is Atatürk Kosesi. Every class decorates their class
with flags, poems about Atatürk, pictures of him and a lot more.
A group of teacher go to each class and at the end choose the
best one.”
Atatürk is a strong symbol for the connection of Turkish Cypriots
with Turkey.
10 Kasim 10th of November ceremonies are a shared
experience with the Mainland Turks. At 10th of November of each
month at 9.05 life stops for one minute to pay respect to the
memory of Atatürk
Atatürk is the father of the big Turkish nation
and his struggle is a big inspiration for Turkish Cypriots. During
his lifetime Atatürk has no words about Cyprus. On the contrary
his Misak-i Milli policy was exclusive of the Turks living outside
national borders. But ‘n Turkish Cypriot nationalistic poetry
we see him as a symbolic figure for the unification of Cyprus
with Turkishness.
The treatment of his statues is almost totemic.
Any kind of attack to his statues would be considered a big insult
to the whole nation which was a case once in the Pyla school,
very probably a provocative action.
His photographs are everywhere in schools. He is the stamp of
identity and a symbol of being proud of being part of a big nation.
A research to bring out how the school children
feel about these symbols would be very instructive. I think in
their early years they become attached to them but from my experience
from one year’s teaching in the secondary school I can say that
later they become objects of the teenage rebel. “BetonMustafa”
is one of the names given to Atatürk. A critic of numberless ugly
statues. I witnessed students making fun of nationalistic poetry.
I don’t know why but another hero the poet Namik Kemal
who was an exile in Cyprus is a subject of sex jokes.
But I think repeatedly seeing the photographs
of dead bodies have a tremendous effect on the human psyche
What does the photographs of dead bodies
signify?
May be its necrofilia that is causing this widespread
demonstration of dead bodies.
The argument is that showing this brutality and violence will
teach the younger generation the real face of the enemy. It is
a means to strengthen the argument that we can not live with them.
When we say them this implies a general category. They are the
first person singular “Rum” (The name given to
Greek Cypriots) which we hear everyday in political speeches.
They are not differentiated, they are all the same and they are
all together responsible for the killings. Seeing these photographs
repeatedly evoke certain feelings. We stop seeing their details.
They just become an obscure image, a penetration to our unconscious.
A generalized message about the enemy. These photographs are the
capture of those moments in history, a past that is embodied in
our souls and imply our unavoidable separation from those generalized
others who are responsible for this.
Roland Barthes’s perception
of photography in general is as follows:
“What the photograph reproduces to infinity
has occurred only once: The Photograph mechanically repeats what
could never be repeated existentially. In the photograph the event
is never transcended for the sake of something else: the Photograph
always leads the corpus I need back to the body I see; it is the
absolute particular, the sovereign Contingency, matte and somehow
stupid, the This (this photograph and not Photography), in short
what Lacan calls the Tuche, the Occasion, the Encounter, the Real,
in its infatigable expression.”2
In the meantime these photographs of atrocities
transcend into a means of proving our thesis. They become a powerful
tool for lobbying.
The photographs themselves represent an attack.
They are our attack and our reversed act of violence towards the
enemy. And the missing part of our story is that they also have
similar photographs like us and they use them in the same way.
In their photographs they are the victims and we are the perpetrators.
It is very interesting that the symbolic photograph
for peace builders in Cyprus is also a photograph of violence.
It is the photograph of Dervis Ali Kavazoglu
and Costas Misauli.( They were murdered in 1964
because of their struggle to bring the two communities of Cyprus
together)
What this photograph signifies is much different
than the photographs of other dead bodies. It also reminds you
of a killer and of injustice but the message coming through this
photograph is not a message of one’s hatred towards the other
but it is love. It is not one against the other but it is ”both”
being victims of violence.
May be there is another message coming from the
creators of this scene captured by this photograph and “reproduced
to infinity”. It is fear. “If you think and act like that this
will be your end!” kind of warning.
What I see as another difference in this photograph
is that it doesn’t attack me. It is a photograph of two with a
strong connection. It is a scene of violence committed towards
to the act to avoid violence. It is a summary of all the photographs
of atrocities on both sides.
Their death is like a saga to all the other photographs a death
on the way of struggle to stop this blood.
How to deal with symbols?
A lot of statues have been built to different
places of Northern Cyprus after 74. The common denominator of
these statues is that they are related with death. They are erected
to glorify the memories of those who died on the way of saving
our lives from the enemy. When you look at these statues they
create in you again this feeling of attack, the similar feeling
created by the photographs of atrocities. The figures are phallic
and they carry the militaristic spirit.
Many years ago I went to interview the sculptures
of a monument in Gonyeli erected for the memory of those who died
in the village and I asked him questions about what does a martyr
symbolize to him, what feelings does it evoke and what is the
best way to keep their memory and how did he imagine of this figure
to represent his feelings.
He was startled with my questions and gave me
the impression that what he tried to create was a replica of the
monuments done on these occasions. I asked to different people
in the streets what they think and how they feel about their monuments
and their answers reflected this feeling of attack. I named this
newspaper article I wrote as “ the monuments of death inside us”
These monuments still exist among us. In time
we stop seeing them they become part of the environment. We do
not stop to think of their meaning but they relate certain energy,
certain psychology to us. It is like living in Greek Cypriot houses
and belongings, we forget that we are living inside them or using
them but they give us this uneasiness, this feeling of guilt deep
inside our unconscious.
Deep inside we also now that the way we are accusing
the others they are doing the same thing towards us. We don’t
live very far from them and we can feel this energy coming from
them towards us.
We know that each day we celebrate as a festivity is a mourning
they for them and we now the meaning of mourning very well because
it is also part of our own experiences.
What makes us suffer is the paradigm of revenge.
Revenge is a counter attack, which will generate another attack.
It is the changing role game of the victims and perpetrators and
there is no end to it. The prevalent feeling we have as Turkish
Cypriots is that our “revenge is taken” but this immediately evokes
that now they have a revenge to be taken.
To shift from this paradigm to a paradigm of
empathy and culture of peace requires a process where we have
to deal with all these symbols and rituals. The best way is to
see them altogether. Putting all the photographs of atrocities
each side created towards the other will immediately transcend
you from the feeling of attack to the other to the despise and
rejection of violence and a wish to embrace the other who has
the similar experience with you. As it is in the photograph of
Kavazoglu and Misauli.
Dipnot
1 Serdar, Gulgun, 1571 den 1964 e Kibris Turk
Edebiyati – Arastirma- Inceleme, Lefkosa 1986
2 Barthes, Roland, Camera Lucida, Vintage
1993 p.4
