------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 26, 2002
How an Atheist Helps Protect Islamists in Turkey
By IAN FISHER
BEYLIKDUZUR, Turkey — The atheist and the Islamist sat side by side, in matching polo shirts no less.
"From a theological point of view," the Islamist, Abdurrahman Dilipak, said with some mischief, "it is inevitable that I would have concerns about his life in eternity. But after all, there are seven rungs of hell, and I know he won't be on the lowest one."
The atheist, Sanar Yurdatapan, smiled: he has no plans to spend forever in any place that does not exist. "Hell?" he asked. "What hell?"
It is entertaining shtick, which the two men play with good humor despite the fact that they disagree with each other on the question of hell, and most everything else.
That disagreement is exactly the point — and the latest turn in a continuing campaign organized by the atheist, Mr. Yurdatapan, who is also a musician, writer, human rights activist and general gadfly, to encourage tolerance and free speech in Turkey, a place where both commodities can be scarce.
It is a campaign that has taken Mr. Yurdatapan, 62, to jail, to exile from Turkey and back, and, on a recent weekend, to a big book fair here signing copies of the book he wrote recently with Mr. Dilipak, a well-known Islamist author.
It is called "Red and Green," but also "Green and Red," for it has a different cover on either side of the book (thus the publicity stunt of matching shirts: Mr. Yurdatapan's is red for the political left; Mr. Dilipak's green for Islam).
Each man wrote half the book on his own, tackling some of the touchiest matters in Turkey and around the Muslim world: Is there a god? What is the role of women? Should parents indoctrinate their children?
"We wrote the book to give a concrete example, something stable, that opposites can put their ideas together without trying to kill each other or silence each other," Mr. Yurdatapan said.
"People who want to read me, especially young people, will have to read him, too, and have a chance to compare directly," he added. "Let them decide. But they also take the lesson that people who think in a totally different way must respect each other. We must always have a dialogue."
This intersection of the intellectual left and Islamic activism is not common. But it is acutely relevant in a Turkey that has just elected a party with Islamic roots and is set to test how its secular democracy accommodates such a government. The dialogue started half a dozen years ago, largely on Mr. Yurdatapan's initiative.
For decades Turkey has cracked down on many expressions of Islam, which is perceived as a threat to its secular state. It has also tolerated little dissent on political matters that anger activists like Mr. Yurdatapan, like the long war (now subsided) with Kurdish militants.
So both men have had their problems with the Turkish state, cause enough for an alliance cemented more recently by shared opposition to an American attack on Iraq. They adhere to the Voltairian maxim: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Mr. Yurdatapan is the son of a three-star general. He learned his American-accented English from G.I.'s who frequently visited the family. He also understood, in his blood, the paternalism of the Turkish military, which has paradoxically kept Turkey stable and, many critics say, also stifled its full development to democracy.
"Even as a child, I thought we were the best, but civilians — eh!" he said in mock disgust. "They were not serious."
As a young man, and despite the fact that he was not formally trained, he became a successful composer and orchestra leader. He wrote the song "Arkadas," recorded in 1975 and still heard today.
He also became politically active with the socialist Turkish Labor Party in the mid-1960's. With his wife, the singer Milike Demirag, he left Turkey in 1980 when the military staged a coup. He and his wife were later stripped of their citizenship, while they lived, with their two children, in Germany, near Cologne, and continued to be politically active against the war in the Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
An amnesty in 1991 allowed them to return. (They are now divorced.) Then in 1995, Mr. Yurdatapan's activism took the turn that came to define it: It began when Yasar Kemal, one of Turkey's most famous writers, was charged under anti- terrorism laws for writing an article against the war in Kurdish areas.
In protest, 1,080 well-known people signed their names in a book that republished Mr. Kemal's article and nine other banned articles. They then demanded that they all be prosecuted because it was also a crime to reprint banned articles.
Mr. Yurdatapan's orchestration of the book put the Turkish state in an awkward position, having to suspend sentences or change the laws to avoid arresting everyone.
In 1999, however, he received a two-month sentence, which he served alone in a cell meant for six people. "Very luxurious," he said offhandedly. "I knew they would make special treatment for me."
With little money and a tenuous legal status — his group, Initiative for Freedom of Expression, exists only on the law's margins — Mr. Yurdatapan keeps up his work: 4 books and over 40 pamphlets have been published.
In 2000, he took up the case of Islamic activists, including the nation's only Islamist prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, who has been banned from political life since the army's ouster of his government in 1997 and whose party was victorious in the recent elections.
This summer, as part of its bid to join the European Union, Turkey passed several laws easing freedom of expression. Mr. Yurdatapan says the atmosphere is improving, though not enough for him to end his work.
As might be expected, he and Mr. Dilipak also differ on why the work is worthy.
"I believe I am doing something good as a Muslim, and he believes he is being a good person," Mr. Dilipak deadpanned. "We will meet each other in the next world."
Copyright The New York Times Company | Permissions | Privacy Policy
-- -- -- ----- -- - -- ----- -- - - - ----- - - - - - -- --------
The most tyrannical governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.
Spinoza
NEURONAUTIC INSTITUTE on-line: http://home.earthlink.net/~thew
<A HREF="">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
