Ankara, 2nd site: Atatürk’s mausoleum

We had just arrived at the airport in Ankara and Murat picked us up and asked if we wanted to go to the hotel, or to go see something. What the heck, let's go see something. So where are we going? Someplace special was the reply. When we arrived and parked the car, it was not at all apparent where we were, or why anyone would go where we were headed. But we followed Murat through the security, that seemed tight at the time, but which we would learn was nothing unusual by Turkish standards. We headed up the hill and slowly it revealed itself.

It has a name (Anitkabir) but what it is, is the final resting place of MK Atatürk. As you know, Atatürk is revered in Turkey in a way that few leaders anywhere are revered. You cannot walk far in a Turkish city without passing a statue in his honor. So, what is his mausoleum like?

I always thought Napoleon’s tomb was a bit on the excessive side, but then my hero is Thomas Jefferson and I always was impressed by the restraint shown in his marker (not even the biggest in his family's cemetery). Restraint was not shown with Anitkabir. The mausoleum itself is just one part of a sprawling complex set on a hill overlooking Ankara. One gets the feeling that Atatürk's place is there, watching over his country and his capital, even in death.

Anitkabir was not Atatürk's first resting Place. The complex was the product of an elaborate process of design and construction and not completed until 15 years after Atatürk’s death. It was not built just for him. It is also a monument to his achievement, the Turkish republic. It is their ceremonial space, featuring dramatic monumental architecture and massive open spaces to be filled on ceremonial and patriotic locations. And Atatürk is at its center. Makes perfect sense to me.

Turkey: History Atatürk by Andrew Mango

Is democracy possible in a Muslim society? It is a burning question in this time of the ‘Arab 1848’. The reference to 1848 is a reference to the year that revolution swept across Europe. There does seem to be a demonstration effect to revolution. It happens in one place (Tunisia) and people elsewhere ask, why not here? And so in the last days we have watched Muslim societies tear down their existing regimes. It begs the question: what will they build in their place? If you asked people in the squares, they would likely tell you they want a democracy.  And we are back to the original question: is democracy possible in a Muslim country?

That may sound like a silly or bigoted question. Silly, because there are some notable examples of Muslim democracy - Turkey and Indonesia, for example.  And bigoted because the revolutions we are witnessing testify to Muslims desire for democracy. But wanting something and keeping it are not the same thing. Desire alone is not enough. Democracy is not a natural state of human affairs. Creating it, sustaining it, takes work.

As soon as I had decided that I would be visiting Turkey, I knew that I wanted to read a biography of Atatürk.  Atatürk created Turkey.  What is today a relatively stable and prosperous state goes in no small measure to the will of a single man, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Turks seem to understand this. I think it is what explains Atatürk’s ubiquitous presence 70 years after his death. It's not just the statues, though there are lots of them. His picture is everywhere - stores, restaurants, government buildings, homes, car windows, flags almost anywhere you can imagine an image, someone has an image of Atatürk there. I wonder if Stalin, even at the height of his cult of personality was as omnipresent. When Stalin died, he disappeared. Atatürk remains. His story and Turkeys must be remarkable.

So I looked for a book that would tell those stories. Ideally it would have been written by a Turk, someone with the perspective that can only be gained by living it. Alas that was not to be. Turks do write books about Atatürk - lots of them. They don't translate them, it seems. Outside of Turkey the interest in Atatürk is not so great. Mango’s book was a good compromise. Mango was born and raised (to age 21) in Turkey. He experienced Atatürk’s Turkey firsthand. It is still a western outsider’s perspective, but it is one who fully understands the society he is observing. As such he does a good job of helping the reader understand Atatürk managed what was nothing short of a cultural Revolution. There are those (ok, me) who would argue that that was his greatest accomplishment.

Turkey under Atatürk was never a democracy. What Atatürk did was set Turkey on a path towards the creation of a society that could eventually become and sustain democracy. Many of the Turks I met are very worried about the future and the political dominance of Islamists. These are legitimate fears and to the extent that Islamism grows it grows at the expense of Atatürk's legacy. It would be a counter-revolution and a threat to the democracy Turkey has become.

That's why all those images of Atatürk make me optimistic. It is not so much a glorification of him, but of his ideals. Those ideals are modern, progressive, secular and democratic. A country with those ideals will tend to be democratic. Turkey is still populated by Muslims but it is not an Islamic democracy - just a democracy where most citizens practice Islam. There's a difference and they have Atatürk to thank for it.

Turkey: Tour guide, Frommer’s

Having now read a whole bunch of tour guides, I am beginning to look at them collectively in a different light. For me, their main purpose is to provide background, detail and then guidance as I plan my trip. And they do that, but they are also like the menu at a restaurant. They list all the possibilities and then you choose what you will have. But have you ever thought about the menu in reverse? Mostly it is a list of things you could have, but won’t. Guide books are beginning to depress me. They are lists of places I could visit, but won't.

For Turkey, I used Frommer’s, probably the most mainstream of all the many possibilities. Of the countries I have visited so far Turkey is the one about which I knew the least, going in. Some guidebooks target a niche.  Being quirky is their sales point. That works if the guide is adding to what you already know about a place. For me, knowing so little, I needed thorough and comprehensive. Frommer’s delivers.

The guide book describes six different regions, any of which would merit extended exploration. Given the nature of my project. It was kind of like Frommer was teasing me. Ankara, the capital, was a given and for the second city, Istanbul was the obvious choice. So that's it? No, that was impossible. We’d be missing so much. Turkey is such a large, diverse and beautiful country, two cities would not be enough. But then the question is: of the other four, which three do you leave out? We settled on Izmir and the opportunity to see the Aegean Coast and Ephesus, the ancient Greek ruins. I think it was a good choice but I can't help wondering about Bursa and Cappadocia and all the other things we missed.

Turkey: Youth, education.

In many respects, education was the raison d'être of Atatürk’s revolution. Establishing Turkey’s independence and securing Turkish territorial integrity were clearly vital impulses motivating the Turkish nationalists after World War I, but accomplishing those goals did not require a revolution. The revolution was not just political, motivated by Atatürk’s desire to be in charge. No, Atatürk wanted to be in charge in order to accomplish a revolution - a cultural Revolution. Atatürk believed the long-term success of Turkey depended on a cultural transformation from Eastern (Ottoman) tradition to Western “civilized” modernity. Turkey’s competition was Europe and they were outperforming them. Atatürk believed Turkey’s old ways were holding the country back and he was determined to shed them.

Bilkent's Gate

Education was the means for social transformation and had the notable side benefit of creating a constituency supportive of the policies going forward. As a result education and Turkey’s youth had a special place in the heart of Turkey’s unquestioned leader. They figure prominently in his rhetoric and mythology. Given the extraordinary devotion of Turks to Atatürk, even to this day, his commitment to education remains a core value of Turkish society. Turks take education seriously and have created a system that compares favorably with its European neighbors.

K-12 education is compulsory and admission to the university is competitive. There is a single nationwide, three-hour exam which creates a hierarchy among students and allocates the most desired placements based on performance. On the surface this is an egalitarian merit-based system. The reality is that like in the United States, exam prep is vital and exam prep courses cost money. Do the wealthy have an advantage? Of course they do, but in Turkey that advantage ends at the university's gates.

Once you get in, the Turkish university student has a pretty sweet deal. Their education will cost them virtually nothing. Tuition is non-existent, housing and board are provided. At Bilkent University (Turkey’s #1 and that's not just according to Murat, a proud alumnus, Wikipedia agrees) students had at their disposal anything they could need. The campus is immense (5000 acres, Harvard in comparison is 210 acres) and is more like a city unto itself with stores, a hospital, its own mosque (and religious space for minorities) and associated business enterprises. It is the realization of Atatürk’s vision for his country. It turns out graduates who in global competition take a backseat to no one.

Turkey: Medical

Istanbul

Some federal judges in the United States believe that America's new health insurance regime is unconstitutional. In Turkey things are a little different. Turkey’s constitution guarantees its citizens ‘Social Security’ and explicitly charges the state with the responsibility to make it happen.

That power in the hands of the state does not set Turks off as it does so many Americans. They are used to an activist state that makes policy in many very important aspects of their life. There does not seem to be a Turkish Glenn Beck, with his hair on fire about how this is the first step down the path to dictatorship.

Upscale, Private

Turkey is going the other direction on that path. Today the Turkish state has a smaller footprint in Turks' lives than has been true at many points in its history, including especially the ‘glory days’ of the Atatürk era. So Turks are used to the government taking responsibility for healthcare, they expect it - I think they even like it.

So everything is just fine, then? Well, as always, the devil is in the details. As always with health care, the question is about quality and accessibility. Americans want top-quality and they want it on demand. They probably would not be happy with the Turkish public system. But then, significant numbers of Turks feel the same way it seems.

Bilkent University 'Clinic'

Reform of the system has been an important part of the ruling AKP's governing program. Consistent with their general approach, they are adding market elements to the system, reducing relatively the state's role.  According to the PM’s pre-election rhetoric, they aren't done yet. Has it improved healthcare for Turks? The people I asked seem to be okay with what they had, but there do seem to be growing differences between classes. Wealthier Turks and can afford extra payments and supplemental insurance and have access to better care. Is that good or bad? I don't know, but it is not unlike a lot of other countries.

Turkey Academic: Kesselman

In the CHP Cabinet Room

Finding a comparative politics text book that has a chapter on Turkey is more difficult than one might think. The book I currently use, Hauss’ Comparative Politics does not have a chapter, even in the online supplemental materials. The publisher of that text (Cengage) does have other comparative politics texts and one of them, Kesselman did have a chapter on Turkey among its online resources, written by a Turkish scholar Ersin Kalaycioglu. So that's what I read to provide the academic foundation for understanding Turkish politics.

The High Court Statues: Justice & Atatürk

I found one, so what's the big deal? Well, first, there are several approaches to the study of comparative politics; institutional & cultural, just to name the two most common. No matter which approach one takes, the SOP (standard operating procedure) is to take that approach and apply it to several countries. After doing that the patterns (similarities and differences) begin to appear and make sense.

Turkey is not one of the countries included by most authors in their set. To me this is a surprise considering the dearth of democracies where the dominant religion is Muslim and the importance of understanding the intersection of Islam and democracy to the United States, a country with its army in two such countries, trying to build a democracy and get out.

Local Political Party HQ

What this means to me is that the type of chapter I would want for my students - one with a focus on history and culture - does not appear to be available for Turkey. The Kesselman chapter I read does a good job setting out for students the context of Turkish politics (history and demographics) and provides an overview of key players (institutions) but does not explore what I think is the most interesting question: why Turkey is the way it is. Another issue with the chapter is that it appears to have been completed in 2004 - more than six years ago. A lot has happened in Turkey in the last six years. It is past time for an update.

This presents a dilemma. I would like to include Turkey as a formal part of my course, but how do you do it without appropriate reading material?

Back to Turkey

I wish...  But no we are not headed back to Turkey.  By now you all know how it works.  Long after I leave a place, I am still reading and writing and knocking off some of those '25 things' that don't need to be done 'in country'.  I have another bunch of those done for Turkey and over the next couple days will post them before returning to post the last few entries for Cuba.  Very soon, MC and I will be leaving for about a month in China.  Those post should start in a couple weeks.