Istanbul, 7 June 2013

Turkey was no democratic paradise before Erdogan’s JDP came to office. But the balance of power was such that no single actor (be it a party, civil association, or the military itself) was able to impose its will on the society, even if they wanted to. Now that JDP has amassed great power and remains without serious rivals, the country cannot afford anything other than becoming truly democratic so as to safeguard liberties against a tyranny of the majority, and that has not been happening. The result is greater polarization, which erupted in this week’s protests.

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October 2011

A foreign friend of mine has recently asked me the question and I am writing this essay as an attempt at an answer: Why is it so difficult to find a fan of Orhan Pamuk in Turkey? We have a veritable puzzle: The man is a Nobel laureate, considered worldwide as one of the major writers of his generation and, for that matter, he is a best-seller in the country in question. Yet, when you ask a literate Turk about Pamuk, the answer you are likely to hear is, “I gave up his book after fifty pages or so.” Who is buying all those books, and why don’t we like our only Nobel laureate?

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