Orhan Kemal Cengiz

Articles de cet auteur (21)

Turquie - Le Roi est nu
29 juin 2013

Ces violations massives des droits de l’homme risquent de ramener peu à peu la Turquie au statut qui était le sien dans les années 90 vis à vis des Nations Unis et du Conseil de l’Europe.
Je pourrais entreprendre de vous expliquer longuement la nouvelle loi sur le MIT [Organisation Nationale du Renseignement], écrire que même Orwell n’aurait pu rêver d’un service de renseignement qui conserve les analyses d’urine des gens [référence aux révélations récentes du journal Taraf sur les pratiques (...)
Turquie, l’humour ou la mort
24 septembre 2012

Toute idée, toute idéologie qu’on n’aurait pas frappée du sceau de « l’impertinence », « de la blague » ou de l’humour, peut se transformer en instrument de mort.
Il y a quelque temps, j’ai pris part, dans cette même colonne, à une discussion sur la question de l’homosexualité en Turquie. Des confrères avaient abordé le sujet et je poursuivais en disant que si ce genre de débats pouvait très bien ne pas faire évoluer l’orientation sexuelle des gens, il pouvait au moins avoir l’avantage de « modifier, ne (...)
Turquie : regarder son passé et poursuivre son chemin
9 septembre 2012

Orhan Kemal Cengiz nous raconte comment, sur son chemin, la Turquie vient de croiser un officier arménien et un Atatürk anatolien...
Deux moines Zen, Tanzan et Ekido, vont le long d’une route rendue passablement boueuse par la pluie. Approchant d’un village, ils voient une jeune femme hésitant à franchir la mer de boue s’étalant devant elle. Si elle traverse, elle salit sa robe en soie. Tanzan comprend tout de suite la situation, attrape la fille et la fait passer de l’autre côté. Les moines (...)
Why the Hrant Dink case is not going anywhere ?
11 October 2011

Last Monday the prosecutor read out his final opinion in the Hrant Dink case, meaning the case has approached its final stages. Basically, the prosecutor said that the Trabzon cell of the Ergenekon terrorist organization carried out this murder. But he also said that he is unable to establish concrete links between Ergenekon and Dink’s murderers. We can interpret his remarks as a confession of a failure to identify the real perpetrators of this murder. However, in spite of this failure, he (...)
Turquie, Orthodoxie, la croix et l’atout
28 août 2011

Faire descendre le patriarche orthodoxe de sa croix, n’est pas seulement un devoir moral pour Ankara, c’est aussi, et dans le même temps, un impératif dicté par le bon sens.
Il est de tels problèmes en Turquie que, s’ils intéressent la quasi-totalité du globe, ils peuvent, pour nous, ne revêtir aucune importance. Et ces problèmes, si nous ne les comprenons pas complètement, nous ne nous y intéressons pas plus. Par exemple, 37 États des USA ont diffusé une déclaration relative à la situation du (...)
How Turks and Kurds see each other and Kurdish question
30 June 2011

I am currently reading a report by the Konda research group titled “Kürt Meselesinde Algı ve Beklentiler” (Perceptions and Expectations on the Kurdish issue). The report was prepared based on interviews conducted with Kurds and Turks in 2010 with 10,393 subjects being interviewed in Turkey’s 29 provinces. The data gathered from these interviews provide extremely eye-opening information towards understanding both Turkey and the Kurdish issue. I would like to share with you some of the (...)
The ICC and crimes against humanity in Turkey
7 June 2011

Finally Ratko Mladic, the former chief of staff of the Army of Republika Srpska, has been arrested and he is on his way to The Hague. This is, of course, a step forward for justice for the victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. I am sure it will be a huge relief for Bosnians to see Mladic accounting for the crimes he has committed before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
This news, of course, was also met with great happiness in Turkey (...)
Islamic revolutions in Egypt and Turkey
8 February 2011

Yesterday I quoted John F. Kennedy’s famous words, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable,” and I claimed that if there is a “radical Islamic” takeover in Egypt, the West is to blame for this because they have supported and turned a blind eye to an extremely repressive and brutal regime that has the potential to turn any opposition into a “radical” movement. The course of events has not yet been completed in Egypt.
Political Islam has always been an (...)
Headscarf ban and Islamist feminists
2 December 2010

There is certainly quite a weird paradox in the whole headscarf discussion. So-called “modern Turks” fight against the idea of women covering themselves, in the name of emancipating them, but the ban on the headscarf serves nothing but the maintenance of the patriarchal culture in Turkey. The male-dominant, patriarchal culture in Turkey dictates that women should stay at home, just look after the kids and stay away from social contact where they would interact with men. Does the very ban on (...)
About an agreement’ between the Patriarchate and government
23 November 2010

Can a ‘secret agreement’ between the Patriarchate and government promote freedom of religion? When I heard that Greek newspaper To Vima had reported that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew had reached a “secret agreement,” I did not find it surprising.
This news, of course, needs to be verified, but given the political culture in Turkey and the well-known attitudes of minorities, an unwritten, undeclared agreement would not be a surprise. However, the (...)