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Shake it up Şekerim
by Kerim Balci
Turkey will be represented in the Eurovision Song Contest by Kenan Doğulu's "Shake it up Şekerim." President of the Turkish Language Society ŞÃ¼krü Haluk Akalın has criticized this hybrid language. It seems his anger is not about the use of the English language for a song contest where Doğulu is going to represent Turkey, Turkish people and the Turkish culture. On the contrary, he criticizes the use of Turkish words among English ones.
I am no supporter of Kenan Doğulu's shaky language. Yet this hybrid language is a quite relevant representation of our culture. Turkey is a bit of everything: a bit of democracy with a bit of deep state where the perpetrators of "murders by unknown assailants" are well-known but not apprehended; a bit of Europe with a bit of Asian-Eastern culture where the people cannot differentiate between reality and TV series; a bit of Islam with a bit of laicism where the intellectuals are rising against the teaching of creationism as an alternative to Darwinism; a bit of freedom of expression with a bit of "military surveillance" of newspaper columns; a bit of basic human rights including the right to receive information and a bit of non-accredited newspapers by a certain state apparatus…
Years ago, when some separatist Kurds were elected to Parliament, the then no-worries Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel had said that this was the picture of Turkey. His logic was that Parliament was a representation of the country and that if they existed there in the mountains, they should also exist in Parliament. I am no great fan of Demirel. I would rather turn his logic upside down and say this; "If they exist in Parliament, this is not a representation of their existence; this is a representation of the seriousness of their existence."
This analogy holds for "Shake it up Şekerim" as well. This hybrid language is not the result of considerations about external factors like English becoming a global language. It is about what is going on in Turkey, and not only linguistically. Culturally, politically, economically, religiously, psychologically and even genealogically this nation is a hybrid nation. This needn't be a sign of identity confusion. Hybrid cultures are also the most productive cultures of the history of humanity. But I would rather keep my cynicism about what good can come out of the military's labeling of certain journalists as pro-military and others as not.
Turkey's search for identity is still an ongoing process. This makes certain ideological camps more sensitive to influence and change. "Shake it up Şekerim" is being criticized not because of how we are going to be represented in Finland, but because it says something about who we are. Or, should I say, who we are not?
The press is angry about the military media scandal not because it revealed the mindset of some military officers but because it reveals the immaturity of our democracy. How many revelations about who we are did we get in this first quarter of the year! We are a wonder of economic development and we have one of the largest levels of uneven distribution of economic wealth; we are a strategic ally of the US and our interests in Iraq are in continuous conflict with those of the US; we are the sole successful example of Muslim democracy in the world and we are a country where the rights of the majority are suppressed by a minority… One can add to the list without end.
Don't shake it, sweetie! Be who you are!
Kerim Balci
10.03.2007
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