The Transformation of Turkey

The author, assistant professor in sociology at Michigan University (Ann Arbor) with a Ph.D. from Princeton, is interested both in gender studies and Turkish- Kurdish/Turkish-Armenian relations. Her aim is to cure the Turkish mind of its negative syndromes – white-washing mystification and fear – by de- mythologizing the fairytale perception of the country’s history. This includes the worshipping of Mustafa Kemal ‘Atatürk’ and the myth of the Turkish nation’s creation.

Incredibly, Turkish authors seriously claimed that Central Asian Turks were culturally superior to all mankind, Turkish being the basis of all known languages. Even Muhammad (s.) was considered a Turk! (pp. 125 f.) Göçek is a woman with a mission, and courage. This becomes evident in her account of how the Ottoman Empire coalesced into the Turkish Republic with a legacy of patriotism and collective violence. She may be the first Turkish author to assume the Armenian cause by admitting the (pre-Nazi) Turkish genocide, beginning on 24 April 1915, which reduced the proportion of Armenians in Turkey from 10% to a shocking 0.9% in 1927. For still not being discussable in Turkey, the Armenian massacres remain a collective Turkish trauma to this day.