An Interview With Muge Gocek

[iminhokis]

http://www.aztagdaily.com/interviews/gocek.htm

 

 

 

On the Foundations of Turkey

An Interview with Muge Gocek

By Khatchig Mouradian

 

 

 

 

 

"Historians have primarily been concerned with protecting the interests of

the state. This has been the dominant historiography since the founding of

the Turkish Republic," says Muge Gocek in this interview. She adds, however,

"Today, there are new works, like the works of Taner Akcam and the

interviews of Halil Berktay that approach the State's views critically.

These, put together with the fact that recently - in the last two decades -

especially the Aras publishing house in Turkey has been translating

Turkish-Armenian literature into Turkish, make me think, or hope and wish

that there may be a post-national critical narrative developing."

 

Gocek, Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at the

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, certainly does much more than hoping and

wishing, however, regarding what she calls a "post-national critical

narrative." She is one of the few Turkish voices in wilderness, organizing

conferences that bring together Turkish and Armenian scholars who are

prepared to set aside prejudices and confront history with all

its ugliness. She writes papers and gives lectures on the Armenian genocide,

and is currently, authoring a book on the subject. [.....] Read Article: http://www.aztagdaily.com/interviews/gocek.htm

[DominO123]

For a reason I missed that thread. Like I said before, I really respect that woman. She is the most open minded Turkish researcher in the field, that I had ever known. She will be able to criticize everything, not only the old regime and new one, but as well Kemal Ataturks regime, something that Akçam and others I have read seems to not be able to do completly. That woman entirly differenciate herself from her Turkishness by thinking that before everything else she's first human and everyone are really equal.

 

I am patiently waiting her new book.

[DominO123]

From the interview.

 

When I went into the Ottoman archives to research the documents existing on

these three schools, I had no trouble getting documents on the first two,

but then had all the trouble on the third one. I was very surprised because

this was education; what I was looking at really did not have any political

bearings at the time. The fact that I was systematically not shown any

documents that the Ottoman Armenians themselves had written not only on this

school but on education as a whole made me realize that even though the

archives were open, the documents that the people got to see were actually

inspected by a group of people/officials before they were permitted out. I

was told that all such documents I located in the catalogues were either

missing, miscataloged, in repair or actually not related to my topic. There

was something strange about this and I did write to them about this and said

that I both as a scholar and a Turkish citizen was very disillusioned by the

fact that it wasn't as open as it should be. The archives may be open to

others who use them selectively and who upfront tell what it is that they're

going to "find" from the archives. Obviously, that's not how scholarship

works. Therefore, although the archives are there and technically indeed

open, how much of an advantage that gives the Turkish scholars or anyone is

debatable.