Istanbul
Book Fair-2006
An
Overview and Panel on US Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau
Orhan
Pamuk's poster (left), Emre Kongar (right)
Istanbul TUYAP Book Fair, 2006
Photo: Yuksel Oktay
The 25th Istanbul Book Fair was held at the TUYAP Fair and Convention
Center in Beylikduzu, 40 kms west of the
city centre between Oct 28 and Nov 5,
2006. The theme of the fair, organized
jointly by TUYAP and the Turkish Publishers
Association, was "The 25 Years of
the Book Fair: A Journey Story."
There were close to 500 publishers at
the fair and over 250 events, with over
800 Turkish and foreign authors participating.
Author and literary critic Dogan Hizlan
was the honorary guest author of the fair.
Initial estimates were that over 300,00
would attend the fair, surpassing last
years actual attendance of 317,000. However,
the bad weather and snow that hit Istanbul
on Saturday might have kept away some
of the visitors.
The presentations and panels covered a large variety of subjects,
from poets to novelists. The first one
was "Investigative Reporting from
Ugur Mumcu to Present." where Ugur
Dundar and Haluk Sahin were among the
speakers. There were several presentations
on "Children's Books." Yalcin
peksen talked about his book, "The
Turkler." Mahir Kaynak and Omer Lutfi
Mete spoke on "Who is running the
world."
There were three presentations related to the Armenian issue. The
first presentation, "The Armenian
Genocide Lies with the Armenian Documents'
was made by Mehmet Perincek and Orhon
Kologlu. The second presentation was by
Former Ambassador Gunduz Aktan who spoke
on "Racism in Europe and Armenian
Genecodide Claims." There were around
15 at the presentation and Aktan spoke
for half an hour, opening the floor for
questions for the next half hour, which
were mostly related to Turkey's membership
in the European Union. To a question as
to why Orhan pamuk and Elif Safak would
be advocating the Armenian genocide, Gunduz
Aktan stated that it is probably due to
lack of knowledge on what really happened
during the war years, stating that he
first learned of the Armenian issue back
in 1983 although he was working for the
foreign services.
The third was a panel discussion which was identified as , ''Facing
History In Morgenthau's Memoirs'' in the
official catolog, with Attila Tuygan as
the moderator and Ragip Zarakolu and Raffi
Hermonn as the speakers. However, the
poster in front of the "Buyukada"
conference room, with a photograph of
the Ambassador, said, ''Ambassador Morgentau
is in Istanbul after 90 years'', with
two speakers added, Ms. Gulcicek Gunel
and Mr. Ali Sait Cetinoglu.
Inside the room, there was a large photograph of Morgenthau hanging
on the front wall with a statement, ''Welcome
to Turkey''. Three books in Turkish, translation
of Morgnethau's Book,'' Buyuk Elci Morgentau's
Hikayesi'', "Turk Kaynaklarinda Ermeni
Soykirimi - Toplu Makaleler 2” by
Vahakn N. Dadrian, translated by Attila
Tugan, and another book called, "Ittihat
Terakkiden Gunumuze, Yek Tarz-i siyaset:
Turklestirme'' by Gulcicek Gunel, were
displayed on the table. Many books by
Armenians and others on the Armenian issue
are now being translated into Turkish
by Belge Publishers in Istanbul..
First, Ali Sait Cetinoglu spoke about Morgenthau and praised him
as being the witness to the Armenian genocide.
This was followed by a talk on the ''Turkification of Anatolia''
by a Kurdish writer Gulcicek Gunel, which
was not listed in the original program
advertised.
Probably there were never so much praise of Morgenthau, who was
characterized as ''witness to history''
and ''the first one to recognize the Armenian
genocide.'' Ragip Zarakolu opened the
panel speaking highly of Morgenthau and
began his talk with the relocation of
Greeks of Anatolia. He stated that the
world was watching the resettlement of
Armenians in 1915 and that the New York
Times had published 250 articles on this
subject. Than he welcomed Henry Morgenthau
to Istanbul.
The first speaker, Ali Sait Cetinoglu, with whom I had a chance
to chat before the panel who said he was
unemployed and was not a writer, spoke
highly of Morgenthau also and characterized
him as a very courageous man, recording
everything he witnessed daily, even the
Battle of Dardannelles. Cetinoglu claimed
that Enver Pasa had told Morgenthau that
he had taken care of the Armenian issue
in 3 months, something that the Germans
had been trying for 30 years. Then, Cetinoglu
made reference to Refik Rifki, who, he
calimed, stated that the Ottoman History
was written by lies, which is not considered
a bad thing in the east. Cetinoglu also
stated that the Ottomans had used the
Anatolian Greeks as human shields during
the war in Trabzon.
Gulcicek Gunel, who started by stating that she grew up in a small
village of Kozluk town of Batman and she
did not speak a word of Turkish until
she was enrolled in the elementary school
and that her grandmother was Armenian.
Then when she went to Van, she met Lazs
and Circassians for the first time and
later she married a Turkish man. Referring
to the multi-national and multi-lingual
Ottoman society, she said that Turks were
an insignificant part (igreti azinlik.)
Gunel also made references to some of
the earlier writings of Ziya Gokalp stating
that Turks were an insignificant part
of the society, ignoring the fact that
Ziya Gokalp was the principal advocate
of creating the nation of Turks based
on culture and not ethnicity. In fact
Ziya Gokalp also advocated the use of
Turkish in prayers and in everyday life,
even stating that this leads one to one's
native country, the fatherland, in one
of his poems.
Then, Raffi Hermonn spoke about Morgentahu also, addressing the
audience with "Merhaba" in several
different languages. Hermonn first stated
that he is back in Istanbul after an absence
of 25 years and spoke about the genocide,
referring to it as "the great catastrophe."
He claimed that, following the disastrous
Balkan war, the Moslems fleeing from the
Balkans decided to make Anatolia their
home and planned the deportation of the
minorities living there, and no one in
the diaspora has committed any crime against
humanity.
The presentations covered the entire allocated time of one hour
and
Ragip Zarakolu, as the moderator,
said that there were no time left for
questions. A gentelman sitting at the
front objected and told Ragip that the
audience should be told ''who Morgenthau
really was'' and that ''he had not witnessed
anything, never ventured outside the environs
of the city, visiting only Jerusalem during
his tenure, and his book is nothing more
than what his Armenian secretary and Armenian
translator wrote.'' He said there was
no time and repeated what he had said
earlier, ''Mr. Morgenthau, welcome to
Istanbul'' and 30 of the 40 attendees
clapped their hands as if they did not
want me to say anything more. Ragip Zarakoglu
stated that the discussions could continue
outside. It was shocking to witness this
at a Book Fair in Istanbul and not as
if this was at an Armenian conference
outside of Turkey.
When we all went to the corridor, the gentelman who asked the questions
showed an Orange Book, "The Murder
of A Nation'', by Amb. Henry Morgenthau,
which is a re-print of the sections on
Armenian issue from Morgentahu's book,
and told Ragip Zarakolu that they should
translate this book also, complete with
the title, reading several anti-Turkish
passages from the book. Zarakolu commented
that he had never seen the book. Prof.
Turkkaya Ataov and Amb. Bilal Simsir were
downstairs, signing their books at the
"Ileri Yayincilik" stand. The
gentelman took refuge with them and told
them about the panel.
Prof. Dr. Turkkaya and his new
books and monographs
Prof. Dr. Turkkaya Ataov was at the fair every day, signing his
new Turkish books, and old books as well,
which must number now close to one hundred.
1- MAVI KITABA YANIT,
has several references to Amb. Morgenthau
2- ERMENI BELGE DUZMECILIGI
3- AMERIKA NATO ve TURKIYE
4- SIYONIZM ve IRKCILIK
Prof. Ataov recently completed two excellent monographs on the
war propaganda and the fate of the Armenians.
1. THE
BRITISH BLUE BOOKS, Vehicles of War Propaganda 1914-1918”
2. What
Happened to the Ottoman Armenians
On Thursday, Amb. Bilal Simsir joined Prof. Ataov at the Ileri
Yayinevi, signing his books, including his
new book, "Ataturk ve Cumhuriyet."
Prof. Dr. Turgut Ozakman and "Cilgin Turkler"
Among the many authors at the fair signing their books, Turgut
Ozakman was still busy signing his book,
"Cilgin Turkler" which is still
on the best seller list. In fact, a play
has been created with the same title which
is being staged now.
Posters of Orhan Pamuk
Huge posters of Orhan Pamuk
were hanging at the "Iletisim Yayinlari"
stand, where many of his books were also
displayed. However, there were no presentations
on his winning the Nobel Prize in literature.
In fact, one of the newspapers reported
that the public were not paying too much
attention to his books.
Elif Safak
at the Milliyet Publications Stand
The fair visitors were given an opportunity
to see and talk to Elif Safak who was
at the the Milliyet Publications stand
on Tuesday. According to a friend who
was there, she spoke about her ordeal
with the lawsuit and the publication of
her book, "Baba ve Pic" (soon
to be published in the USA as The Bastard
of Istanbul.) Evidently she emphasized
the lack of memory of historical facts,
referring to the Armenian issue, neglecting
what happened all over the Balkans, which
is not well known in Turkey either.
In an article published in Tercuman, Tuna Serim makes reference
to Elif Safak and states that, despite
"Baba and Pic" being the number
one book on the bestsellers list, not
many were reading her books either.
Events for Children
One of the best aspects of the fair was the events scheduled for
children that included painting workshops
and reading hours. The fair was full of
children of all ages, buying books, asking
questions, and just being kids.
Redhouse
and SEV Publications
After visiting several stands, I stopped at the Redhouse and SEV
Publications stand where I was hoping
to pick up a copy of former Tarsus American
Collge Principal Frank Stone's second
book, but they did not have it. However,
"TAC'li Yillar" and former literature
teacher Haydar Gofer's book, "Hocama
Mektuplar" was available.
Yuksel Oktay, PE
November 5, 2006
Istanbul.
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