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Category: ART

  • OSMAN KAVALA BOOK TALLK

    OSMAN KAVALA BOOK TALLK

    Osman Kavala Trial examined at an International Book Talk via Zoom

    April 20, 2020, New York

    Research Institute on Turkey (RIT), Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project (TLSP) and Osman Kavala Solidarity Team organized an international panel focusing on a compilation, a book previously produced by 300 friends, organizations and initiatives for Osman Kavala’s 62nd birthday. The panel covered the solidarity campaign #FreeOsmanKavala and the story behind the production of the book, the state of his trial, how it affects civil society in Turkey as well as concerns amid COVID-19 as he is within this higher risk age group and certain basic rights such as the right to nutrition and the right to health are not precisely looked after.

     

    The panel was hosted via Zoom with the participation of more than 150 attendees from 76 global human rights organizations, institutes, NGOs, cultural organizations and universities, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Article 19, PEN International, European Cultural Foundation, Goethe-Institut, Mercator Stiftung, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Chrest Foundation, Arter, SAHA, National Academies of Sciences Human Rights Committee, International Commission of Jurists, Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression, Freedom House, Bar Human Rights Committee, the Law Society of England and Wales; several academics, independents artists, curators, journalists and writers as well as representatives from the German Parliament, German Foreign Ministry, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Council of Europe, and Consulate General of Sweden to name a few.

    The panel started with the opening remarks of Ayşe Bingöl Demir (TLSP) and Eylem Delikanlı (RIT). Drawing attention to the alarming reports on serious attacks on and “judicial harassment” of human rights defenders, journalists, politicians, lawyers and all expressing their critics toward the government in Turkey, Bingöl Demir underlined the importance of the international community to find ways to come together and carry out much needed discussion on what needs to be done to address these issues, resist against the oppressive trends and secure Osman Kavala’s and all political prisoners’ immediate release amid COVID-19 pandemic.

    Elaborating the purposes of the panel, Delikanlı mentioned “Not only did we gather here today to elaborate Kavala’s case and the perplexing judicial process but also to highlight the solidarity events around his case, how we can envision creative ways to strengthen collaborations and build stronger relationships to act together within this shrinking civil space—not only in Turkey but also globally.”

    Osman Kavala sent a message from prison through his lawyer, which was read at the event. After saluting the speakers and participants in his message, he stated “Unfortunately, there is a collective effort to continue my detention. Meanwhile, the mentality and the practices that instrumentalize my detention also continue. Together with me, there are local administrators (mayors) and journalists who lost their freedom through these unjust imprisonments. Despite all, I believe the ones who defend human rights, law, and freedom will change this dark tableau.”

    Asena Günal, executive director of Anadolu Kültür, shared in detail the judicial process Osman Kavala has been facing since October 2017, when he was first arrested, and provided a first-hand account on the arbitrary nature of prosecutions he has been made subject to up until now. On the reason why Osman Kavala has been targeted, Günal stated that “He symbolized the belief that there could still be law in this country. And exactly for this reason, his detention and arrest signify the criminalization of all these civilian and democratic activities and the persons and institutions that partake in them. By arresting him, the government wants to browbeat everyone who claims their rights and particularly those who work in the field of civil society and culture and arts.”

    Human Rights Watch Turkey director with Europe and Central Asia division, Emma Sinclair-Webb continued with her remarks about the trials. Elaborating how the court handled each proceeding, she said “I think it’s very important to bring back this human aspect to this proceeding and how extremely tough they have been on those closest to Osman Kavala.” She shared her assessment of Kavala’s case and the trial as well as the ongoing prosecution under which he has been detained. She underlined Turkey’s failure to implement the European Court of Human Rights’ December 2019 judgment in which it found Turkey in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and requested Kavala’s immediate release. She also discussed the broader context of politicized trials, misuse of anti-terror legislation and “crimes against the state” charges. She concluded “Osman Kavala’s trial is a part of a whole wave of unfair trials in Turkey.”

    Murat Çelikkan, the co-director of Hafıza Merkezi, continued the discussion by elaborating the effects of Osman Kavala trial by stating that “All the civil society activities are being criminalized with an indictment in Osman’s case and with the Gezi trials. His arrest and accusations against him are not only agony for himself, for his family and friends but also a threat to civil society in general. This has a paralyzing effect on civil society organizations.”

    Nancy Kricorian, a New York–based writer and organizer talked specifically about the project that she organized with Osman Kavala on Istiklal Avenue on April 24, 2015 around the memorial commemoration of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. She recited a poem she wrote for Osman Kavala; the last part of it reads as “Evening comes. We let the curtain fall and step back from the window. Dinner is on the table. There is an old song on the radio, one that reminds us of our youth. Were people kinder then?” The poem had an emotional impact on the participants.

    Following the presentations 4 discussants shared their brief comments about the panel, the trial and their personal relationships with Osman Kavala.

    Nacho Sánchez Amor, Member of the European Parliament (Spain) and current Standing Rapporteur for Turkey stated that “Osman Kavala’s case has become a litmus test, a real proof for the sincerity of the reforms in Turkey. I don’t have a lot of hope given what happened in the last months… They are the most public proof that the Turkish government and the Turkish judiciary, without any kind of shame, are conducting the cases in a political way.”

    Claudia Roth, Vice President of the German Parliament said “I do think that this is an encouraging, inspiring and hopeful example for global solidarity. I remember Osman Kavala long before Gezi, a bridge builder, a person of arts and culture dedicated to democracy, a real European… He is not alone and we will not give up to ask ‘Free Osman Kavala.’”

    Elazar Barkan, Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and Director of SIPA’s Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy Concentration & ISHR, continued “Now with COVID-19, we learned to reevaluate the concept of a hero; people who put their lives in the line in order to improve the situation of others, in order to support and to take care of people whom they don’t know… By committing ourselves to social activism and human rights activism I am sure we are contributing to Osman’s well-being even if he is in prison.”

    Sabina Sabolović of the curatorial collective What, How & for Whom—directors of Kunsthalle Wien—shared her personal experience on working with Osman Kavala. She stated that without Osman Kavala, the 11th Istanbul Biennial exhibition that was curated by WHW would not have happened; Osman Kavala did not only support the people in culture and arts by providing resources but also by connecting them with the right people and institutions.

    Following a Q&A in which the attendees asked various questions on different aspects of Kavala’s ongoing detention and potential campaign ideas, the panel was concluded by the participants reiterating their willingness to continue their commitment and collaboration to end Osman Kavala’s detention.

    To view the entire event please visit: 

  • Speaking Through Silence – Eylem Delikanli

    Speaking Through Silence – Eylem Delikanli

    • I collaborated with artist/activist Aylin Tekiner in an effort to deconstruct “silence” and her art through oral history. (…) Aylin shattered her silence by taking a historic journey to her past and searching for missing pieces about herself and her father.

      – EYLEM DELIKANLI –

    My particular interest in silence and denial within the larger realm of memory studies is driven by the sheer ambition of answering one question: “what breaks silence?” As oral historians, we co-create narratives of various traumatic events and histories in an endless effort to locate these in some particular time in history that would otherwise melt into air. These narratives or testimonies are then curated in various forms to be publicly accessible. Depending on how we define oral history within the larger context, each one of us gears towards community engagement projects, art exhibitions, academia or archival work to achieve our specific goals, be it for social change, co-creating collective memory or even for commercial purposes.

    In May 2016, I collaborated with artist/activist Aylin Tekiner in an effort to deconstruct “silence” and her art through oral history. Our collaboration was then exhibited at the Columbia University OHMA Exhibition in April and was part of a workshop at Oral History Conference in Long Beach, California in October 2016. The intimate space co-created during the interview helped us elaborate Aylin’s life starting from the assassination of her father, Zeki Tekiner in 1980 in Turkey. Silence as a theme emerges in her life story and defines her current artistic work. Aylin shattered her silence by taking a historic journey to her past and searching for missing pieces about herself and her father. Here, I present 4 audio pieces of the longer interview by highlighting the themes of post memory and silence in each episode.

     

    Part 1: ‘Father in Past Tense’

    Marianne Hirsch, in her grandiose work, The Generation of Post Memory[1], captures how memory is transferred to those who are not actually there to live an event and how the act of trans-generational transfer takes place. In this audio piece, Aylin Tekiner details, as a 1,5 generation, how she gathered all the details about her father’s assassination through reading court files and talking to the first hand witnesses. It is important to note that the language she utilizes, which in this case is Turkish, reveals a second layer of understanding about how she verbalizes this constructed memory. Turkish language has two past tenses:

    1. “di” past tense is used when we witness an event in the past and tell about it in the present.
    2. “miş” (sounds mish) past tense is used when we hear about an event from someone else and talk about it in the present.

    Through the first audio piece Aylin starts talking in the “miş” past tense when talking about her father.

    Only the following information, that is about 10”of a 5’45” audio, is based on her own knowledge:

    “I was born on January 18th, 1978 in Nevsehir. I am the last of three kids.”

    The rest of the story is expressed in “miş” past tense that is utilized by a non-witness but told in a detailed fashion and fluidity that a witness would have had. She also switches from “miş” to “di” past tense and vice versa.

     

    Part 2: “Piecing Together”

    Theory of post memory includes components of visuality, be it pictures or other forms of objects. During this audio piece Aylin explains how she first came across newspaper headlines and pictures about her father’s funeral at the age of 5 and how she kept silent about what she discovered.

    In their paper Toward a Science of Silence, Charles B. Stone et al. argue that certain silences, at times, lead to facilitation and silenced memory could potentially be remembered and expressed if appropriate potential cues and situational demands or motives are present.[2] Aylin, in this case, pulled a photographic cue to try to remember how her silence took shape at an early age in her life.

    Stone et al. treat silence not just as the absence of sound but as “the refusal or failure to speak out, refusal and failure to remember.” Their following classification of silence is instrumental in understanding how oral historians can detect mnemonic silences during interviews:

    Four types of silences:

    1. Refusing to remember overtly while remembering covertly
    2. Refusing to remember overtly and covertly
    3. Failing to remember overtly while remembering covertly
    4. Failing to remember overtly and covertly[3]

    A critical moment in Aylin’s narrative is when she talks about the moment of discovering her own silence. She explains this moment as a turning point when a journalist asked about her father’s court case, she then realizes that she does not even know the names of the murderers. She emphasizes that not even the word “murder” was clearly utilized by her family to define what happened to her father. The silence of her family includes mentioning the father only as a “good guy” without mentioning the political nature of this assassination as well as her mother’s deliberate efforts to mask the sad story to provide a happier life for her three children. However, all these efforts of masking and mnemonic silences did not necessarily force Aylin to forget, in contrary, they served as a facilitation for her to strive to discover more about her silent past.

    In his book, The Elephant in The Room, Eviatar Zerubavel describes conspiracy of silence as a phenomenon whereby a group of people tacitly agree to outwardly ignore something of which they are personally aware.[4] Once Aylin’s silence was broken triggered by a question posed by a journalist, she rushed into several forms of acts to complete the story by talking to her family, talking to witnesses, searching for the sound of her father through archives as well as searching for the photographs. She describes this urgency as a feeling of sadness and as a fact that all those years nobody made an effort to commemorate him.

     

    Part 3: “Breaking all Silences”

    Politics of denial play an integral part in creating collective silence. How authority controls access to information and media feeds into creating not only silence but also silence of silence, which Zerubavel successfully defines as meta silence. He continues to describe the citizen, who makes the authoritarian regime possible, as someone not speaking, not looking, not asking afterward or not once curious.

    In this third episode, Aylin talks about the meta silence about disappearances and assassinations in Turkey. She shares her experiences at Collective Memory Platform as a member and how that experience affected her in her activism and art. She targeted collective silence around these deaths that were in a way compared to each other in terms of who was worthy of speaking. We hear, in her stories, how social structure of denial prolong the silence and how silence is indeed a collective endeavor.

     

    Part 4: “My Own Voice”

    In the final piece, Aylin talks about her latest art performance “Do all daddies have gray suit?”, a shadow theatre that exemplifies individual and collective silences around her father’s assassination from the perspective of a two-year-old girl.

    When dealing with a traumatic past, do we recognize our own silences? Do we name them as silences? By acknowledging the presence of the elephant in the room, Aylin deliberately focused on various silences in her life to be able to either remember parts of her history or to build what does not exist in her memory. Her next move was to make all these silences “audible and visual” in the public domain. She also undertook collaborative and organized efforts to complete the cycle of “breaking the silence”.

    Before we started our interview, Aylin largely spoke about silence without necessarily defining it in specific terms. Intersubjectivity defines the nature of our work. When our own silences clash with the interviewee’s, a particularly difficult path opens up which, in turn, complicates the flow of the interview. By deconstructing silences and meta silences, we aim to reach the story behind what is presented as the story. In this specific collaboration, it helped both Aylin and me to conceptualize her experience and artistic work under the overarching subject: “silence”.

     

    Footnotes:

    [1] Marianne Hirsch, The Generation of Post Memory, Writing & Visual Culture After the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, New York.

    [2] Charles B. Stone et al, Toward a Science of Silence: The Consequences of Leaving a Memory Unsaid, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Sage Publications, DOI:10.1177/1745691611427303

    [3] ibid

    [4] Eviatar Zerubavel, The Elephant in the Room: Silence & Denial in Everyday Life, Oxford University Press, 2006 (electronic version @Columbia)