A Lesson In Irony

In my recent trip to the nation of Turkey, I saw two related cases of irony. The trip, however, was not merely ironic for me, but even more so for a friend of mine there as well, who was of Armenian ancestry. Why that would be ironic should be made clear in what follows.

Irony #1: Nathan correctly (and unintentionally) predicts the 2006 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature

Before I went to Turkey I wanted to do some research (because I am a compulsive reader and like to know information about the places I am about to see). Besides the usual tourist books (the Lonely Planet guide) and the history books, I decided to get a copy of "Istanbul: A Memoir" by the author Orhan Pamuk. I had been familiar with his work since reading a story about his arrest and trial by the Turkish government for making a comment about the Armenian genocide in his novel "Snow," published last year. He was, thankfully, acquitted, but for an author to suffer punishment for writing what is historical fact (or even a reasonable historical interpretation) is highly offensive to me.

Anyway, I read his memoir of his hometown, and it was an excellent book, a mixture of dryly ironic commentary on how his city has consistently thrown away its Turkish charm to appear ever more Western in the last 200 years as well as personal history about his own life and his family. He even manages to comment on the endemic stray dogs in Turkey (which I happened to see first hand). So, what does this have to do with predicting the Nobel Prize? Well, I thought I would attract a great deal of scrutiny for bringing such a pro-Western author to Turkey, but it turns out that customs in Turkey is rather non-rigorous and my bags were not even searched. Towards the end of my trip to Turkey, I found out that Orhan Pamuk had won the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first Turk to win a Nobel Prize. And I could say (sorta) that I knew (of) him back when. At least this is a better story than my discovery of Ricky Martin before he became a big success (shifts eyes).

Irony #2: The Crime of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey and France

I commented earlier how one of my friends who was in Turkey with me was Armenian, and this particular irony is a rather cruel one. According to basic Turkish law, it is a crime to affirm the existence of the Armenian genocide. In fact, the crime is punishable (if one is convicted) by up to 3 years of prison time. This has long been a sticking point in the Turkish attempts to enter the European Union. After all, if Germans are forced to recognize the Holocost (as they do), then it would only be fair to expect other nations to admit their own historical misdeeds. Not that it is very pleasant business to admit massacres. Which Americans would want all of the American Indian massacres to be endlessly displayed prominently in accounts about the United States, after all?

Anyway, France passed, on October 12th, a law that made it a crime in France to deny the Armenian massacre. That puts any Turks who go between France and Turkey in a difficult position, at least if they are forced to confront the issue in both countries. The whole issue strikes me as rather grimly ironic in that two nations noted in the Christian and Muslim worlds, respectively, for their rather anti-religious secular stands are making such a religious issue (if I may use the term) over history. At any rate, I (somehow) avoided being arrested while in Turkey while delicately explaining the issue and at least strongly hinting at my own opinion on the matter. At least the rioting going on in Istanbul while we were there was against someone other than the United States. It was nice to see protests against another nation for a change.