The Fascist Lite

Erdogan broke a very important rule of Prime Minister-ship (“Don’t call your country fascist”) a couple weeks ago, sparking a long debate (link Turkish):

“For years… those of different ethnic identity were expelled from our country. This was the product of a fascist understanding. We have made mistakes in the past time and time again, but in hindsight we see what we have done wrong.”

Usually, f-words are reserved for disliked policies, hated leaders, or the parents of teenagers going through a “left-wing phase.” But Erdogan was accusing Turkey of past fascism, and implying the people had implicitly condoned such policies.

Some offered back-handed praise, saying it was a good apology but not enough, but most preferred the traditional “attack the character, not the issue.” Granted, if the measure of a good fascist is how much you can scare minorities, Erdogan himself is no saint, boasting “one language, one nation; love it or leave it,” just earlier this year.

But when the head of the Jewish community Silvio Ovadia points out (link Turkish) that the Jewish community shrank from 60,000 members at the start of the Republic to today’s 20,000, and that the Greek community shrank from roughly half a million to today’s 2,500, there might be some fascism, or at least fascism-lite.

And the country definitely has enough diversity to keep a fascist happily busy well into retirement. Below are a list of some of the more well-known minorities and some of the events that make the European Court of Human Rights cry late at night:

Greeks-

The Greeks got the population exchanges of 1923, where 1,500,000 Greeks who had lived in Asia Minor for thousands of years were traded with Greece for half a million Turks living there, in a bilateral effort for ethnic homogeneity. They also bore the brunt of the 1955 Pogrom, a government-organized mob assaulting Greeks, sacking their property and just generally making them feel unwelcome.

Jews-

The Jews got the 1942 Wealth Tax, a tax that was disproportionately levied against minorities rendering the previously well-off community impoverished, imprisoned, and preferring a never-ending war in a desert to living in Turkey.

Armenians-

The Armenians got the events of 1915; where hundreds of thousands died (or didn’t), either through state-sponsored genocide or as self-defense by Turks who were just sitting around minding their own business. Right now there is an ongoing healthy, rational debate about the events of 1915, with one camp denying any genocide, and the other camp obviously being traitors.

Kurds –

The Kurds got the landmines.

Though, in Turkey’s defense, it’s probably only Fascism if you do all these things to only one group.