The Double Think

Turks have developed many skills to get through day-to-day life: from dodging cars to swerving to avoid pedestrians, none have been as useful as doublethink, a phrase coined by George Orwell in the novel 1984:

“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

Doublethink is the preferred means of ensuring you win every argument; while it is easy to learn, it is very difficult to master. Below is a guide to what is and what isn’t doublethink:

• You are the leader of a country that has denied allegations of genocide for decades. You have personally presided over the country’s dismissal of Canadian, French and American charges of genocide.

Then you hear of a Chinese crackdown on a minority that shares common ancestry with your citizens.

Regularthink: Avoid bringing up the complicated relationship between a state and its minorities, but cater to both Chinese economic interests and domestic nationalism by purchasing Moo Shu pork and smashing it with a locally-made hammer.

Doublethink: Declare the affair tantamount to “genocide;” a phrase that has ironically become as common a political pander in your country as sex is in the West (see right).

• You have campaigned for greater international involvement in ending the conflict in Gaza, a cause you feel so passionately about you have accused the Israeli president of “knowing how to kill well.”

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant over genocide for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Regularthink: Avoid putting your recent investments in Sudan at risk by denying you have ever heard of the country and if anyone brings it up, change the topic to how well the Israeli president kills.

Doublethink: Disregard international consensus and invite Bashir, giving him the red carpet treatment.

• Inter-ethnic violence in Cyprus resulted in your country invading in 1974 to assist Cypriots of your own ethnicity in establishing their own state on the grounds all people have a right to govern themselves to escape oppression.

Meanwhile, your country has engaged in armed conflict for the past thirty years with Kurdish separatists demanding their own state.

Regularthink: It pretty much “sucks to be Kurdish.”

Doublethink: Disregard Kurdish concerns on the grounds that sovereign nations cannot be broken up and divided.

Turkish foreign policy might seem opportunistic to those who think, but it sure makes sense to those of us who are able to think double.