JUF News Executive Editor Aaron B. Cohen traveled to Turkey on an interfaith mission. He spoke to the Turkish Journalists and Writers Foundation in Istanbul Oct. 27. His prepared speech appears below.
"On behalf of my fellow Christian, Muslim, and Zoroastrian visitors from Chicago, I want to express thanks to our friends at the Niagara Foundation for making our visit to Turkey possible. Members of the Journalists and Writers Foundation, we appreciate your hospitality. I thank you for the opportunity you have given me to speak to you.
"Briefly, let me tell you who I am. I was born in Ohio and grew up in Chicago. I am the executive editor of the largest-circulation Jewish community publication in Chicago, which is published by the Jewish Federation. The Jewish Federation is the vakf [community trust] of the Chicago Jewish community. We provide social and welfare services to those in need in our local community, in Israel, and around the world. We don’t help only Jews. For example, In the 1990s the Jewish Federation was the main organization to help Muslim refugees from Bosnia build new lives in Chicago. Together with the Archdiocese of Chicago we provide educational assistance to the Arab Catholic village of Fassouta in the north of Israel. Some of our projects assist the Bedouin Muslims in Israel's southern region. And when there is a catastrophe anywhere in the world—from the massive earthquake in Turkey, to the terrible flooding in Burma and New Orleans, to the horrific tsunami in South Asia— Jews in Chicago open their hearts and their wallets to provide emergency aid to victims, no matter whether they are Muslim, Christian Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish.
"What I want to say comes from the heart and not just from the head. I don’t expect that everyone will accept what I say, but I hope you will listen with an open mind and an open heart.
"Some people say that it is the curse of journalists and writers to see events and to understand people from many different perspectives. I believe that it is a blessing, and that it is the duty of members of our profession not only to see different viewpoints, but also to use our understanding to build bridges, so that people can resolve their differences. Bridges of understanding, respect, and even of love need to be built and crossed in the troubled world of the 21st century. We writers have a role to play. And in doing so, let us not only trust in Allah, but let us also be very careful with our words. Words count. Words heal, but words also kill.
"Jewish-Muslim relations is one area where bridges of understanding are sorely needed. Turkey, I have discovered during my visit, is a country of bridges. In this place are some of the world’s most important bridges; let us cross them together. These bridges must be strengthened, and in some case, they are in need of repair.
"Today, I want to speak to you about friendship.
"Unfortunately Americans in general know very little about Turkey or the Middle East. As children, if we learned anything about Turkey or the Ottoman Empire in public schools, it was as a footnote to European history.
"So I learned about Turkey not because I am an American. I learned about Turkey because I am a Jew. My parents wanted me to know what the Ottoman Empire had done for my people. My synagogue also wanted us children to know.
"In the 1970s my mother, who was an author, wrote a book called “Freedom Next Time.” It was a historical novel about a Jewish family that escaped from persecution in Spain in 1492 and built a new life in Turkey. My own ancestors also had escaped from Spain, but unfortunately they had settled in Poland. As a result my great grandparents and many other relatives who didn’t come to America were murdered in Auschwitz.
"On our way to visit relatives in Israel in 1961, my family stopped in Cyprus and toured the island with a Turkish taxi driver. I was eight years old, and it was the first time I heard the Turkish language. I immediately fell in love with it. As a teenager I became fascinated with Turkish music. As a university student, I spent one year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and felt the echoes of the Ottoman Empire everywhere. In Israel today, as in Ottoman times, freedom of religion, protection of holy places, and respect for Muslims, Christians, and Druze is still the law of land. When I returned to America I studied Turkish at Indiana University. I started learning to play the baglama [Turkish mandolin]—an instrument no one else seemed to have ever heard about.
"By 1979 I had saved enough money to visit Turkey. It was a very bad time here, but I didn’t care, or was too naïve to care. I was interested in Turkish music, not in Turkish politics.
"Two weeks before I came, the movie Midnight Express came out. It showed very negative stereotypes about Turks and Turkey. I saw the movie, but I had no problem getting on an airplane to Istanbul. The Turkey I planned to visit was the Turkey of Sultan Suleyman, of Celaleddin Rumi, of Mustafa Eroglu, of Arif Sag, of Ibrahim Tatlises.
"Taking music lessons in Istanbul and meeting students at Bosphorus University, I actually did worry about being killed… from all the generosity and hospitality, and all the kindness and the wonderful food!
"I say all this not to flatter you. You know your own history and culture, both the good and the bad. You don’t need me to tell you what you already know.
"I say all this because I want you to know that the Jewish people—whether we are Americans or Israelis, or Turks—have always looked to Turkey with expectations and with hope. We hope that you understand us for who we are. No people, no religion, no country, and no history, is easy to understand—neither that of the Turks nor of the Jews. But we need to understand each other, and until recent events, I thought that we have understood each other.
"We Jews are a deeply wounded people, from the Roman expulsion from our birthplace, to persecution by the medieval Muslim Al-Muwahidin and Christian Crusaders, to expulsions from England and Spain, to pogroms in Russia, to the Holocaust. The renaissance of our civilization in the modern state of Israel, is one of the great achievements of one of the oldest indigenous peoples in the Middle East. It represents the closing of a great wound, and a great historical justice.
"You did not wound us. In fact you have been a long-time friend. As an American, as a Jew, as a person with very deep connections to Israel, as a father, as a citizen of this very troubled world, my hope, my prayer, and my request, is that Turkey continue to be a friend, not just for our sake, but also for yours.
"The past few weeks have seen very disheartening developments in Turkish-Israeli relations that trouble my community. Recalling the incitement of the movie Midnight Express, we have seen Ayrilik, a television series broadcast on TRT, which depicts actions by the Israeli army that did not, and do not, occur. To claim that the Israeli Army lines up Palestinians in front of firing squads and deliberately shoots infants is analogous to a blood libel against us.
"People tend to believe what they chose to believe whether or not their beliefs are grounded in reality. That is why our job, as writers and journalists, is so important—we have the power either to tell the truth, or we have the power to fabricate. We must be aware of the consequences of both actions.
"There are many people in the Muslim world, and perhaps among you there are people who also believe, that Jews control the world, pull all the strings in Washington, control all the banks, all the media, and conspire in secret and dark places to plunder and to oppress. I have seen all the evidence I need from Syrian, Iranian, and even Egyptian television, have read the charter of Hamas, and the statements of Hezbollah. I have read the lies, have heard the slander, and have seen the disgusting portrayals of my people in the media and in books by those who wish to harm us, who wish to deny the Jewish people the right to sovereignty and self-determination, let alone the right to self defense. I have seen the glib cartoons comparing Israelis and Jews to Nazis, and have heard the outrageous claims of Holocaust deniers.
"God-forbid Turkey should go down that path, not only for our sake, but also for yours. 'Whoever sows wheat with the devil will get its chaff,' goes the Turkish proverb. People who are ready to lie, to slander, and to de-legitimize—or who stand silent, ignoring the true intentions of Hamas and Hezbollah while Israel is demonized—tomorrow will wake up to a bitter reality. Turkey, alas, has tasted that reality in the bombings of 2003 and at other times. The poor Iraqi people, and the people of Afghanistan and Algeria, of Pakistan and Palestine, have tasted that reality in countless murders of Muslims by fanatics who kill innocents in the name of Allah.
"The tactic of suicide bombing, which was largely begun as a strategy carried out against Jews in order to destroy Israel, has shattered the lives of far more Muslims than of any other people.
"For centuries Turkey has been a home to its Jewish citizens, and a friendly neighbor to the Jewish state. In the past Turkey has tried hard to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and has tried to reduce tensions between Israel and Syria. That is the face of Turkey that we hope always to see. That is the face of Turkish friendship. But a face of Turkey that smiles on Hamas, that smiles on Hezbollah, and that films its own versions of Midnight Express in relation to Israel, would be a frightening face for us to behold, and a betrayal of our historic friendship.
"Of course Turkey will find her own path to her future, and will do so in a way that serves Turkish interests. It is not for the United States, Europe, the Arab world, Iran, Israel or anyone else to dictate to Turkey what it should do. Certainly Turkey will find its own way to harmonize democracy, economic growth, development, and security with the call of its history, its culture, its majority religion, and its multi-faceted civilization. That task is for Turks to undertake, and we, the Jewish people, wish you well.
"But we also are concerned that you do so mindful and respectful of our history, our religion, and our civilization. We implore you not to play with the terrible fire of anti-Semitism. All too often hatred of Jews—and hatred of Israel—has been an easy tool for those who seek to crush freedom among their own people. Look no further than Iran for a recent example of this.
"When I return to Chicago I would like to be able to serve as a goodwill ambassador for Turkey, which has so much to offer in terms of building a lasting and just peace in the Middle East. I can only do this if Turkey and the Jewish people walk arm in arm across the bridge of understanding and respect.
"Inshallah we will live to see peace in the Middle East, and peace in the world. As we Jews are commanded in the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, Bakesh shalom v’radfehu, Seek peace and pursue it. Let us make that our common aim, and the basis for our continued friendship."
