Young Turk (2004) By Moris Farhi

My world history education covered the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, but provided next to nothing on what came after.  It’s as though the piece of geography these two empires occupied disappeared along with them.  It did not.  For the record, after the calamity of picking the losing side in World War I, the Ottoman Empire came to an end, ceding much territory to the victors, and eventually being deposed by a demoralized military at home.  In the aftermath, the Republic of Turkey was declared in 1923, with a military commander, Mustafa Kemal becoming its first President.  Known to history as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, he was a surprisingly forward thinking leader.  He died in 1938.

I’m always hesitant to comment on the history and politics of other cultures, because I’m really not qualified to do so. I know this much however: the politics and history of Turkey are controversial beyond dispute, and interpretation is truly in the eyes of the beholder.

To start, let’s remember that Ataturk holds the same status for Turks that George Washington does for Americans – not perfect by any means, but with good that vastly outweighs the bad (George Washington, for those getting ready to slam me, was a slave owner and killer of Indians, in addition to being a Founding Father).

Ataturk’s personal mission as the founder of the Republic of Turkey was to restore the country to its rightful place on the world stage, not through Empire, but through modernization, of a secular and western bent.  Until its final decades, the Ottoman Empire had been, for the most part, an ethnically plural place where Muslim Turks lived in (relative) peace with Greek Christians, Kurds, Jews and numerous other ethnicities. The Ottoman’s did not however, have any qualms about using force against ethnic minorities – the Armenian Genocide occurred on their watch, with many future leaders as active participants). 

Ataturk rhetorically believed diversity to be good, and a component of nation building.  Put in modern terms, one could say he believed hyphenated citizens were okay, with the mantra that they be Turks first.  He is credited with inspiring Turks of all backgrounds to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” a philosophy made famous decades later with John Kennedy’s immortal quote. The new generation of leaders Ataturk sought to create was referred to as the Young Turks, a name originally given to junior members the Ottoman military who had worked to abolish the Sultanate.  [Adding to the complexity of Turkish history, the Young Turks moniker is used for two polar opposite political viewpoints: those who like Ataturk believed in nationalism by nation building, and those who believed in nationalism by ethnic cleansing, as in the Armenian genocide, and the expulsion of Greeks from Turkey.] 

Moris Farhi’s historical novel is about the nation-building Young Turks and how Ataturk’s dream has been stolen from them.

Farhi’s book covers a group of Turkish youth who came of age during World War II.  They are an ethnic hodgepodge:  Muslim, Jewish, Greek, Christian, Gypsy, Kurd, Armenian, even a Turkish-Scottish guy – boys and girls.  This book can be judged as excellent based merely on their coming of age stories, but the book is much more than that, it is a spell-binding political commentary on modern Turkey. 

An important chapter occurs late in the book when Asik Ahmet, a man who served as a professor-mentor-friend to many of the youth, holds an end of semester gathering for them.  At it he asked them what occupation needed by the country they were willing to devote their lives to.  Once someone chose an occupation it was no longer available to anyone else at the party, which posed a problem for some of the students because the question was asked of them in alphabetical order.  Last to be called was Zeki, a Turkish Jew, who is clearly the stand in for the book’s author, Moris Farhi.  Zeki chose the occupation of professor.

Like Zeki, Mr. Farhi was born in Turkey, but moved early in his academic career to the United Kingdom.  Young Turk was (apparently) written in English, and first published in 2004 by Saqi Books in London.  The copy I bought while vacationing in Istanbul earlier this year was an English edition – one must wonder if it is even available in Turkish.

Recommendation: On the back page of the edition I have is a pull quote from Nicholai Murray, author of Kafka, it reads: “Everyone should go out immediately and buy Young Turk. Warm, witty, wise, humane, it’s a delightful book.”  I couldn’t possibly agree more.