From Lisbon to Istanbul

Dear friends, I see what’s happening in Istanbul and I think of you. I read the news about the mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu’s detention, along with that of 1400 of his supporters and some journalists, and I wonder if you are among them. If any of your names is imprisoned in that number: 1400. I watch the big demonstrations and the violent police charges and I think that another frontline for the defense of Europe, the values of democracy and the Rule of Law, is right there. Against a brutal one-man state, to defend the basic principles of freedom of expression, free political activity and the separation of powers. You, who are there on the squares of beautiful Istanbul, arm in arm holding the line against the blows from those water cannons, you too are a barrier of resistance to tyranny. These days, new formulas are being found for the old no-principles strength that is the basis of tyranny, but, whatever one wants to call it, oppression is oppression and evil is, essentially, the same as ever.

Less than four months ago, I was walking through those squares, marvelling at the almost magical richness of that very special place, feeling inspired by the cultural short circuit that crossover territories allow, learning about freedom just by watching so many different people living together.

I’ve crossed the famous Galata Bridge, full of fishermen on both sides, in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, and now my memory of it has that more-than-real quality of something read in a novel. Used to the solitary fishermen in Belém, Lisbon, that crowd of faces, conversations and laughs on the Galata Bridge impressed me deeply. I’m not sure why. Perhaps because it was living proof that equality and individual freedom are not opposites, are not incompatible. (And, all the while, the fishing rods looked like they were having a philosophical conversation on their own.)

I remember the solemn grandiosity of the Hagia Sophia, the surprising shoeless chaos inside the Blue Mosque, the nearby bookstore where I got the Pamuk’s book that carries the name of the city, the narrow old-town streets, not so different from the ones in Lisbon, that pomegranate juice we had on the go. (The image of the knife cutting the pomegranate in two perfect halves now comes to me as the freshest, most mysterious metaphor.) And I remember the boat ride during the day, and the other one at nightfall, and seeing in the distance the Bosphorus Bridge that connects Europe and Asia. A bridge is a bridge is a bridge. And, yet, seeing it from afar, drawn in a sky-and-water page, was like witnessing the miracle of an idea made physical, an idea crossing the air, an idea in the world.

Reading the European newspapers, I see points are being made on the Turkish political situation, the economic issues at stake, the geostrategic relevance of Turkey. Some talk about the importance of Istanbul on the whole of the country’s economy and underline the record fall of the Turkish lira; some say foreign pressure could be counterproductive as it may help the regime’s argument that the opposition is somehow linked to outside interests; some simply describe the complexity of it all, reminding us that Turkey is a OTAN member, an important trade partner and that it has a pivotal role in the Ukraine situation…

No, we need to say more. At this point, we have to go beyond describing the state of things and establishing diagnosis, we must go beyond the usual pros-and-cons talk, all that distanced, cold reasoning of political scientists and economic specialists. When Erdogan’s regime — in a calculated, arrogant move, that reveals a kind of despair — arrests the opposition de facto leader, the commentariat’s scholarly speeches and the diplomacy’s tea-room talk are definitely not enough.

An European Union spokesperson said the events in Istanbul “rose questions” about the functioning of democracy in the country. It’s really a sad euphemism. An insulting one, actually, for the people out there demonstrating on the squares of Istambul, that European front line, fighting for freedom, democracy, justice. Words matter and what we do with them comes to define us. What’s happening in Turkey is, plain and simply, an autocracy sliding into dictatorship — and everyone who is for freedom must denounce it and fight against it, so that one day a real democracy is possible there. From the other side of the Old Continent, from this Lisbon that sometimes suggests a younger sister, a little Istanbul looking through the window of a wider sea, I write you this letter, my friends, to say we are paying attention, we are worried, we are with you.