by Luigi Ippolito, correspondent from London
The AngloTurkish writer is already in Erdogan’s crosshairs: a toxic tale from Putin that distorts reality so that isolationism turns into expansionism
She witnessed Turkey’s authoritarian involution firsthand: the writer Elif Shafak, author of The Bastard of Istanbul and many other successful novels and essays, has been indicted by the Erdogan regime in the past and has been living in London for many years after he lost the British acquired citizenship. Politically committed to human rights, her perspective offers a privileged view to analyze Russia’s recent parable that led to aggression against Ukraine.
Is there a similar development in authoritarian countries, be it Turkey, Russia or others?
Authoritarianism is something very dangerous and ultimately leads to two things: either isolation or expansionism and aggression. In the first case, there is this perception of being different, of being surrounded by enemies, of not being able to trust anyone: a kind of paranoia; in the second case there is longing for a lost empire. I find imperial nostalgia a very dangerous thing because at its heart is a selective memory: it believes that the past was just full of grandeur, like a golden age that has been taken from others and needs to be recovered. the narrative that Russia is using now: and not an innocent narrative.
In Russia, isolationism and expansionism feed off each other.
Yes, so they are not exclusive to each other. An authoritarian regime can build isolation: and the narrative will be that they don’t need democracy because they don’t own it, they are a different civilization. So you build up this isolationism, which then turns into expansionism.
The narrative of isolation and diversity feeds the idea of an external threat: and so expansionism is portrayed as something defensive.
Exactly: the paradox that in this narrative aggression is portrayed as a consequence of being the victim of injustice. There is not only systematic propaganda and disinformation, but also a distortion of the narrative, the construction of a new narrative based on victimhood. Rich people do this especially when they say they are a great empire that has shrunk because their territories were taken from them. This toxic narrative distorts reality.
It seems incredible that in the heart of Europe in the 21st century we must confront imperial nostalgia.
This is a war of memories. We were told that the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were over and that the next wars would be information and technology wars: but what is happening now is a nineteenthcentury war, on the ground, against the civilian population, but based on the memories to a past. Gold. Remembrance is the keyword here. And a very emotional war: Putin has always been portrayed as rational and calculating, a classic KGB man without emotions, but in reality this is an emotional war. Playing with people’s emotions, Putin is based on emotions: if we don’t understand the past, we can’t understand what’s happening today. And when I say past, I mean the interpretation of the past, its paraphrase: if we ask Ukrainians what the past was like, they will tell us a different story. Putin’s interpretation of the past is selective and filtered, but the autocrats rely on it.
Is there hope for Russia or is it doomed to autocracy?
Authoritarian regimes always try to give the impression of a homogeneous bloc, but they never are. Even if the Putin regime is trying to stifle any opposition, there are young people in Russia who don’t want this war and are protesting on the streets, there are older people who saw the Second World War and are also protesting. Authoritarianism doesn’t work in the long run: although I’m pessimistic at the moment, in the sense that we need to recognize that democracy is fragile and the West is internally divided.
Is this war a wakeup call for the West?
Lo for the whole world. I believe in humanism and emphasize the humanitarian context: in the world, people who believe in democracy and pluralism must speak out, there must be global solidarity. Even in the western world, democracy is not complete: much more fragile than we think, there is a very delicate ecosystem of checks and balances to be tended that cannot be taken as guaranteed. We must build a pluralistic and inclusive democracy that respects diversity: the hardest part, but the way forward.
It seemed that in today’s Europe there should be no more room for a conflict like the one we are witnessing.
There was too much optimism, especially at the end of the last century: since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the USSR, there was an expectation that only liberal democracy would remain and that, thanks to technology, democracy would spread everywhere. A big mistake was to put too much optimism in information: but in reality information is not knowledge and that is not wisdom. These are three very different things: Too much information is tiring and also adds a lot of misinformation. So how do we get true knowledge? We need books, investigative journalism, not social media. But also about nuanced talks: Even if there doesn’t seem to be any time for that. While wisdom requires emotional intelligence.
March 28, 2022 (Modified March 28, 2022 | 10:24 PM)
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