Erdoğan's war against arts and culture in Turkey

Abdullah Bozkurt

As the authoritarian tendencies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government under the divisive political leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan become more visible, with fresh evidence of intolerance over the right to dissent revealed practically every day, the government's relentless campaign to stifle freedom of expression is not just limited to freedom of the press anymore but has now engulfed artistic and cultural expressions as well. A draft bill prepared by the Erdoğan government without actually consulting the arts community in Turkey will bring state-funded artistic and cultural activities under tight government control.

Many suspect the bill, ostensibly aimed at overhauling decades-old institutions managing art and cultural works, will serve as an important tool for the government to crack down on free expression of artistic work, creativity and cultural themes. It will eliminate the relative autonomy the arts community has been enjoying for decades in Turkey. The government's notorious record in controlling the independent judiciary and clamping down on free press with severe restrictions on print, broadcast and Internet media portals have raised a similar specter of pressure on the arts community as well. Given that the government, heavily dominated by political Islamists, has shaped educational, scientific research and social policies to cater to its own narrow constituency, Turks may very well witness a radical shift in government priorities in steering the arts and culture with an overemphasis on Islamist ideological inklings.

The bill, kept secret until recently, prompted a huge outcry in the arts community when it was leaked, which in turn led to a hasty decision to organize a workshop with bureaucrats from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It failed to allay concerns expressed by the arts community, unions and civic groups, however. The bill envisages the establishment of the Turkey Arts Council (TÜSAK), which will oversee the disbursement of state funds to artists and organizations that offer artistic and theatrical events in Turkey. At face value, it tackles a long overdue reform. Yet in practice, it gives the government the absolute power to shape the arts and culture through an 11-member Arts Council, all of whom are appointed by the Cabinet chaired by Erdoğan on the recommendation of the culture and tourism minister. Only six members are required to have a degree or credentials in art branches that the government subsidizes. This board will decide on the development of opera, ballet, dance, theaters, symphony concerts, art exhibitions, children's plays and artistic activities which are rarely able to survive on their own without government financing.

Judging by how the AKP has politicized other government agencies with partisan appointments, the composition of the board and the selection and appointment of its members spells danger for Turkey's arts community. Media regulator Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), in which most members are appointed by the AKP-dominated Parliament, acts as though it is the ruling party's branch, cracking down on critical TV stations both during the Gezi protests and the election campaign period in the last three months. In TÜSAK, all members are selected directly by the government, which means the council may risk becoming a puppet at the hands of the AKP. This raises questions on the capabilities of the council, which may be less equipped to allow funding to be used efficiently and to be responsive to the needs of the artistic community.

Another problem with the bill is that all subsidy and funds disbursement for artistic and theater programs across the county will be decided by the council itself through a procedure that is not transparent. The bill does not have an oversight function to check whether TÜSAK's decisions are in line with the needs of the arts community and whether funds are distributed equally. Considering that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in cooperation with the Ministry of EU Affairs funded approximately 3,500 cultural projects valued from TL 150,000 to as high as TL 6.5 million in the form of grants and interest-free loans between 2003 and 2011, the financing of arts and culture programs must follow transparent procedures rigorously checked by an independent board. Since the final word on all art-related projects in Turkey will lie with this new council, there is the increased likelihood that funding will go to people and companies that are close to the government.

Section four of the draft bill is also problematic in that the council will fund only half of the budget needed by the applicants and the ratio will increase or decrease depending on the quality of the project. The council can also decide to entirely support the costs related to exhibition catalogues or writing projects. This is open to political jockeying for influence peddling and will work against new artists and cultural performers because they may lack the adequate financing to come up with 50 percent of the budget. It also dissolves positions for the current cadre of artists employed by the state when the bill becomes law, encouraging them to retire or move to other positions. According to artists employed by the state, the bill will result in the closure of 55 state institutions and turn artists into unqualified or subcontracted workers.

The government defends the bill as being necessary to decentralize the arts community, drawing an example from the British experience of an “arm's length principle” to establish a buffer between politics and the arts. The first article in the bill specifies that “while this institution is doing its job, it is to be independent and no organ, office, specific position or person shall be allowed to influence its decisions,” this will remain only on paper as we have seen based on similar examples in other government agencies. TÜSAK's composition and its member selection defeat the purpose of liberating the arts community from political interference. In Turkey, the political culture under the authoritarian Erdoğan government has already dealt a huge blow to the independence of regulatory agencies, turning them into proxies for the government to intimidate and harass opponents.

The bill also sees the commercialization of the arts, citing costly and money-losing programs heavily subsidized by the government. It practically does away with state-funded performing arts institutions in the country, including the Turkish State Theaters (DT) and the State Opera and Ballet (DOB) under the guise of restructuring them, forcing them to survive on their own means with limited funding from the state. This has its own fallacies in Turkey. There is no strong tradition in Turkey where philanthropic donations, be it individual or corporate, can sustain artistic activities that are unable to draw in big crowds. Some may survive on revenues generated at the box office but others such as opera, ballet and symphonic orchestras cannot survive without subsidies, be they sponsorships, donations or other means.

The real danger is that the Erdoğan government may be starting to bring culture and the arts in line with political Islamist ideology. There is already increased supervision and regulation of the arts community since 2011, when the AKP won 50 percent of the vote in national elections. There were criticisms that funding was directed to the arts industry to perpetuate political Islamist values which the Erdoğan government wants to embed in Turkish society. It will not only be funding but also policy decisions on the arts and culture which will be directed through this council. In a way, the AKP government sees arts and cultural activities as another way of disseminating political Islamist symbols and encouraging ideological indoctrination. This will inevitably lead to the suppression of other forms of critical artistic productions that are deemed to be inappropriate for the nation based on political considerations.

Even before the draft bill becomes law, we have started seeing how the Erdoğan government, dominated by political Islamists and pro-Iranian sympathizers, became partisan and ideological in its attempts to obstruct the Turkish Culture and Language Olympiad, mostly funded by private donors. While slamming the Turkish Olympiad in election rallies, Erdoğan threatened to refuse to even grant a location to the event's organizers. The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) and Turkish Airlines (THY) had all been supporting these Olympiads for the last 12 years. But because of Erdoğan's fallout with Hizmet, a movement inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and critical of corruption in the government, the AKP government has dropped its support for this very important activity which brings together thousands of students from some 150 countries annually and is attended by millions in Turkey. Interestingly enough, the Erdoğan government is supporting a similar competition to be held in Tehran in August. Go figure.

The bill defines the council's function as such that it can directly support any national or international project aimed at promoting the country as well as the creation of such projects. Perhaps this should be read as promoting the Erdoğan government's own parochial interest and political Islamist ideology. It would not be surprising to see TÜSAK acting as a partisan branch and propaganda machine for culture and art-related activities for the Erdoğan government when the draft bill becomes law in the AKP-dominated Parliament.

Published on Today's Zaman, 11 April 2014, Friday