Yesterday was exactly the reason I came to this conference. In the morning there was much detailed discussion of the Turkish legal system by several thoughtful and eloquent academic lawyers; and in the afternoon we roamed around the Topkapi Palace, the Hippodrome and other remnants of the ancient world. But more of that.
Legal stuff - not for everyone
The legal stuff began appropriately with a look at Turkish history and the interactions with Europe which had the Ottomans at one point reaching Vienna. To this day Turkish people still go to Europe and particularly to Germany in large numbers, considering it in some way a natural place for themselves.
When lawyers discuss history they position governance squarely at the heart of their perspective rather than politics. So instead of giving reasons for battles and dissecting the deals done between powerful allies and enemies our view of the Ottoman Empire centred upon the means by which Turkey was governed and the place of European law within Turkey. The Sultans had a pluralist approach to governance. In instances of family law or succession law it was the particular religious practice which prevailed for an individual, whereas for trade and commercial purposes European law was used. And that situation continued until the Republic was formed under Ataturk. Now, just as in Australia, a religious ceremony alone does not make a marriage lawful. So Sharia law does not overcome state law.
Like Australia Turkey ‘received’ its law that is it did not grow organically from within society. However our reception of law in Australia came with the settlement of the British. Attaturk shopped around. For those still reading the basics are – the Criminal Code was drawn from Italy (I wondered if it was the same Italian code, the Zanardelli code, which Griffith used as his basis for the Queensland Criminal Code), Criminal Procedure from Germany; the Civil Code from the Swiss canton of and Civil Procedure I’ve forgotten. Wikipedia awaits you. Modern Turkish Courts still look favourably upon an argument a lawyer presents to them which draws legal thinking from the jurisprudence of these ‘mother’ codes although of course like Australia there’s a body of indigenous legal thinking that now applies. There was a throwaway observation from one of our speakers that Turkish Courts still don’t manage a proper equidistance between individual and State, tending to protect the state first.
Ataturk set about embedding the new legal culture into the Republic in a wonderfully opportunistic way. He recruited a great many of the Jewish academics who fled Germany during the Nazi regime and with their training and long background in legal teaching and thinking they established the great Universities which still teach not only law but all other major disciplines. One or two of our speakers had been themselves taught by the first wave of intellectuals who emerged from this process. (S - this process sounds like something PNG might have benefited from on its way to autonomy).
Someone raised the question of ‘defamation of Turkishness’, the charge which has been brought against (the novelist) Orhan Pamuk, and a matter still before the courts at least in its civil guise. The question of defaming the Turkish nation (or ‘Turkishness’) is as I understand it a criminal matter. The criminal charge was resolved in the Court of Cassation (Appeal Court) in favour of Pamuk. However in the manner of the OJ Simpson civil trials the issue has now been returned to the courts to be heard as a damages action by private individuals. This time the Court of Cassation has overturned the lower court decision and has found that such an action is justiciable (not sure if I’m using the term correctly in this context but the second sequence of court proceedings has been about standing i.e. whether or not only the state can bring an action in this instance, of defaming Turkishness, or whether private individuals can sue on this basis, which the Court has recently found they can). So Pamuk is still under threat from the legal system. As a reminder the facts of the case concern a one sentence allusion by Pamuk to the Armenian ‘genocide’ in one of his novels.
I found all of this tremendously interesting although I suspect not all of my dear readers will, so further ruminations on these points will cease.
Sightseeing
The Topkapi Palace reminded me instantly of the princely palaces in Seoul, with their large walled gardens and purpose-built structures dotted within : The Treasury, the Library, the Bedroom, the Kitchens, the Madrasa etc.
As you can see we were just some of a huge tourist contingent. We even had our own police force.
We toured (exhaustiıngly) the rest of Sultanahmet, checked out the Blue Mosque and the Hippodrome and looked from the outside at Hagia Sophia (it closes Mondays).
And we went down into the Basilica Cistern (laid out under Justinian in 532) with its little fish splashing in the darkness. They protect the water supply by dying heroically when it's contaminated. As we crossed the footbridge they rushed alongside, eager as sea-gulls at the sniff of a parcel of chips. Sadly I had to forego coffee at the gloomy Cistern Café, it wasn’t Fast enough.
At the end of the day we ate at the top of the Galata Tower (built 1348) the sort of building which seemed designed to imprison pretty girls with very long hair.
A number of these belly-danced for our pleasure, but after a short while none of it seemed terribly different from an evening at Caravanserai, except for the amazing view of course, across the whole of Istanbul. It was lovely to see my old mate Finola again. The last time we really talked we were stuck at the top of another stone tower in Novgorod and drank far too much. However last night I remembered to follow up with lots of water which, just like the Russian water I scoffed busily in St Petersburg , is not potable. Without a cistern fish to warn me I drank it anyway and woke up without a headache. It was almost midnight when we walked back, but all along the way there were hole in the wall shops still lit up, music pouring out and people sitting inside working and chatting.
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