Sadik Ahmet Phenomenon

Introduction

I was thinking when I started to take an interest in the Sadik phenomenon, that it would be hard to describe a "living legend". Now that he is a dead legend it is even harder. Part of the problem is that most of the writing on him is partisan. Generally the Greek press commented negatively on him, while the Turkish press portrayed him as a hero of Turkism [turkluk]. In the minority press the comments on him varied according to the political the minority press the comments on him varied according to the political situation, interest groups etc. I was in Komotini about 3 weeks after the tragic death of Sadik Ahmet. His close collaborator, the late Mustafa Hafiz Mustafa, had written an obituary where he praised Sadik Ahmet as the greatest man the minority had fostered, and even compared him to Ataturk. When I asked him if he had read Onsunoglu's obituary he answered: "Yes, and everything in it is correct." [hepsi dogru]. When I asked him if he thought there had been foul play he told me: "That old man (who drove the tractor) could not manage such a job" [O ihtiyar oyle bir is beceremez]. That was also what I was told by a minority villager, who had spoken with the tractor driver in the field just 5-10 minutes prior to the accident. However, within the minority it is generally believed that Sadik was murdered.

In Germany I heard a leading minority cadre proclaim during a meeting that "Sadik Ahmet did not die, he was killed by a dirty Greek". [Sadik Ahmet olmedi, pis bir rumdan olduruldu]. After the death of Sadik Ahmet the Greek police wanted Mustafa Hafiz Mustafa to say that it was an accident. He was of course reluctant, because then some minority circles would have accused him of being a "traitor" or slandered him with other epithets which are part and parcel of the minority's political vocabulary such as: "hain", "gavurcu", "Yunan usagi", "gavura satilmis" etc.

My purpose by writing this is to demonstrate that there is no "neutral" way of describing Sadik. Onsunoglu's obituary if maybe the closest you can get to an "objective" description of Sadik, as my purpose by writing this is to demonstrate that there is no "neutral" way of describing Sadik. Onsunoglu's obituary if maybe the closest you can get to an "objective" description of Sadik. Onsunoglu knew Sadik very well, as they were classmates in high school and studied later medicine together in Thessaloniki. What you do not get an impression of in Onsunoglu's obituary is the Sadik myth, and how prominent this myth is within the minority. Particularly in Ksanthi were there are not so many who knew him personally. This was demonstrated clearly in a recent discussion on the "Western Thrace minority list".

V. Aarbakke

Will we miss Sadik?

by Ibrahim Onsunoglu.

Trakya'nin Sesi 09.08.1995

[After describing his reactions and sadness when he learned about the death of Sadik, he writes a few words about the necessity for those on the Black List to attend the funeral of Sadik after the ugly boycotts of the funerals of two other prominent minority leaders and former MPs in the course of the last few years. However, he was unable to go because of his work. I translate the rest of the article which describes Sadik's manners and personality.]

OUR FIRST ACQUAINTANCE

I first got acquainted with Sadik in the courtyard of Celal Bayar High School on the day school started in 1960. Both of us were new junior high school students. I remember best the peculiar pronunciation of his apc plain dialect: 'Aldiray , aldirmay ' ['to mind, not to mind' in Thracian Turkish dialect]. He remembered better the details of our first meeting, he told me about it a couple of times. At that time I had a childhood nickname, which even I had forgotten. Sadik would use this nickname even recently when he got angry: " bicik! -Don't they call you bicik? So you are bicik!"

Whatever bicik meant? Since then 35 years have gone by. For many years we saw each other. We knew each other well.

SADIK WAS A DIFFICULT PERSON

Did we become close and sincere friends? What is sincere friendship? Is it something continuous? Or is it the time fragments that remain when we subtract the fights and anger, lack of interest and contact which come between? Sadik was a difficult person.

He was a man of action. Vigorous, industrious, stubborn, and avaricious. He seemed to be bold, self reliant and obstinate, but he was ready to bend when confronted with power and force. He always searched for a "protector" and found it too. During such periods he became amenable, serious, dignified, in short another Sad k. After he had secured a "protector", there was nothing he deemed himself not capable of doing with the power he received from him, whether it was real or imagined. He came too, all his accumulated acrimony appeared, he broke and spilled everything around him, and he did not refrain from fighting with persons or take on problems he did not have the power to fight or endeavour works where he could not be successful. He was a man of action. And he did not like to think. The fuel of his engine consisted of avarice and grudge. If you deprived Sadik of these two things he turned into a normal person. His most productive periods were the periods with most avarice and grudge. Of course, what he produced was his kind of products.

Sadik did never even once in his life laugh sincerely from inside. His smile remained on his lips, and did not go deeper. No one heard him break out in sincere laughter. Niceties and jokes were completely foreign to him. He was not a person to tell anecdotes. And Sadik never felt regret for any of his actions or deeds. He did definitely not allow doubts to be born. To ask himself questions like: did I do the right thing or do not let me err, he interpreted as weakness. In all his actions he was decided, unhesitating and ruthless. The feeling of compassion was not well represented. In his hearth he had no feeling of compassion or obligation. He did not know the meaning of pangs of conscience. In his lifetime he never said he was sorry to anybody.

IF YOU SAID WALK, HE WALKED

Give him a pickaxe and tell him to level the hill opposite you. He would break it up and level it. He had no fear of ramifications. If you said walk, he walked. He did not know what it meant to be tired. But if on the other hand you asked: Sad k you are leveling this hill, but why? You are walking, but where? He would have difficulty to answer. Afterwards, if you took a look he would throw the pickaxe to the ground when you least expected it. He would stop walking and this time he would start to walk in the opposite direction. Because he avoided to reflect and examine the subjects, he found it easy to reduce them to something simple. In Sadik's eyes the most complex subjects became very simple, the most difficult very easy. I will do it, I will make it. He made his endeavours. If he succeeded it was excellent. Because of his conceit you could not get close to him. When he understood that he could not succeed, he silently abandoned his task immediately. After that who knows whatever it was about. He forgot quickly what he had said earlier. You could never make him admit that he had been mistaken. Neither would he admit that he could not succeed in something. If we did not enumerate one more of his peculiarities his portrait would be incomplete. His peevishness when securing material gains. Sadik had a rare ability to turn his political struggle into personal profit.

HE WANTED TO BE THE ONE AND ONLY

He would classify persons and events without effort into two categories: White and black. And again with the greatest of ease and without feeling the necessity to substantiate it, he would not hesitate to declare what he had called white yesterday for black today or vice versa. When he started to use the authority he had been "nominated" for, particularly after he had become MP, his inclination to slander everybody developed further. He did no longer only aim at his opponents. He did not leave anybody among his followers, helpers, collaborators, and closest friends whom he did not insult, slander, threaten with the Other Side [Turkey], and accuse most gravely. He also made the Mafia topsy-turvy. They got in trouble with Sadik. He said he would close the newspaper Akin, and closed it. He said he would close the newspaper Gercek, and closed it. He strove to make the newspaper Balkan, which Mustafa Bacaksiz issued in his name, the only remaining.

He trusted those who supported him on the Other Side in this matter. Like always, these events too blew out of proportion, and excesses followed. With his blind ambition and energy no one could prevent him. He let M. Bacaksiz, who he earlier had referred to as agent of the Greek Secret Services in front of everybody, flatter him in the most repulsive way in the newspaper Balkan and became enraptured by it. One leader, one newspaper, one voice A "base" fascism was established in the minority. Sadik was saying that Koca Kap [ the Turkish Consulate in Komotini] supports me and proved it every day in every matter. The order within the minority-to the degree that there was any-was spoiled, values were turned upside down. As for the newspapers which were able to manage by themselves, Ileri and Trakya'nin Sesi had in fact for years been the aim of the Mafia. Sadik tightened the string around their neck. Ileri was the sole income of its owner and in spite of that he was very careful and sometimes bent for the wind, he was long on the verge of collapsing because of Sadik.

HE DID NOT KNOW HIS LIMITS

Then Sadik Ahmet would clash with the consul in Komotini and ambassador in Athens. This was not a political clash over ideology, procedure, and principles. What lay under was complaints like "why do you not support me as much as earlier, why do you not support only me". Finally the newspaper Balkan was closed. The doors on the Other Side too began to close in his face. Sadik was now quarrelling with Koca Kap . Like always he did not know his own limits. But his main protector on the Other Side also withdrew his support. Three months ago at the Conference in Istanbul they took Sadik aside one evening and spoke to him in a language he would understand. This evening Sadik must have remembered the words he had used about Orhan Haci Ibram ten years earlier when these events had recently bursted out. "Orhan went to the Other Side, did you hear what happened to him"? He went but they shook him up a little!

THE OLD TRICK BECAME REALITY

Now both of them are deceased. In 1987 one day on the Other Side they asked Hafiz Yasar-after telling him that they had decided to make Sadik MP and leader-what he thought about it. Sadik is like a BMW without brakes. It is impossible to say where he will go, what he will hit, where he will stop. Do not make the minority enter this car. And Koca Kap , using all its possibilities, silencing every opposing voice, created the Sad k fable with a campaign which has never been seen before, made him MP and planted him in the minority. I must end this article as I have no more space to write. I know that formerly quite a few people in the minority evaluated this event positively. But the overwhelming majority, had the simple thought "whatever Turkey wants" and behaved accordingly. Those who wanted to oppose bent. They made us who constituted the puny voice of opposition pay dearly, but we tried not to bend.

IT IS NEVER TOO LATE

Sadik Ahmet was a friend who until 1984-85 did not show much interest in the Minority issues. He admitted cynically that "is there any money for me in it?". When he did his specialisation in surgery his goal was to become appointed at the Komotini hospital. A normal and legal goal. He did not understand that it was very difficult to be appointed to the hospital during the years when the minority was oppressed and discriminated most heavily, he did not want to understand. Because he was very sure of himself, because he reduced everything into being simple and easy. But he also knew not to walk barefoot on a thorny road. Because he made the necessary preparations and agreements, found his protector and made himself believe that he would be appointed. Until this time he had not been in any open conflict with the authorities. He tried to appear as a docile minority member, his file was completely empty, his name was not involved in any Minority struggle, earlier he become known, at the hospital and by his industriousness or his ability to adapt to the environment he gained sympathy. His work went smoothly. First and foremost the appointment of Sadik to the hospital seemed "unproblematic from a national viewpoint" But Sadik was not appointed. A minority member is everywhere left without protection. And Sadik suddenly understood the minority reality for the first time. He had made such an emotional investment in being appointed to the hospital, and he was so sure that he would be appointed that he was never able to digest it. His career was in jeopardy, because surgery is a profession that can only take place in a hospital, not in a private office. He made a turn, he spit fire against the authorities, he discovered the minority, and began to take an interest in Minority questions.

THE LAST CANDIDATE

I did not take Sadik seriously because I knew him very well. Even if I did not need to take him serious I was taught that I would have to take the new developments within the Minority much more serious. In the 1989 elections a last event, an event I could not forgive, became the reason that I stopped greeting him. Only two days earlier we had met in the street, he was a candidate I was a candidate, we jokingly wished each other good luck. Two days later, a Friday, in the courtyard of the apc mosque, Sadik with his henchmen sent from Turkey and Germany by his side attacked me and dispersed the crowd that was listening to me. If I had moved one step I would have got a thrashing. A typical fascist "thuggery" without any previous quarrel. An event I said I did not forgive, but now after Sadik's death it does not mean much any more. Now, we who are left alive need the forgiveness of our dead. They have completed their register. We continue committing sins.

In the same issue of 'Trakyanin Sesi' there is a short notice among those under the heading

"Nine'nin kepcesi " (Grandma's Laddle)

He came to take part in Sadik's funeral.

Mesut Yilmaz was foremost among those who planted Sadik in the minority. There was a special relationship between the two. Sadik was an admirer of M. Yilmaz. The application of the Black List took place during M. Yilmaz's foreign minister period and when M. Muftuo lu was MP from the minority. Muftuoglu, raised the Black List subject with M. Yilmaz on three occasions. He explains M. Yilmaz's reactions on these three occasions as follows: In the first meeting:

"-Such a thing is impossible!" In the second meeting:

"-Wait a minute, there is probably something we do not know." In the third meeting:

" -I will take an interest in the matter." And Muftuoglu stood there.

The forth meeting did not happen of course. The MP of the Turkish minority, M. Muftuoglu, had not yet learned that at the time of his last meeting with Turkey's foreign minister M. Yilmaz he had been put on the Black list himself, but the person addressed knew it of course. By such procedures the road was opened for Sadik Ahmet.

Translation of this article made by Vemund Aarbakke. Once more I would like to thank Vemund Aarbakke for supplying this as I find very illuminating article. Ibrahim Onsunoglu is a distinguished human rights activist within Thrace, he is a psychiatrist living and working in Thessaloniki. If you would like to get in touch with Ibrahim Onsunoglu please email to the address below for a postal address.

Onsunoglu refers to a Black List, this list was set up by the Turkish consulate in Komotini in order to prevent people from the Minority who were against the Turkish involvement in Thrace, or just had different views from that of the Turkish consulate. Black List stood as a threat and method of control for people who stepped outside the line of the Turkish consulate. Black List included people like Onsunoglu, Abdulhalim Dede journalist and publisher of 'Trakyanin Sesi (Voice of Thrace), present MP Mustafa Mustafa and others. Repercussions of this Black List on Abdulhalim Dede, could be read from an article written by a Danish journalist who visited Thrace, Iben de Neergaard, "Caught Between States".

Onsunoglu also mentions a Mafia, this is a group of people organised more less in a Mafia style, with main aim to exploit the situation in Western Thrace, especially the Turkish interest, for their personal gain.

Nihat Tsolak