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Home > The changing role of Young Turks in the U.S.: Interview with Gunay Evinch
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The changing role of Young Turks in the U.S.: Interview with Gunay Evinch
BY EMRE PEKER, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE Excerpted interview with Gunay Evinch, president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations and Washington, D.C.-based attorney whose practice concentrates on matters relating to Turkey and the surrounding region. He is a second generation Turkish American. [to the lead story, "Turkish students discover individualism in the United States"] The Turkish lobby is getting more powerful as an increasing number of young Turks come to the U.S. for higher education and post-graduate work opportunities. Following the lead of their predecessors, a new generation of Turkish students is moving beyond traditional, passive roles and becoming more active in a wide array of activities. Gunay Evinch, president of Assembly of Turkish American Associations, talks about the changing nature of the student body in the U.S. Q: Is there a change in the way Turkish students act in the U.S.?
Gunay Evinch: I see more Turkish students wanting to not only promote Turkish culture and history and their heritage, but also to engage on the sensitive political issues that are affecting Turkey in the global environment. Today, the Turkish students are saying more and more, "I have to become more active, more engaged in the political process." Q: In historical terms, how are modern Turkish students different then their predecessors? Gunay Evinch: A hundred years ago those students were affected by European-based nationalism, that each country is a strong entity in and of itself and equal to other nations in the competition for power. Today, nationalism is not a predominant paradigm. Multilateralism - may that be the EU or NATO or Western societies' core sets of values, and even globalism - is affecting the students' minds. They are asking how Turkey can be a productive member of a multilateral world, or become a more productive society. Q: What are the issues that confront Turkish students in the U.S.? Gunay Evinch: In the United States, Turkish students are realizing how much they do not know about the critical issues. They are left, to a large extent, defenseless on their college campuses. This can cause an incentive to learn more, combined with an ultra-sense of defensiveness and nationalism, which can either make a person very patriotic or unproductively nationalist. That is the situation that Turkish students are falling into, and, as they go back to Turkey, they feel frustrated that they couldn't defend themselves. Q: And, what are the results of this situation? Gunay Evinch: They want to learn more, they're becoming more patriotic or nationalistic, and they want to render Turkey a more pro-active member on equal footing with other nations of equal strength and population. They want to see Turkey more assertive in its foreign relations. Turkish students and the young professionals who are going back to Turkey must, therefore, be provided with a forum to articulate their feelings and thoughts on Turkish foreign policy - lest, Turkey risk alienating them and not benefiting from what they have learned. Q: What can U.S.-educated Turkish students offer to Turkey? Gunay Evinch: They offer insight that most of the Turkish public doesn't even have the slightest hint of. Now that they are educated in the U.S. system, they see how the issues are addressed on Capitol Hill in such unfavorable terms to Turkey. The students can, first of all, affirm to the Turkish public that abroad Turkey suffers in the promotion of its case. Secondly, they can show that to be defensive and to be nationalistic is no solution; that the true solution to this is more engagement of the public in the promotion of Turkey's case abroad. Gunay Evinch: I do not see an ideological importation going on in Turkey, or an exploration of any new sense of national identity. The freedoms students see in the U.S., they cannot import to Turkey under the existing circumstances. Will they engage the political process as they did here? I don't know. I think the students are realistic enough, however, to see that they're not going to be able to import the lifestyle if the legal infrastructure and social infrastructure doesn't exist to support it. And, they are practical enough to see that Turkey has a long way to go. Q: Finally, where is Turkish students' involvement in policy and advocacy headed? Gunay Evinch: I am very enthusiastic about the up-and-coming Turkish generations, they have language skills, they have cultural skills, they are learning more about the issues, they understand the system of advocacy and education and are learning how to use it to their advantage. The students are intelligent and reasonable, and that makes them productive. Reasonability says I will use experts, I will use the money of wealthy Turkish Americans to make the case. Reason says, out of cooperation comes unity, from unity comes power and the true empowerment of the Turkish-American community, and with that a greater chance of a just resolution of these controversial issues.
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