Turkish Cartoonist Salih Memecan

Hosted by The Campagna-Kerven Lecture on Modern Turkey

Turkish political cartoonist Salih Memecan discusses the challenges and amusements of contemporary Turkish society at the 11th annual Campagna-Kerven Lecture Series on Modern Turkey. Memecan talks about how Turkish nationalism has been fueled by EU membership rejection. He also touches on the peculiar contradictions of Turkish secularism (by showing a cartoon in which a man prays that God might keep Turkey secular), Turkey’s struggles with guaranteeing human rights, free speech, and the Turkish military’s involvement in politics. Memecan acknowledges that Turkey’s admission to the EU would alter the culture of the EU far more than the admittance of smaller, newer democracies.

The Campagna-Kerven Lecture Series provides a forum on modern Turkey for leading experts — whether journalists, scholars, business leaders, literary talents or other creative artists — as well as for promising younger scholars and intellectuals. Since 1996, the annual lectures have addressed a rich variety of themes on modern Turkish society, culture and politics.

April 24, 2007, 4:30 p.m.
The Castle

Video length 01:20:36.

About the speaker:
Salih Memecan is one of Turkey’s foremost political cartoonists. He received a Ph.D. in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania as a Fulbright Scholar (1983). He lives in Scarsdale, New York, and credits his life in the U.S. — at a slight distance from what he is drawing about and critiquing — for his clear-eyed, fresh perspective on Turkish culture. Memecan is also the author of several children’s books.

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