Every kind of socio-demographic modification is the result of a political, economical or social change in Turkey or at its surrounding borders.

    For the first time in Turkish history, the homosexual phenomenon and the consciousness of the nature of Homosexuality, however so present through latent or patent signs, are beginning to be treated by the government, its representations or by the press with a different acceptance than that of medical, religious or legal issues.
Homosexuality, which has been a privilege of the powerful economical classes or the world of the arts for centuries, is also for the first time going down more openly to the streets. This is not happening as a mercantile aspect related to prostitution, but as a real identity feature belonging to a community whose ways of life are definitely turning its back to Islam. This is more so as far as Islamic values and sexual taboos are concerned, consequently identifying itself with North American or European models. As a result, this privileges the existence and blossoming of individuals as distinctive beings, no longer faded away into a group, the cornerstone of Turkish society.

In order to develop the subject more precisely, and in such a way deepen on the stigmas of identity change based on sexual orientation, it is necessary to recall some historical reference points about the homosexual condition in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey during the past two centuries.
 

    We know from poems, various writings and songs left along as heritage, that the Inverts of the Sublime Gate (Bab-i Ali or Sublime Porte) were essentially urban, well-educated, top class people, who often belonged to the power elite. The case of Mehmet the Conqueror is symbolic. Indeed, without denying the favours of women, Mehmet enjoys great pleasure by falling in the arms of his captive men. No Islamic moral defender has been known to interrupt his personal incursions into this forbidden territory.⁽¹⁾
The historical chronicles report that a mid-18th century janizary (janissaire) had a Turkish bath masseur as lover⁽²⁾. The latter had been kidnapped by another janizary regiment, and hence spent a few days enjoying the favours of this regiment's Commander. The janizary's jealousy turned out to be so strong that both regiments fought against each other for almost five days. The Palace was able to stop the fighting only by hanging the unfortunate masseur⁽³⁾.
Male prostitution in Bursa and Istanbul was mainly practiced by young men from colonies subject to Ottoman rule. It was possible to find a large number of Balkan and Albanese young men among the prostitutes, who had come to Istanbul attracted by its cultural, political and economic shining. Many had obviously come to take part in the prostitution trade as a main reason. These foreign communities had to share this kind of activities, even if on a lesser scale, with Greek, Jew, Armenian and Levantine young men, all of whom were already settled in Istanbul.

    This socio-ethnic marginalisation and melting had engendered a richer corpus of the Turkish language and, at the same time, made this language poorer and easier. The city of Istanbul, like the huge North American or European cities, had a daylight-language and a nightly, darker language. A language of freedom and a linguistically, sexually-connoted language.
 

    Political and social sensibility might express the wish of being different by means of linguistic demarcation, thus forcing to create neologisms to be used by members of the community. Alternatively, by taking some words from the normative society and twisting them so as to give another meaning to these words, community members can understand each other and CANNOT be understood by non-members of the community.

In other terms, the Turkish language owned an endogen slang, singular or plural, which was not yet the result of the village immigration to Istanbul, but as a matter of fact reflected the integration of ethnic minorities from outside the country. Language was one of the gay identifying external signs, as light of belonging to a sexually marginalized minority⁽⁴⁾.

The end of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of the Turkish Republic, whose 75th anniversary has just been celebrated, put an end to this kind of life, considered to be excessive and orientally decadent by the Atatürk followers. These new rulers judged the European model to be the only one capable of bringing prosperity and modernity to the newly-born Republic.

    One of the country's first radical reforms, along with establishing Turkish as the only official and common language, was to impose on the use of the Latin alphabet for it. Not only did this make Turkish compete with French, Greek, Armenian or Ladino tongues, but helped a great number of minority departures, encouraged by historical and economic problems. In addition to this, the köçek⁽⁵⁾ culture was banned and the janizary brigades were dissolved.

In origin a dominant, powerful nation in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Turkey was to become an isolated country for about half a century. It would eventually face international hostility from its neighbouring countries on a series of important development issues, such as:

    The recent opening of Turkey has considerably changed the profile of the gay community throughout the country, and especially in Istanbul since a couple of years. One of the instruments that has made this change possible is, undoubtedly, television and the subsequent appearance of the parabolic antenna.

Since the 1960's, Turkish TV has successfully paved its way into every home in the country, and we can certainly state that today it has become as common an appliance as a refrigerator or an oven. Its impact on society, both urban and rural, has not only played a fundamental role on the definition of acceptable and unacceptable social changes, but on the image of homosexuals as well⁽⁶⁾.

Both national television channels have conveyed, through films, series and soap operas, the generalized idea that classifies homosexuals into two distinct, stereotyped categories:

    The 1980 military coup and the armed forces three-year administration period have proved to be one of the most incisive facts in terms of counter-revolution to the freedom of thought that had been starting to settle in the country⁽⁷⁾. As Kandiyoti⁽⁸⁾ has demonstrated, "The Turkish Army is one of the main national institutions which teach every mind about the rules and identity of masculinity".
Since then, General Evren, who ruled the country during the dictatorship years, bore the task of keeping homosexuals away from important administration posts, cancelling gay lawyers' licences, and banning transexual or effeminate Turkish singers such as Bulent Ersoy or Zeki Müren⁽⁹⁾ from the Turkish scene and TV. Contemporarily, programs showing a negative image of homosexuals were broadcast. Gays were treated and presented as pathogenous cases, dangerously threatening society and tradition.

    The 1990's, softened by President Turgut Ozal's⁽¹⁰⁾ liberalism, have radically modified the Turkish audiovisual panorama. The launch of several private channels has been accompanied by a great number of foreign programs on city cable and rural parabolic antennas. Novel, soap opera, and film characters identified as gays have found their place on Turkish small screens. For the first time ever, gays and lesbians are not broadcast as perverts, sick or dreary creatures, but as real human beings with their own place in modern society. The dozens of private networks have helped change the fixed identity standards established by TRT thanks to their sitcoms, talk-shows, erotic movies and sports shows. In this way the multiplicity of identities, a sexual one included, has been acknowledged.
As the American sociologist Larry Gross writes, "Mass-media offer random stereotypes and they are able to enhance or annihilate minority images, such as womens', Blacks', or national minorities"⁽¹¹⁾. In the case of homosexuals, private channels -whose audience share is larger than that of TRT- have welcome transvestites, transgender persons, gay pop singers, as well as gay characters in television series.

Over the past few years, a previously forbidden-on-TV type of masculine identity has returned. It is the koçek tradition, recently featured by TV networks as a natural aspect of Turkish men. As an example, the popular singer Aydin -not the only one but probably the most representative- fits entirely in his identity of a XXI^st century-koçek. He is a popular showman in a noon time show designed for women, and he considers himself to be a woman amongst women. "Post-koçek" identity aside, Aydin is himself an idol to the female audience thanks to the culinary, romantic and household advise he is eager to share. He is equally tolerated by husbands who do not see a rival in the person of this showman. Evidently, the man/woman couple finds in Aydin the stereotype of the homosexual male, comforting in his feminine role, in an affected and ridiculous manner⁽¹²⁾.

    This "post-koçek" characterization publicly appears as nice and humorous, due to the fact that he is funny, emotional, sensitive and feminine at the same time, while also being authoritarian and pedagogical. Consequently, it is not surprising to observe that these shows are so popular and in fact break audience records, making them the prime time shows of many commercial channels.
Aside from the previous examples, 1990's process of Turkish westernization with its American and European sociological references has enabled a certain type of gays to convey a sexual alternative and a new lifestyle, thanks to Turkish television.
The written press has not remained insensitive to the fashionable, westernizing gay phenomenon. As Huseyn Tapinç states, "Taking from a Western and urban lifestyle, young gay Turks have introduced a properly gay style of life into Turkish society, granting themselves both larger freedom and a stronger voice as citizens"⁽¹³⁾.

    KAOS GL⁽¹⁴⁾, the first entirely gay magazine written by gays and lesbians, was published in September 1994 by a group of gay students from Istanbul and Ankara. Distribution was made possible by self-financing and the first number included various articles from the gay international press, especially the American one. The scarce all-Turkish articles were signed by pseudonyms, with the exception of the openly declared homosexual poet, Küçük Iskender (Little Alexander), who wrote a poem celebrating manly love. The success of the magazine was rapid, so much that on a monthly basis number 46 was published in June 1998. Over the years the number of articles has grown, the topics become more diverse, the distribution more widespread and the readers more numerous. A wide array of topics are illustrated, such as human rights, fight against government discrimination of gays, Islamic currents against homosexuals. There is also a cultural section, with an update on bars and clubs' addresses, hamams (Turkish baths), restaurants, and personal ads⁽¹⁵⁾.

    The weekly Ekspres offers a page dedicated to gay and lesbian culture every week, and its contents sway between a news coverage of the gay scene on Istanbul and a thorough international overlook upon world facts regarding homosexuality or transgenderness. We may cite the examples of the May 1998 Eurovision Song Contest first-prize winner Dana International, the famous Israeli transexual, and recent social laws passed in Denmark, for the benefit of the gay community.
The daily newspapers Cumhuriyet (The Republic) or Yeni Yuzyil (The New Century), both enjoying a serious reputation in Turkey, often quote articles on gay issues previously published in foreign newspapers. Having translated the articles, journalists avoid official criticism and police violence, nevertheless stressing on social issues and the foreign look upon Turkey. When Istanbul hosted the Habitat II World Summit in June 1996, devoted to urban issues, Turkish journalists caught the occasion to speak up about the brutal and violent moving of transexual and homosexual individuals away from the Taksim district. According to the police, these people gave a bad image of the area to the convention's foreign guests⁽¹⁶⁾.
 

    Lambda Istanbul is the most important gay association in Turkey. Its headquarters are in Istanbul, the only Turkish (with Ankara as a minor part) city where it is nowadays possible to speak about a truly urban gay culture.
The Lambda Association is one of the privileged places of the politically-active community and serves as a meeting spot for other organizations which possess a political or alternative character.

In Istanbul, the Lambda Association exists since 1995 and consists of more than 150 members, whose ages range between 19 and 43 years old. The majority of members are outstandingly urban, middle-class young men, possessing a relatively high education level (high-school diploma or attending university). It is hence possible to observe that gays who do not have major financial problems tend to choose association membership, in contrast with gays coming from low-income or rural backgrounds.

This organization's essential mission, which considers itself politically free but is in fact closely related to the left-wing ODP⁽¹⁷⁾ (ozgurluk ve dayanisma partisi) (Liberty and Solidarity Party), is to fight for the gays' and lesbians' rights in Turkish society, as far as work, marriage, military service and political discrimination is concerned. This organization benefits of the support of the United Nations and is the local server for NGOs working on AIDS prevention and defeat.

Lambda publishes a free leaflet on AIDS prevention and gay and lesbian sexuality, thus compelling the National Foundation against AIDS to heed gays' needs. The Foundation even invited two Lambda members to the National Congress on AIDS, held in Ankara in April 1997. This is the first time for a Turkish gay association to be officially represented at governmental level⁽¹⁸⁾.

    Almost all members of Lambda as a whole (95%) are homosexual men, whereas 5% are transgender and lesbians. There is not a single declared heterosexual claiming to be a member of this association. Finances depend on benevolence of members, and also on voluntary offers after each assembly.

Topics brought up hit on the present moment. 1996 was an important year on housing issues and on localization of gays in the city tissue, thanks to the United Nations Habitat II session. 1997 was focused on Turkish gay presence in Europe, and 1998 took notice of the latest social upheavals on legal recognition of gay couples in Europe, so as to analyse such a possibility in Turkey.

With the help of papers and magazines, Lambda also works on the image of gayness in Turkey, with the intent of dissociating it from AIDS and from a stereotyped and feminine idea, which is still the case in poorer backgrounds. The former 100%GL (100% gay ve lezbyen) magazine, published since 1995, has changed its name in July 1998 to become Cins (Gender), which evidently shows the westernization fostered by Turkish gays and lesbians. The nature of articles, tending to socialism, clearly reflects the ideological and political preferences of this Istanbul gay group, having privileged ties with the ODP Party. Cins is self-financed and published by Lambda, and is the official movement's voice. The magazine contains a number of Turkish articles, along with translations, analyses on up-to-date issues carried out by university students, and a readers' letter page.

Lambda possesses a weekly radio service on the private Açik Radyo (Open Radio) station, which is the only radio show designed for gays in Turkey. At a voluntary late hour (midnight) the radio speakers (members of Lambda) address themselves to all gays and lesbians, intending to help them grow self-esteem and to reaffirm their identity and culture. In this search of identity construction, the speakers amuse themselves by giving pejorative nicknames to each other, such as ibne (faggot), in order to convey the message that being ibne is not a disease or an insult.
The Lambda Association is also present on the Internet⁽¹⁹⁾, and they publish the latest news regarding homosexuality in Turkey, both in Turkish and in English. This web page enables the Lambda group to be in permanent touch with other gay activists outside the country, thus becoming the cybernetic window of gay life in Istanbul.
Finally, we can find a non-official antenna of the American association Act-Up⁽²⁰⁾ in Istanbul and Ankara, but its action is limited to Turkey, mainly on AIDS prevention. Consequently, it seemed more appropriate to focus our interest on the Lambda group, which in fact comprises work performed by Act-Up, but adds social, identity and political demands to this wide range of activities.
 

    Despite it presence on the magazines, newspapers and radio broadcastings programs, the gay presence found also its visibility or outlook in the milieu of fashion, and music world.

Contrary to post-köçeks, Turkish gays' behavior is not characteristically feminine, but actually takes from identification codes typical to European or North-American gays: fashionable clothing at all times, short hair, and a particular concern for body and muscles. Moreover, their sexual identity is never an issue, neither for themselves nor for their public. Their sexual orientation is attibuted according to every single person's taste: gay fans will see a noticeable homosexual in this or that singer, whereas heterosexuals will never even think of their idol's homosexuality.

    The opening of new "gay friendly" spaces is also one of the most visible perception of the Istanbul bars and cafe. In fact, more and more cafe, openly gay or lesbian, are now on the main commercial streets of Istanbul, which is a complete new element in the outside life in istanbul. For centuries, places where unofficially know as being a meeting place for gay, but everybody there had to adopt a very straight behaviour in case the other people were not sharing the same sexual orientation. Today's, people going to well known places, such as besinci kat (the 5th floor), the Borsa, the cafe Pia, the club 14, the kaktüs, or the zencefil (the carnation), are aware that they are entering a gay or lesbian area, and those place are very crowed, because they are supposed to be fashion and in.

Based on the ever stronger identity of European or North American gays, and acting like a mirror on the Bosphorus, the way of being of the Turkish gay community has drastically changed. Nowadays they leave the linguistic phenomenon behind, in exchange of well established, clothes, musical, political and geo-urbanistic parameters.
 
 

    The gay movement, or more precisely the different Turkish homosexual associations and media have fallen to the seduction of the American gay and lesbian model. This seduction dates back to the 1960's and has paved the way at the beginning of the 1990's to the model of "identity politics". This influence is made tangible thanks to the fast and recent evolution of the Turkish gay movement. Indeed, the political changing during the Ozal years has permitted the broadcast of private TV shows, as well as the opening of properly gay meeting places, such as the Lambda Association.
These facts ascertain a new militant spirit in the gay movement. The majority of the main characters of this new scene are outlining a lecture where demands of identity occupy the first pages. Many individuals perceive themselves as belonging to a minority group, as victims of a process of exclusion. This feeling of exclusion is combined with the strong desire to construct and give structure to a homosexual community.
Among the effects of mobilization comes the elaboration of an ideology of gay identity which will eventually legitimize the structuring of this gay community. It is necessary to acknowledge that the influence of "identity politics" is limited by a certain rhetoric. The young Turkish gay movement demands its belonging to the gay and lesbian international movement, but is itself a peripheral consumer of ideological productions whose complexities it seems to ignore.

    The Turkish contribution to the invention of "identity politics" is very weak and apparently will remain that way. Having said this, the way in which some gay militants foster identity politics in Turkey, as well as the manner in which they try to base the legitimacy of new militant practices, deserve close attention in return. How to legitimate an identity demand? By proving that this is the continuity of an older militant heritage.
The dominant feature of the slogans of the Turkish gay movement is its "renaissance", and to insert it in a completely new interpretation of its history. The mobilization of the past few years shows the community sense of consciousness and identity of a double-threatened group, both by homophobia and AIDS.

    Beyond the changes in attitude and the abandon of Turkish classic homosexual schemes and their hermetical division in sex roles, the self-acceptance of gays has opened public space to meeting places, hence offering an unknown sociological visibility. It has also given the private space the chance for consciousness through the group. The acceptance from Turkish society as a whole will only be possible through change in everyday behaviour, avoiding the ridiculous characterization of homosexual people in the way it has been perceived for so many years. In addition to this, a better understanding of gay culture and behaviour from all social actors will be fundamental.

    Will this "American" orientation of behaviour in Turkish gays lead them to collide with the difficulties known by American and European gays? That is, after fighting in order to create a social strength, to be found in ghettos created by these gays themselves? Nonetheless, the irruption of a community and identity series of demands seems to have cancelled a part of the Ottoman heritage. This culture, considered "obsolete" by the actors of the Turkish gay and lesbian community, as a matter of fact never worried much about identity recognition, which can be seen as an uneasy and disturbing aspect.
Nowadays, gays and lesbians aim at taking their share in power and at putting pressure on the government by means of press and associations. In this way, they wish to be recognized as citizens. Citizens who have a marginal sexual orientation. Those who try to resist to this normalization process are becoming, due to the general movement of fragmentation of the political game, marginal individuals within their "own" minority.

Notes

1. Michael BARRY describes it more deeply in his article Plutôt le turban du turc que la mitre romaine, revue Autrement, série monde, n°29, éditions autrement, Paris, March 1988, p.25
2. The fame of the Turkish baths come from this time. The masseurs in the baths, tellak in Turkish, were young boys, helping the men in washing their bodies. Their duties were not just washers, but also prostitutes. We know toady, by texts left by Ottoman authors, who they were, their prices, how many times they could bring the orgasm to the customers, and their sexual practical details. The tellak system has dissepeared with the birth of the Turkish republic: Dellakname-i-Dilkusa, anonym of the 18th century, ottoman archives, Sulemaniye, Istanbul.
3. KOÇU RESAD, Ekrem: Osmanli Tarihinde yasaklar (The forbiddens elements in the history of the ottoman Empire), ed.Tarih Dünyasi Mecmuasi, Istanbul, 1950, p. 46.
4. At the end of the 19^thcentury up to World War II, the gays of the United Kingdom had developed a secrete language, called Poalri (from Italian parlare, to speak), which is today completly obsolete, excepted a few lexems remained, like bona (good). The Polari language had never been parametred in an academic manner and moved alot during its brief life. It looked like a collection of slangs, issued from Italian, English, Tzigane, as well as Yiddish. In London, it is in the very popular quarter of West-End, that the polari had found a fertile earth to grow and die: Cox, Leslie et Fray, Richard: Gayspeak, the linguistic Fringe Bona Polari, Camp, Queerspeak and Beyond dans The Margins of the City: Gay Men's Urban Lives", ed. by Stephen Whittle, Ashgate Publishing, 1994. Pp. 103-127
5. From the 17th century, danseurs troops, called köçek, appeared on the artistic and entertainment of the ottoman nights. By the movments they could do with their hips, in a "eight" model (up and down), they were much more succesfull than the çengi, who were their feminine counterparts. Today, the köçek phenomenon is considered by the Historians as a myth and one of the most significant symbol of the Ottoman Empire's culture. In the big cities, the köçek were the attraction of the night. They were very handsome young boys, dressed with girls clothes, long curly hairs under a small black or red velvet hat, a tiny red velvet jacket with a golden brodery silk shirt, a large trousers called salvar and a goldish belt, tided on the back, make-up and small copper cymbals, between their fingers. They were able to move their hips like a long horizontal "eight", which drove a the watchers crazy. Before starting their performance, the köçek dansed among the spectators, to make them more excited. Sometimes, the excitation was so strong, that spectators could break their glasses, shout to loose their voices, or fight eachother to obtain private favors from the dansing köçeks. A few of them had been killed by the çengi, female danseurs, who where extremly jalous of the attention of men towards the köçek. Most of the köçek were passive homosexuales, but used to get married when they were around 25 or 30, and then became organizer of a new köçek troop: ERDOGAN, Sema Nilgün: Sexual life in Ottoman Empire, ed. Dönence, Istanbul, 1996. Pp 88-92, and AYVERDI, Sâmiha; Istanbul Geceleri (The nights of Istanbul), ed. Baha, Istanbul, 1977.
6. The television was born in Turkey in 1968. The name given to the organism of the broacasting system was TRT Türkiye Radyo Televizyonu, (Turkish Radio and Television), which hold the monopoly on the sound and pictures broacasting till 1988. The TRT was officialy an independant organization, but the freedom of speech had been extremly reduced for many years. Concretly, the TRT was the voice of the different governments of Turkey, which laid down by the TV, the norm of thinking or creating in Turkey. As an example, the music style, called arabesk, or the village culture were abolished on TRT screens, when it was considered backward or islamic cultures.
7. TANOR, Bülent: Human Rights in Turkey, T.E and TV, Istanbul, 1995. P.41
8. KANDIYOTI Deniz, The paradox of Masculinity-some thoughts on segregated societies, Cornwall-N. Lindisfarne, 1990
9. Zeki Müren was one of the best and beloved singer of the classical Turkish music. He was always dressed with chic women clothes, and his way of speaking was famous for the pronounciation, and the borrowing of many ottoman old fashioned expressions, mainly used by women. All his fans recognized him as an homosexual, perpetuing the myth of the womanish and passive homosexual image.
10. Democraticly elected in 1983
11. GROSS, Larry: Out of the Mainstream / Sexual Minorities and the Mass Media, in Michelle A. Wolf and Alfred P. Kielwassen, NY Haworth Press, Binghamton, 1991. P.61
12. Aydin makes his talkshow everyday on the private channel ATV. The show, called hanimlar yarisiyor (women in competition), starts always with the sentence hadi kadinlar, eglenelim cünki biz aramizdayiz! (Come on, ladies, let's have fun because were are among women!)
13. TAPINC, Hüseyn: Masculinity, Femininity, And Turkish Male Homosexuality, in: Plummer ken, Modern Homosexualities Fragments Of Lesbian And Gay Experience, London et Newyork, Routledge, 1992, pp. 46-74
14. The typography, choosen for the set-up of the newspaper, put a triangle instead of the "A" of Kaos, to remind the tragical and forgotten issue of the gays during World War II in the Nazi's KZ lagers. (KÄOS)
15. ÖZGÜÇ, Agâh: Türk sinemasinda cinselligin tarihi (History of the Sexuality in the Turkish movie), ed. Antrakt, Istanbul, 1994, pp.47-58. Yildirim Türker is shown as a famous script writter in the Turkish movie, specially in the film Gece, Melek ve Bizim (Night, Angel and We), were most of the roles are made for gays and transgendered people.
16. BOWCOTT, Owen: Transvestites have been part of Ottoman culture for centuries but now they are being herded off the streets of Istanbul and tortured, from "The Guardian", june, the 22nd 1996
17. In its chartof rights and freedom, the ODP is the only legal political party in Turkey which takes a positive position towards the gays and lesbians. In it chart, the ODP, in the articles 30 and 31, provides for fighting against discrimination based on the sexual orientation of people. The RDYP, Radikal demokratik Yesil Partisi (Radical democratic green party) takes also at its counts the 30 and 31 of the ODP. In the general elections, ODP has always more votes than RDYP.
18. According to the Turkish AIDS Prevention Fondation, there are 547 seropositive gays in Turkey, which seems to be really under the real level of the AIDS epidemy in this country:The Bulletin of AIDS Prevention Foundation 1996: 14-15
19. the internet web address is: http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/europe/turkey
20. ACT UP was born in San Fransico in 1984 in order to aware the American Government to the AIDS problem. Act-Up is structured in a real fighting force, specially against the organisms providing a discrimination against the gay and lesbians (hospitals, insurrance companies, schools, local governments, etc...). The success of Act-Up in the United States had been used by many other european or south american organisations, using the methods of Act-Up to act in their own countries. The Act-Up logo is a pink coloured triangle on a black background, with the inscription: Silence = Death.