Dear Sam,
You do raise indeed an important dilemma. I am not particularly familiar with
the situation in northern Cyprus but I do believe that the situation in that
region is not entirely comparable with that in Israel and Palestine. I do have
sympathy for the Cypriot Turkish population and if on one hand I condemn the
Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus and respect the non-recognition by the UN
of that as an independent country (which is why I would not work there) on the
other hand I do not forget that the Cypriot Turkish population had been subject
to serious mistreatment and persecution before the Turkish invasion. Although
they have in many respects been a victim of this recent history, if a
comparison has to me made this is not with the area today occupied by the
Palestinians, such as Gaza, but rather with occupied territories where Israeli
settlers - which I'm afraid are hardly victims of the situation - live. I would
not work in the area where the Israeli settlers live, and I would not work in
Israel, due to the constant abuse of the Palestinians and the contempt for
international law which has characterised any governments of Israel since its
creation.
But I will not elude your question. Would I work in Turkey? Despite I do not
regard the level of modern day abuses carried out by the Turkish governments on
the same scale as that of Israel, the answer is 'no'. In fact not only I would
not work there but I have also chosen not to set foot in that country, as long
as the present situation remains unchanged. Please, do not take this a boycott
but rather as a personal choice. My choice has little to do with northern
Cyprus and much more with the systematic abuse of the Kurdish population living
in Turkey, and it is fact a response to the demands of the Kurdish community
not to travel to that country. It is interesting in this respect to think of
the many teams of international archaeologists operating in Turkey, some
financed by such philanthropic organizations such as Shell and Visa. Well, that
just proves that different archaeologist have different views and perhaps
different sensitivities towards the demands of the oppressed. To raise these
issues and dilemmas is exactly the reason why we created AGJ and this
discussion list.
Cheers,
Umberto
--
Umberto Albarella
Department of Archaeology
University of Sheffield
Northgate House
West Street
Sheffield S1 4ET
United Kingdom
Telephone: (+) 44 (0) 114 22 22 943
Fax: (+) 44 (0) 114 27 22 563
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/albarella.html
For Archaeologists for Global Justice (AGJ) see:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/global-justice.html
"There is no way to peace. Peace IS the way".
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