Recently I sat down with Mehmet Celebi to discuss his upbringing in America and what it’s like to be a Turkish American and a Muslim living in Chicago. Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’ve lived in the US for 22 years, since I was about 18.
I spent the early part of this new chapter of my life in the US in college studying part-time and working, and after graduation, I moved to Chicago and have been working professionally here since then.
To begin with, when I arrived in the US, my thought, like that of millions of other immigrants throughout the history of this great country, was to work, work, and work for a better life. After I graduated from college and moved to the Chicago area, I worked hard – sometimes up to eighteen hours a day – in the suburb which I made my home. My Turkish identity was important to me, but I was too busy to get involved in any community work (something which now seems like a poor excuse).
Was there ever a pivotal moment that brought you back to your Turkish roots, or did that occur gradually over time?
What changed everything for me was seeing the news of the devastating earthquake in Turkey. I’ll never forget the day – 17th August 1999. It was around 7 or 8 p.m. in Chicago, and I was just about to leave my office when a friend who was traveling in Europe and whose family lived in the area where the earthquake hit, called and told me about it and asked me to also try calling his family since all lines were busy (luckily his family was OK, tens of thousands of others however were not so lucky). This was an emergency, and many others, like me, felt that we could no longer stand idly by. The community mobilized. Up until then, I had not visited the Turkish American Cultural Alliance Chicago (TACA) building before, nor even met anyone who worked for it. But now, I and many others turned up to see what we could do to alleviate some of the suffering in the country we used to call home.
The experience changed me. Of course, living thousands of miles away from one’s country, family, and friends, it is natural to want to be a part of something, to feel the bond of a community. And working with the community in the face of that earthquake, I felt the instinctive desire to get more involved, to promote our culture, history and people to our friends in our new homeland. I decided that I needed to do more.
What was it exactly that you decided to do?
Two or three years later, I was honored to be made president of TACA, a position I would hold until 2005. At first it came about because the previous 2 presidents resigned. But after that I ran for and was elected as president for two terms.
How did you use your new position to make a difference?
It was not long after becoming TACA’s President that I was also privileged to be elected as the Vice President of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA) from the Midwest, after the departure of the previous VP, again running for two terms subsequently.
There are a few things in life that give a person in certain positions a quick reality check. Being in those positions truly brought to me a deep sense of responsibility and duty to our community , but it also gave me a hard lesson in what community leaders have to go through. Especially leaders of our community.
What are some of the challenges facing your community specifically?
One of the shortcomings of our community is getting involved in our civic duties as US citizens and participating in the US political system in a variety of ways. Some of this weakness stems from the fact that unlike other ethnic communities, Turkish-Americans did not come to the US in large numbers at once, and did not concentrate in certain geographic areas as other ethnic communities did, so it was difficult to get organized and have a strong voice. Apart from isolated periods in history, most Turkish-Americans came to the US for education or professional reasons, which is not ideal for community organizing purposes in the beginning, but offers tremendous advantages in the long run as community members get integrated into the US system, become a part of the general community, gain a comfortable living and stature which gets the attention of the politicians, and we are starting to see the impact it is making slowly but steadily. There are literally thousands of Turkish-American professionals such as doctors, engineers, businessmen, scientists, attorneys, professors…etc, and we are seeing these professionals finally starting to participate in civic events, make an impact upon their respective communities and get the attention of their local elected officials. There is also a broad awareness of the effectiveness of being politically active to protect the rights of the community members and our ancestral homeland, especially in the presence of powerful adversaries who historically dictated US policies towards Turkey previously.
But with the unrelenting support of my community, we started making a noticeable impact in getting our voices heard by elected officials
How was it that you got involved in American politics?
In my position with both TACA and ATAA, it also became my responsibility to do things that anyone with any involvement in the public life of our country will know very well. I volunteered in political campaigns. Like most ethnic communities in the US, as well as for millions of Americans, I contributed time and effort to political elections; I organized voter registration drives, and held fundraisers for elected officials. And yet, because of my heritage, I found that my constitutional rights as a citizen to do these things were actually perceived to be a danger to exercise by certain individuals and groups.
Can you elaborate?
As a Turkish-American and a Muslim, I was attacked with all sorts of baseless accusations. I was the subject of lies, slander, biased, unfounded, and vicious rumors.
It was an absolute disgrace that some even went as far as calling me an “ultra nationalist” when in fact I have always criticized nationalists and their narrow minded views in Turkey (or any place for that matter); to be called an “anti-Semite” when the majority of my business partners and many of my friends are Jews (to whom I am grateful for openly defending me); or to be labeled a biased individual when many of my friends and close business associates are Armenian, Greek and Kurdish. It is an absolute certainty that these accusers neither know me, nor know about me — but more likely that they actually know the truth, yet still choose to advance their distorted agenda by lying about me.
And the attacks didn’t end there; they actually took a puzzling turn with attacks from a hideous and an atrocious person who is also a self-proclaimed “champion” of some absurd causes. Undoubtedly this individual had some issues with the Turkish-American community and Turkey in particular, and began to make a number of fraudulent claims and lies about our small non-profit cultural organization in Chicago. Contrary to those claims, it only has a few hundred members and a limited budget (something which is easily verified by the annual IRS filings). For it to be deliberately slandered as “a front to criminal activities” is a disgrace.
Furthermore, not to give merit to any bizarre claims they make; the clearly incompetent individual, along with equally inept supporters were inept to do simple math to realize their sick accusations and my age don’t add up, especially because when these “supposed activities” took place, I was either in college, not even living in Illinois, or not even associated with TACA. But who cares about the truth when you can hide behind the internet, right?
I am relieved though, because in researching why people would do this to an innocent person, I learned that liars live a coward’s life, they often feel out of control, have low self-esteem, tend to be lonely people, fool themselves, lose credibility, victimize themselves, and encourage other people to get angry (and certainly we’re seeing in this case how these liars have a following who are easily manipulated and can be used as a tool to achieve their goals). So just knowing that this is the life these bitter people live, and the lifelong punishment they’re subjected to on a daily basis internally and externally; is sufficient to make me content.
What has been your reaction to the above accusations and attacks?
Well, my family and I went through a lot because of these lies, but my belief in my faith and my conviction and firm beliefs in my heritage and community; along with the support of my family and friends as well as my community, have helped me overcome this travesty of purposeful attacks.
Of course this does not mean I will remain silent, or I will not seek justice. Recently, I retained legal counsel and began speaking with experts on the subject, and they have charted out a plan of action for me in the short, medium and long run to fight these allegations, correct the record and hold those perpetrators accountable, it is not going to be easy but I am finally prepared to do what it takes, and thankfully I do have a lot of support and assistance.
These people--especially those who our legal counsel began research on--should know that living in multi-million dollar houses will not shield them from the wrath of legal justice and retributions that will come from it. You know who you are, if you are worried, you should be; because this is just the beginning!
Is American foreign policy a major focus for you?
After eight devastating years of the Bush administration, which made America more hated and targeted than ever around the world, I decided to support Hillary Clinton during her run for President; because I thought (and still think) she is a brilliant and a dedicated leader. I think she is making a great impact as Secretary of State and is the right person to bring back the support, respect, popularity and trust most of the world used to have for our country. President Obama has earned not only my vote, but also my respect and trust.
What’s more impressive is Turkey’s noticeable political and economic rise in the region and elsewhere-which in many ways complemented Obama’s US foreign policy vision outlined during his presidential campaign, and subsequently after his election as President, which also generated hope, expectations and goodwill around the world. I thought this was a unique opportunity where for the first time in the history of our two nations, Turkey and the US can work jointly as equal partners to resolve some of the most complex and difficult issues in some of the volatile regions of the world, and I needed to do my part to promote this friendship and opportunity even further.
Of course fulfilling such a purpose would be considered a responsible action for any US citizen, but I was surprised to find that certain groups publicly labeled my support for Hillary’s Presidential campaign as a ‘threat’, due to my Turkish-American roots.
As someone who grew up in different countries, and been exposed to different cultures, religions and people; I have always taken pride in the fact that I was able to communicate, speak and interact with people of all backgrounds and faiths. During my leadership position within the community, this was tremendously helpful for me as I established a good dialogue with the Armenian-American as well as Greek-American communities, which continue to this day. It is also ironic that as someone who even criticized Turkey’s less than stellar past human rights violations against the minority Kurdish population; and as someone who advocated the opening of the border with Armenia; I was still targeted by the very same groups in the U.S. who supposedly advocate these causes.
What other examples can you give of cross-cultural dialogue?
I spent years speaking about the long history of tolerance and co-existence between Turks and Jews during the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic in over thirty synagogues in the Midwest and elsewhere. I have very close working relationships with most of the leading Jewish organizations; yet when accusations about me spread that I “produced and financed” a controversial war movie produced in Turkey, which I have vehemently denied, I was really disappointed and upset. As you can imagine it didn’t stop there. These despicable, reprehensible and utterly vile rumor mongers continued to spread these lies using the anonymity of the internet to hide behind despite the fact that actual producers of the film have confirmed that I neither produced nor financed it, as well as the fact that several major respected media outlets have done investigative stories which have exonerated me.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I would like to be spending more time with my children and family, and be a part of their lives more often than in the past; I would also hopefully be in a better position to improve and influence Turkish-American relations which I would expect by then would have jointly solved some of the region’s problems and disputes, and now focused on improving the lives and economies of the people in the region.
İbrahim H. Aydoğan – Turkishny.com
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