EXCLUSIVE “ANONYMISS” INTERVIEW – Meltem Arikan, Turkish Author, Playwright and Activist – Winner of the Turkish “Freedom of Idea and Statement Prize”

Wikileaks-Movie.com is pleased to introduce you to Meltem Arikan, a Turkish Author, Playwright and activist who kindly agreed to be interviewed for our Artists “Leaking” Visions Series.  Meltem, who grew up in Ankara, Turkey is a prolific and inspired writer who does not stray from directly addressing sensitive issues others would prefer to avoid.

Meltem Arikan has published numerous articles, authored multiple novels and has more recently ventured into theatre.  As Wikileaks began releasing information in its quest for “total transparency,” Meltem was very moved and her work was supported and “fueled” by Wikileaks. She was inspired to join the “Anonymiss” movement and become an active social networked valuing the sharing of content as much as original creation.

“Freedom of Idea and Statement Prize” Winner 2004

Like Julian Assange, Wikileaks and others, Meltem Arikan is deeply familiar with controversial censorship and freedom of information issues. Upon publication of her 2004 novel Yeter Tenimi Acıtmayın (Stop Hurting My Flesh) the Committee to Protect the Minors from Obscene Publications, a body established under the Turkish Prime Ministry, banned her book and accused Meltem Arikan of “Writing about the non-existing incest fact in Turkey, while using Turkish names for the characters, attempting to disturb the Turkish family order with a feminist approach”. Following legal procedures, this ban was lifted and Arıkan received numerous awards for her work including with “Freedom of Idea and Statement Prize 2004” by the Turkish Publishers’ Association.

Please enjoy this Wikileaks-Movie.com exclusive interview with Turkish author and playwright Meltem Arikan, and active member of “Anonymiss”. We thank her for sharing her unique perspectives and insights with us in this #Awesome interview.

Meltem Arikan – The Wikileaks-Movie.com Interview

1. What is the source of your inspiration?

Meltem Arikan, Turkish Author and Playwright

Nancy Andreasan defines inspiration as follows;

“…This archetypal story [Archimedes’s story about the ‘Eureka’] has been echoed over and over by creative individuals as they describe how they get their ideas and inspiration. The creative process moves through stages. It begins with preparation, a time when the basic information or skills are assembled. It continues on to incubation, a relaxed time during which the person does not work consciously to solve the problem, but when connections are unconsciously being made. This then leads eventually to inspiration, the eureka experience when the person suddenly sees the solution. It ends with production, a time when the insights are put into a useful form. The specifics of this basic process will vary depending on the type of creativity; writing a novel is different from identifying a new chemical synthesis. But the basic process and principles are the same across many different types of creativity.“

“My source of inspiration has always been my existence as a woman.”

What defines existence is what I call, the ‘Human BIOS’, which is missing in the quote above. ‘Human BIOS’ is the starting point of the creative process. It is the pre-operating system of a person, which does not only consist of machine language but the heritage memory.

As a woman I have been oppressed, repressed and forced to live with fears, terrorized by the male dominated system for thousands of years. The source of my inspiration is to demolish the construction of this system.
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2. What draws you to Wikileaks and how has Wikileaks impacted or influenced your work?

"Evet... Ama...Sanki..." by Meltem Arikan

When people do not confront the truth behind the ‘accepted reality’, they are forced to live with fear. By providing secret information, Wikileaks gave people the opportunity to cross the border of fear. By this way, people had the opportunity to question the authority, power and the male dominated system.

“I am a woman, I can perceive, feel and cannot ignore all the painful experiences of other women because of my natural womanhood has endowed me with compassion, untainted by the notions of power and advantage of the male dominated system. I am a woman and also a mother. That’s why there is a concrete equivalence to the experiences of all women in my body, in my heart and in my feelings. I am a woman. It is impossible for me to accept that the child to whom I gave birth should struggle and die for the sake of these notions of male dominance. The death of other mothers’ children arouses such anger in me. I am a woman. I am so strong that I can accept all the sorrows in life. I know the reality of life can only be embraced by accepting life’s sorrows and not by avoiding them. I am a woman and I well know that all women will be able to say ‘no’ and resist only when they exist as women.”

Related Link: http://archetypeinaction.org/calling-on-all-women-to-rebel

“When donations to Wikileaks were blocked, I met the Anonymous.”

When Wikileaks published the data cables, it shook the male dominated system and that was a great support for my fight. As the border of fear crossed, the voices of women began to increase together with men. In all my novels, I always emphasized the need of a new world order. For quite some time, I’ve been thinking that we are in a transition from Analogue World to the Digital World. Seeing the rulers of the World not being able to stop Wikileaks from publishing data cables fearlessly, excited me very much. When Assange was arrested, Turkish press did not pay enough attention. That’s why I started to follow the developments from world press and social media. And when donations to Wikileaks were blocked, I met the Anonymous. I started using my Facebook and Twitter accounts more often to inform the people in my country about the developments. During this period I joined the Anonymiss movement.

"Umut Lanettir" by Meltem Arikan

“I believe that the Anonymiss movement is essential.”

The Analogue world is built on foundations of fear, whereas in the Digital world the existence of woman and man will be released from fear. A great responsibility falls upon women in the transition period from the Analogue to the Digital world. This period will be very painful if women – as they were in the Analogue world- continue to be passive, herded and choose inertia. For this reason I believe that the Anonymiss movement is essential and I call upon all women to support the Anonymiss. Wikileaks documents and the arrest of Assange brought change not only to many countries but also to my life.

For example, first time in my life I have sent e-cards in the New Year to every person I know designed by my dear friend Melin Edomwonyi.

Before Wikileaks, I was not interested in social media but now I spend most of my time, sharing information. I had started to write my new novel last year, but after I started using the social media intensely and got involved in the Anonymiss movement, the concept of my new novel has changed in many ways.

Related link: http://archetypeinaction.com/en/item/240-how-women-and-men-move-in-to-the-digital-age

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3. If you had the opportunity to ask Julian Assange three questions what would they be?

1 – The male dominated system has never given up on using women in favor of the system while destroying our womanhood…

..For this point of view, it’s very tragic to see my congeneric entrapping Assange by using their womanhood. When you go against the system you are instantly marginalized. You suddenly become the target. Any game can be played on you. You are forced to be kept under control. Your rights can be taken away. Your life becomes limited. Your voice is muted. That is to say, your experiences are similar in different ways to what most of the women are exposed to generally. How does it make you feel as a man?

2 – I say, we are not the children of our parents. We are the offspring of fears. We are conducted, tamed and domesticated by fear. We become motionless because of our fears…

..You have provided many people to cross the border of fear. However, in your interviews you do not deny that you have fears. How do you cope with fear?

3 –  I believe you were not surprised by what you have been through…

..I assume, as you were working for Wikileaks you must have estimated the consequences. Nonetheless, we all have moments where we may feel strong or weak. Or, we sometimes encounter situations which renders us weak, and just for a moment, the question ‘was it worth it?’ arises. What were those moments?

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"Anonymiss Express" (by @exiledsurfer)

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4. What is the role of art on major debates or issues such as those which Wikileaks has sparked? Can you provide a few examples of artists, writers, playwrights etc… that illustrate your point?

During major changes, artworks that would agitate the perception of individuals can make them realize the importance of the facts and thus act as a stimulus. For example, the song ‘We shall over come’ by Joan Baez during the Vietnam war, the ‘Hair’ musical and its movie adaptation, the movie, ‘Persepolis’, that reflects the pressure of the religious dictatorship on women in Iran, Pablo Picasso’s painting ‘Guernica’, in response to the bombings during the Spanish Civil War, ‘The Great Dictator’ which was written and directed by Charlie Chaplin in the beginning of the Second World War, 1940.

"Anonymiss" Remix (by Courage is Contagious)

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5. For emerging artists, novelists, film makers etc… do you have any advice or words of wisdom which are drawn from your experience?

We may have different cuisines, different languages, different ethnical backgrounds but at the end you, we, them, all of us, have been ruled with the same fears for thousands of years to make the male dominated system continue.

The so-called Western World is considered to have a higher welfare. Unfortunately, this does not change the fact that the brains of men and women are not connected to their bodies. They do not exist as individuals, who are aware of their differences in their sexual identities. They do not exist as men and women. ‘You Do Not Exist Anyway’ which is one of my novels title does also apply to Western societies. I write and will continue to write because I do not accept to live in such a world that the male dominated system messed up with concepts and fed violence and hatred.

I believe, during the transition from the Analogue world to the Digital world, art ought to agitate the audience more than ever. Change can only be triggered by agitation.

“Artists must create out of the thought patterns of the society…”

In order to provide a provocative production in culture and art, artists must create out of the thought patterns of the society that might well be perceived absurd at first. Art and culture environment can only progress by new ways of thinking. Artists should not be forced to think in certain thought patterns.

“Freedom of expression should not be enough, we should think freely by breaking the forcefully imposed thought patterns”

Related link: http://archetypeinaction.org/en/item/279-meltem-arikan

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6. What have been the impacts of Wikileaks in your home country of Turkey?

Turkey was the second country to be mentioned in the leaks, unfortunately the documents were not brought to the agenda because of the auto-censor of the Press who did not want to give any harm to the government.

When leaks were published, on the same day, Turkish Prime Minister defined the documents as gossips against Turkey and his words were more accepted than the documents.

And yet unfortunately, Turkish Press largely under the control of the government, were so afraid to bring Julian Assange to the agenda.

The Turkish newspaper ‘Taraf’ who had the rights to publish documents has censored most of them and claimed that some parts will be published in the future. Thus the importance of the documents could not be perceived by the public opinion.

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7. Anything else you would like to share with the Wikileaks-Movie.com audience?

Hoping for men and women to have the awareness of freedom in the new world, the gate of which is opened by Jullian Assange. I publish my articles and share news on my web site.

Everybody is welcome to www.meltemarikan.com

WORKS BY MELTEM ARIKAN

• – Ve… Veya… Belki… (And… Or… Maybe…) [1999]
• – Evet… Ama… Sanki… (Yes… But… As If…) [2000]
• – http://Kadin Bedenini Soyarsa (Undressing Herself) [2002]
• – Yeter Tenimi Acıtmayın (Stop Hurting My Flesh) [2004]
• – Zaten Yoksunuz (You Exist In No Way) [2005]
• – Umut Lanettir (Hope Is a Curse) [2006]
• – Theatrical Play – I’m Breaking the Game (Oyunu Bozuyorum) [2007]
• – Beden Biliyor (The Body Knows) [2008]
• – Theatrical Play -Parallel [2009, dramaturgy by Arikan]

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"I Know Who Anonymissed Me" (by @exiledsurfer)

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Thank you Meltem Arikan for this #Awesome Interview! We wish you great success in your writing, art and personal endeavors.

We also thank Dekade-Z of Courage is Contagious and Michael Parenti, aka @exiledsurfer, for the #Awesome Artwork they submitted for this interview. You can view their complete gallery of artworks at their websites, http://courageiscontagious.net and http://artificialeyes.tv. Thank you!

Thank you for reading this exclusive interview with Turkish Author and Playwright Meltem Arikan as part of our Artists “Leaking” Visions Series. We encourage you to continue checking back with Wikileaks-Movie.com for new interviews, articles and other movie, film and art related resources including DVDs, movie, trailers and comedy. Especially interesting is our growing library of massive Wikileaks video and film archives devoted to Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, Birgitta Jonsdottir and others….We thank Meltem Arikan for taking part in this interview and thank you for your support of the Wikileaks-Movie.com project!