Articles by Engin Kurtay and IIRSS
Professor, par excellence !
Hamas by no doubt corresponds to what you say for Russia, “a fanatic religious fundamentalist” organisation. And it wasn’t quite a long time ago that it’s antagonistic counterpart, Amichai Eliyahu suggested to use nuklear weapons for their complete annihilation. Continue reading “Dear Prof Zizek, you shouldn’t meme Amichai Eliyahu — Engin Kurtay”
Настоящая академическая работа должна беспокоить. Она не должна никого радовать. Эта надоедливость академической работы – вот что отличает ее от того, что является схоластическим. В том же отношении настоящее художественное произведение аналогично академическому: истинное искусство высмеивает порядок статус-кво и его бенефициаров, в то время как схоластическая подача их удовлетворяет.
——————💪—————— Continue reading “Утонченность в дизайне Надежды Копыловой: как прочитать обложку книги — Енгин Куртаи”
Editorial note: In ‘Theory of the Subject’, Alain Badiou theorises four political affects (or emotional states) – courage, justice, anxiety and the superego. The superego represents the force of law, and hence of the established order. Anxiety arises from a lack of symbolic order, and impedes decisive action. Justice is the opposite of the superego. It rejects adherence to present laws. Instead, it expands the symbolic order to include new elements. It is the basis for a new commonality. Courage is the opposite of anxiety. It allows decisive action without guarantees.
Continue reading “Grabbing the bull by the horns without being concerned who gonna follow me — Sahra Wagenknecht”
The attacks of Ukrainian government on Ukrainian Orthodox Church took an acute and improvised start on November 2022. The attacks intensified during the following months. As a reaction to all this provocative manipulations, people of Kiev, who consider the facility as their common spiritual and historical heritage, tended to protect the building. But they were stopped and blocked by the Police. Why does the Ukrainian government attack —supposedly— it’s own created Church? And the Western media has carefully avoided reporting any news on this event — and they still keep silence. Why? Continue reading “The onion-dome-phobia of Zelenski regime — Engin Kurtay”
What was the cause of this allergy — that they were abusing the notion of ‘academic autonomy’ that they so fiercely defended, in its most negative sense as ‘the freedom to marginalize a certain kind of knowledge‘?
Our basic hypothesis here is this:
Establishing and maintaining an ideological hegemony is only possible if the loyalty noose between the epistemic community and the layers below it, is carefully being kept INVISIBLE. A situation in which an epistemic community (a politicized academic group) exposes it’s liaison with propagandists or agitators indicates the collapse of their ideological hegemony.
For Roger Waters to pass the-adorno-test he must make a stronger call, that is a call to start a march (not a “parade”) to Belmarsh Jail for freeing Assange. Continue reading “Tear down the wall ! — Pink Floyd”
The tricky thing here is that the discrepancy between the “idea” and the practical interpassivity* doesn’t originate from some illiteracy or lack of acknowledgment. As the common belief that Assange must be freed is right and just, the common uncertainty that this belief (that he must be freed) is common is also right and sound — the former is undisputably right as a matter of historical and universal justice (an ethical necessity) and the latter is also sound because it’s pretty likely that in a society there are often some (as Priti Patel and/or as the Betty-the-Queen) who may not believe so or who have normalized not acting in line with their own beliefs. Continue reading “A risky reconnaissance operation into the British roge state territory — Engin Kurtay”
— What is the purpose of your visit to United Kingdom?
— I came to take him out!
— Who?
— Comrade Julian Assange
That moment of perplexity, seeing the face of the port police officer was my biggest pleasure. Continue reading “I came to take him out! — Engin Kurtay”
We previously studied the complications of “playing with Other’s toy” by showing the similarities between the Ukrainian kids’ playing with the plush Javelin toys and the UkroNazis’ playing with the real Javelin missile toys.
Now we will study a similar case:
The unbearable lightness of defending the independence of Ukraine by the Ukrainians who well fulfilled their fantasies by having already moved to the West…
The similarity between the two cases is that, while in both cases they allegedly struggle for their independence, they pathetically end up in—dependence by mind and soul. Continue reading “The joy of shifting between middle finger and bloody ass — Engin Kurtay”
Two declarations denouncing the Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, both, allegedly belonging to Russian academics, have recently (beginning from the March 8, 2022 to our knowledge) been made circulated among the scholars affiliated to NATO academic-Gladio.
We will not indicate the specific personages and the name of the University, with whom and where this incident took place. The scholars who got engaged in this fraudulent dissemination activity have already been acknowledged by the nature of their involvement. Continue reading “Disseminating fake declarations on behalf of Russian scholars — Engin Kurtay”
“Mister Bernard-Henri Lévy, do you know The War has started in 2014?”
“Mister Bernard-Henri Lévy, War is not statistics!”
And now you are in Odessa, Mister BHL… But you are a loser.
Continue reading “Mister BHL, War is Not Statistics! — Anne-Laure Bonnel”
Note: This article was received from Prof Slavoj Žižek upon our publishing of the previous article “From Sartre to Zizek, freedom or Bashi-Bazouklouk — Engin Kurtay“. Professor has mentioned that he cut off all links with RT.
After the Russian attack on Ukraine, I was yet again ashamed of being a citizen of Slovenia. The Slovene government immediately proclaimed that it is ready to receive thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russian occupation… OK, but when Afghanistan fell to Taliban, this same government announced that Slovenia is not ready to receive any refugees from there – the justification was that instead of escaping, people should stay there and fight Taliban with guns. Along the same lines, a couple of months ago when thousands of refugees from Asia tried to enter Poland from Belarus, Slovene government offered Poland military help, claiming that Europe is under attack there. So there are obviously two species of refugees, “ours” (European), i.e., “real refugees,” and the Third World ones who don’t deserve our hospitality. Continue reading “Ukraine and The Third World — Prof Slavoj Žižek”
“Everywhere, on billboards, in the newspapers, on the screen, we encountered the revolting and insipid picture of ourselves that our oppressors wanted us to accept. And, because of all this, we were free. Because the Nazi venom seeped even into our thoughts, every accurate thought was a conquest. Because an all-powerful police tried to force us to hold our tongues, every word took on the value of a declaration of principles. Because we were hunted down, every one of our gestures had the weight of a solemn commitment.” Continue reading “From Sartre to Zizek, freedom or Bashi-Bazouklouk¹ — Engin Kurtay”
Jan Hus was killed on 6th of July 1415. Paradoxically, Jan Hus was the translator and a defender of an English theology professor: John Wycliffe. As a surprising fact of Historical dialectics, the 15th century Britain was more advanced than the Continent.
Jan Hus and similar heroic personages opened the way to modern philosophy, critical thinking, freedom of speech, to form the distinct political and legal norms of our contemporary civilization.
You, the Judges compounding the “Supreme” Court of the UK, you are supposed to be the products of this six-century-long philosophical and societal evolution.
You are not free to deny the legacy of this six hundred years. Your “judiciary independence” is the product of this legacy.
J’accuse! You did wrong.
But you will have a second chance to decide whether you are “Supreme” or the tiny pathetic puppets of the transatlantic imperialist cooperation. Julian Assange will re-appeal.
If you do the wrong thing, your injustice will match the logic of the inquisition of the dark ages.
The monument of Julian Assange will be erected in any case. This is unavoidable and will not be related to any decision of yours.
The only difference if you will do the wrong is that it will be erected over your infamy.
And a few words to your Queen (the throne throng are not my compeer, therefore it’s you who shall forward my words to her):
Despite her age she looks still lucid enough to remember the words of De Gaulle for Sartre:
“On ne met pas Voltaire à Bastille, sinon le peuple le détruiront sur nos têtes“.
I wish you all doing a good job.
Engin Kurtay
Prof Slavoj Zizek
Sahte-eşitlikçi mantığı en uç noktasına doğru ilerletmeyi şu örnekle deneyelim: toplumda bazı bireylerin diğerlerine göre cinsel anlamda daha çekici oldukları acı bir gerçektir. Öyleyse, bir bireyin diğerine göre hangi adil kıstaslara göre daha çekici olduğunu kestiremeyeceğimizden, daha çekici olanları aşağı bastırarak onların keyiflerini örseleyecek yeni yöntemler mi icad etmemiz gerekiyor? Cinsellik, en korkunç, en başedilmez eşitsizlik alanlarından biridir… Herkese eşit keyif dağıtmak ise sahte-eşitlikçi mantığın nihai fantezisidir. Continue reading “‘Farkındalık yaratmak’ ile hakiki uyanış arasındaki ayrım – Prof Slavoj Zizek”
Professor Zizek’s paradox is due to a false contradiction that can exchange their roles with each other like any other paradox:
A) Those who can give up their own identity and have the privilege of talking about the victimization of the victims: We call this group WASP: the initials of white; Anglo Saxon; Protestant. Male is often added to it too: WASP+male.
B) Those who can declare their own identities without being stamped as fascist: This group includes all skin colors and ethnicities other than WASP. We call this group non-WASP. However, this group is not uniform in itself. They position themselves in a spectrum of different degrees of grievances and victimizations: the farther you are from WASP, the more authentic victims you are. For example, an Afro American is more underprivileged than a “brown” (mixed blood); a Bengali is more underprivileged than a Chinese; a Chinese is more than an Italian; a muslim is more than a buddhist; a buddhist is more than a catholic; a transsexual is more than a homosexual; a lesbian woman is more than a straight woman … and they altogether are victims of the WASP+male. Continue reading “Why Kamala Harris was destined to fail? – The paradoxes of anti-WASP left – Engin Kurtay, Ali Polat”
Profesör Zizek’in paradoksu, her paradoks gibi birbiriyle rollerini değiş tokuş edebilen sahte bir çelişkiden kaynaklıdır:
A) Kendi kimliklerinden vazgeçerek mahrumların mağduriyeti üzerine konuşma ayrıcalığına sahip olabilenler: Bu gruba WASP diyoruz: beyaz (white); Anglo Saxon; Protestan sözcüklerinin baş harflerinden oluşuyor. Buna “erkek” de eklendiği olur (Bunun Türkiye’deki karşılığının BEST olduğu söyleniyordu: beyaz; sunni, Türk).
B) Faşist damgası yemeden kendi kimliklerini söyleyebilenler: Bu grup ise bunun dışında kalan tüm renklileri ve etnileri kapsıyor. Bu gruba da WASP-olmayanlar diyoruz. Ancak bu grup yeknesak değil. Kendilerini farklı derecelerde bir mağduriyetler spektrumu içinde konumlandırıyorlar: WASP’tan ne kadar uzaklaşırsanız o kadar otantik mağdur oluyorsunuz. Örneğin bir afro-amerikalı bir meleze göre; bir Bengal’li bir Çinli’ye göre; bir melez bir İtalyan’a göre, bir müslüman bir budiste göre; bir budist bir katoliğe göre; bir trans bir eşcinsele göre; bir eşcinsel bir kadına göre daha mağdur… ve toplamda bunların hepsi de WASP+erkek karşısında mağdur… Continue reading “Kamala Harris neden kaybetmeye mahkumdu? – Engin Kurtay, Ali Polat”
Çeviri: Engin Kurtay
Kaynak: İngilizce orijinali Russian Times’ta 20 Nisan 2020 tarihinde yayımlanmıştır.
Covid-19 salgınının dijital seks dünyasına hareketlilik getirdiğine kuşku yok. Öte yandan fiziksel yakınlığın önemini, iki insan arasında yaşanan seksin maneviyatın ön koşulu olduğunu da insanlığa hatırlatmasını umuyorum. Continue reading “Covid-19, maneviyata giden yolun SEKSTEN geçtiğini hatırlatacak mı? – Prof Slavoj Zizek”
Russian Times’ın 28 Mart 2020 08:01 tarihli yayınındaki İngilizce orijinalinden Engin Kurtay tarafından Türkçe’ye Sendika.org için çevrilmiştir.
“Çalışmanın” arka planında ‘para kazanacağım’, ‘tatile gideceğim’ gibi motivasyonlar yok. Çünkü kimse bundan sonra parası olsa bile tatile gidip gidemeyeceğinden emin değil. Dünya algısı, başını sokacak bir evinin olması ve karnını doyuracak yemeğin olmasından ibaret hale geldi. Bunun yanında birilerini sevmek, kollamak ve şu an bunun için yapılması gerekenler öne çıkmış durumda. ‘Daha fazlasına ihtiyacım var’ düşüncesi gerçekdışı hale geldi. Yabancılaşmadan bu kadar arı, saygın yaşam tanımına bundan daha iyi uyacak bir yaşam düşünemiyorum. Salgın geçtikten sonra da bugün edindiğimiz bu alışkanlıkların hiç olmazsa kısmen devam etmesini umuyorum. Continue reading “Covid-19 günlerinde sağ kalma rehberi: basit hazlarınızdan utanmayın, Valhalla Murders izleyin, herşey bir oyunmuş gibi düşünün – Prof Slavoj Zizek”
Istanbul Institute of
Russian and Sovietic Studies
The people of Russia, except few rickety events, remained indifferent to the centenary of the 1917 Revolution and spent the November 7th 2017 like a normal day. According to a survey commissioned by the Communist Party, 58% of the Russian population was unaware of the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution (1).
Whereas Nov. 7th was a holiday celebrated by big ceremonies, during the Soviet era.
The editor of the independent Russian TV channel, documentary filmmaker Mikhail Viktorovich Zygor proclaimed that he was very surprised by the fact that the Russian press remained indifferent to the centenary of October Revolution (2).
The Russian President V. Putin, four days prior to Nov. 7th (in November 3, 2017), said that the October Revolution was a complicated episode of their own history and that these course of events should be treated with respect in an unbiased way (3).
Continue reading “The fantasy universe of Sergei Eisenstein’s ‘October’ – Ali Polat, Engin Kurtay”
Istanbul Institute of
Russian and Sovietic Studies
Rusya halkı, sağda solda düzenlenen birkaç cılız etkinlik dışında 7 Kasım 2017’yi normal bir gün gibi geçirdi. Komünist partinin yaptırdığı bir ankete göre Rusya halkının %58’i Ekim Devrimi’nin 100. yıldönümünden habersizdi (1).
Oysa Sovyet döneminde 7 Kasım, büyük törenlerin yapıldığı bir tatil günüydü.
Bağımsız Rus Tv kanalının editörü, belgesel film yapımcısı Mikhail Viktorovich Zygar, Rus basınının Ekim Devrimi’ne kayıtsız kalmasına çok şaşırdığını söylemişti (2).
Rusya Devlet Başkanı V. Putin, 7 Kasım’dan dört gün önce (3 Kasım 2017) Ekim Devrimi’nin kendi tarihlerinin karışık bir parçası olduğunu ve bu tarihe tarafsız ve saygılı davranılması gerektiğini söyledi (3). Continue reading “October filminin fantezi evreni – Ali Polat, Engin Kurtay”
Istanbul Institute of
Russian and Sovietic Studies
“Boys climbed on trees, to see what was happening. And they fell down vomitting: they saw it. We suddenly realized that there was a mass massacre that was happening there”
“Before the Nazi occupation of Kiev the housekeepers were known as the spies of the KGB. After the Nazi occupation they all suddenly converted to Nazi spies. One of them was coming to our house and saying to my mother – who was looking as Jewish because she had a big nose – “Madam, you should go to Babi Yar, why don’t you go to Babi Yar?” Continue reading “Babi Yar – 2 – Mass Massacre in Kiev”
Cuaron’un ‘Roma’sından farklı olarak ‘Sibel’ filmindeki kadın dayanışması, terk edilmenin mağduriyeti üzerinden yürüyen bir dayanışma değildir. Sibel bir mağduriyet kısırdöngüsüne takılı kalmaz. Aşkın dolayımı Sibel’i daha da biler. Kadınlığını ‘kaldırarak‘ bireyin öteki birey için yürüttüğü bir mücadeleye dönüştürür; son sahnede köyün ‘sıradan‘ kadınları olanların farkında değilmiş gibi susup işlerine devam ederler, ama olayı hayranlıkla izleyen aralarından ‘sıradışı‘ birini fire vererek…
Not: Bu çalışmamız ilk olarak Sendika.org’da yayımlanmıştır.
Continue reading “Hegelci ‘kaldırma’: ‘Green Book’ ve ‘Sibel’”
“Jim Crow” logic has been carried till today by the liberal left’s ethnic politics:
“You are black, how come that you don’t know how to eat the chicken like a black?”
As the ‘Green Book’ sublates the ethnic problem, the film ‘Sibel’ (2019), directed by Guillaume Giovanetti and Çağla Zencirci, similarly sublates the problem of pseudo-feminism.
The negro Pushkin was more Russian than anyone else in Russia. A real art does not fit in any race, identity or ethnicity. What we call “ethnic music” cannot be an “art”. To install a revolutionary function in art, one has first to lift the whiskey glass away from the piano!
Note: This article has originally been published in Turkish, in Sendika.org
Continue reading “The Hegelian Aufhebung: ‘Green Book’ and ‘Sibel’ – Ali Polat, Engin Kurtay”
(*) Yazının başlığı Todd McGowan’ın, “Enjoying what we don’t have – The political project of psychoanalysis” (University of Nebraska Press, 2013) kitabından ödünç alınmıştır.
(Bu yazının ilk versiyonu Sendika.org’da yayımlanmıştır.)
Bir yoksunluğun simgeleştirilmesi nasıl oluyor da eğlenceye dönüşüyor? Bu mekanizmayı anlamak için Profesör Slavoj Zizek’in “Ego Ideal and the Superego, Lacan as a Viewer of Casablanca” ve Owen Hewitson’s “What Does Lacan Say About … Jouissance?” makaleleri rehberliğinde ilerleyeceğim.
İdeal ego, öznenin (küçük öteki) büyük Öteki tarafından görülmeyi arzuladığı halidir. ‘İmgeseldir’. Ego İdeal ise, öznenin toplumsal kurallar ve yasaya göre kendini konumladığı halidir. ‘Simgeseldir’. Süperego, ego ideal’in kötü ikizidir, karanlık arka yüzüdür. Özneyi kurallara, yasaya uymamakla suçlar, onu yargılar, damgalar, özneyle alay eder. Eğlence ile müstehcenlik arasındaki paradoksal ilintiyi buradan hareketle anlayabiliriz: özne ne kadar itaat etmeye çalışırsa başı o kadar çok derde girer, çünkü süperegonun yargılamasına da o kadar açık (tabi) hale gelir – birbirine karşıt bu ikili (Ego Ideal X süperego) bireyi giderek kendi kendini besleyen bir ‘müstehcen keyif’ kısırdöngüsüne hapseder. Continue reading “Sahip olmadığın şeyle eğlenmek – Engin Kurtay”
(*) The title is barrowed from the book of Todd McGowan, “Enjoying what we don’t have – The political project of psychoanalysis“, University of Nebraska Press, 2013.
(Sendika.org’da Türkçe’sini okumak için tıkla)
How does the symbolization of a lack turns into fun? To understand this mechanism, I will proceed under the guidance of the articles of Professor Slavoj Zizek’s “Ego Ideal and the Superego, Lacan as a Viewer of Casablanca” and Owen Hewitson’s “What Does Lacan Say About … Jouissance?”
The ideal ego is the way the subject (small other) desires to be perceived by Other, thus, it is ‘imaginary’. Ego Ideal, by contrast, is the subject’s self-positionning into societal rules, thus, it’s “symbolic”. The superego is distinguished from Ego Ideal as its back-face, evil twin: it judges, “stigmatizes” the subject by its inadequacy to conform law. It mocks, have fun with it. Here reveals the paradoxical formula that connects ‘jouissance’ to ‘obscene’: The more Subject tends to comply, the more it becomes subject to get judged and stigmatized – and this duality of opposite agencies (Ego Ideal versus the superego) become eventually trapped into a swirl of self-perpetuating ‘obscene jouissance’. Continue reading “Enjoying what we don’t have* – Engin Kurtay”
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Profesör Zizek’in Independent’da yayımlanan son makalesi ve buna karşılık Cenk Ağcabay’ın eleştirisi üzerinden verimli bir tartışma üretilebilir.
Continue reading “Zizek’le Marx’ın güncelliğini tartışmak – Engin Kurtay”
Professor Zizek’s article that has recently been published in Russian Times with the title Sex in the modern world: Can even a ‘yes, yes, yes’ actually mean ‘no?’” provides a sound framework for rethinking on the impasses of nowadays feminism. At the end of the article, Lewinsky’s statements as referred by the Professor, exemplify the main theme of the #metoo movement. This theme is typically as follows: there is always a “strong” man on stage … either a famous businessman, or artist, actor, TV commentator, a man with a career and wealth or so … and the campaign is typically aiming to judge the man’s using his power on women for sex.
Continue reading “Feminism having turned to its opposite and Zizek’s warnings”
Geçenlerde Sendika.org’da yayımlanan Profesör Zizek’in Modern dünyada cinsellik: “Evet, evet, evet” aslında “hayır” anlamına gelebilir mi?” başlıklı makalesi, feminizmin çıkmazları üzerine etraflıca düşünmek için sağlam bir çatı oluşturuyor. Yazının sonunda ele alınan Lewinsky’nin beyanları #metoo hareketinin ana temasını örnekliyor. Ana tema şöyle : sahnede hep “güçlü” bir erkek var… bu ünlü bir işadamı, sanatçı, aktör, TV yorumcusu, yani kariyerli ve varlıklı bir erkek olabiliyor… ve kampanya tipik olarak erkeğin bu gücünü kadınlar üzerinde seks için kullanmasını yargılıyor.
Continue reading “Karşıtına dönüşen feminizm ve Zizek’in uyarısı”