Crazy Turks – 2 / Erdoğan & The Trannies

Our insular existences do not allow us to grasp all the wonders of this big, wide world, and know about all the many facets beyond regional stereotypes and canons. Facets that present themselves as phenomena in our perception, but are equal expressions of the soul of a nation. Few outside of Turkey will know that the country has no transgender musicians, no, it has transgender superstars like Zeki Müren and Bülent Ersoy, who have been among the country’s most acclaimed and successful artists since the 1960s.

Take ex-marine Bülent Ersoy , a serious musician in the Classic Ottoman Music (Alaturka) tradition, who has started her career as a man and transformed into a woman in front of the Turkish people’s eyes, and continues her colorful career to this day, 30 highest-selling albums later. Bülent never changed her male name, likes to marry younger guys, and never attended Christopher Street Days, but preferred to be artistically respected by the average Turkish people, including their fathers and grandfathers- and massively succeeded in that. Lovingly labeled ‘Diva’, she was granted the pink passport she wanted so much by the Turkish Government.

Not so the enigmatic Zeki Müren, whom the Turkish respectfully call “The Sun of Arts” or “Pascha”, and consider as the artist of artists in Classic Turkish music. Müren was known for his aristocratic eloquence and impeccable manners and politeness he displayed publicly. After an encounter with Liberace (no joke) on an America trip in the 1960s, he started to take the stage in make-up, glittery costumes, and mini dresses, sometimes with fishnet stockings and platform boots- on state television, and with the distinguished art-loving audience applauding politely.

But despite all the effemination, Müren remained recognizable as a man. When asked if a man in women’s clothes doesn’t lose some of his masculinity, he replied that these were not women’s clothes, but the type of clothes worn by Caesar, Baytekin or Brutus. And when asked how he feels on stage in those half-naked clothes, he said “like a wrestler who goes out in his swim suit.” Both stars never met- while Müren was vulnerable and reserved, the 21 years younger Ersoy was the opposite. Ersoy thought of Müren as being too fragile and afraid, Müren attributed Ersoy with the word ‘repulsive’.

Both Müren’s and Ersoy’s records are among the 20 all-time highest selling albums in Turkey, while it’s worth noting that Ersoy’s most succesful album Biz Ayrılamayız (1988) was recorded in exile in Germany- the only time artists got banned from stages and felt the need to leave the country due to a hostile governmental climate was not under a conservative leadership as you might think. It was after the CIA-backed military coup in 1980, led by the commander of Operation Gladio‘s Turkish branch; Kenan Evren. After Evren’s presidency was over in 1989, artists like Bülent Ersoy returned to Turkey and to this day remain a part of the cultural and public life and can practise their arts without bans. Ersoy is friends with the current conservative Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the man who is failing to deliver the islamization and Sharia in Turkey since 17 years now. Some parts of the liberal world in the meanwhile are critical of Ersoy: in 2006 she exposed the then-leader of the Turkish liberal party (CHP), Deniz Baykal, of corruption by demanding a substantial amount of money from her to lift her stage-ban in the 80s. Things are often not what they seem to be. Or shall I say: they all come from the same pool of assholes.

The picture for this post shows Erdoğan, his wife, daughter, and Bülent Ersoy at joint fast-breaking in the holy month of Ramadan, having a friendly conversation. It is hard to imagine Donald Trump or Angela Merkel dining next to a tranny with mutual respect, and without getting a shitstorm from their voters. At the same time, a transgender star who would be photographed having a civilized dinner with f.e. Trump, would be publicly pilloried and risk his/her career. Shitstorm and outrage level about this picture in Turkey: zero.

My very special American friend once pointed out that his country is so ‘chosen’ and young, that it often handles things in an inexperienced and over-motivated, adolescent ‘know-it-all’ way, whereas old societies that have been around for thousands of years, act like more or less wise elders. They have seen it all, more than once, and the indignation or hysteria level is much lower. Their retrospective legitimation is heavily supported by time and history, and more often than not reveals things having grown together slowly and organically, instead of being hastily cobbled together with a hammer and nail.

While Western nations still discuss and try to force transgender empowerment on arts and people in the year 2020, regardless of talent and other qualities than sexually connotated ones, one can safely say that Turkey has truly embraced their transsexual artists more than 60 years ago. And all without dragging them into a degrading circuit of sexual and emotional exposure in the burn-out-arena of starlets and freaks.

by Saliha Enzenauer