Turkey: Please acknowledge the suffering of Kurds
December 18th, 2008I went on Facebook today with a new mission, finding a Kurdish translator to help make the Kurdish language more visible on the internet, a medium that allows some Kurds to celebrate their culture at least without being entirely censored (except locally, of course.) I came across this Turkish group:
TO MAJOR NEWS OUTLETS OF THE WORLD: STOP CALLING PKK “KURDISH REBELS”
The description reads:
CNN, BBC, FOXNews, New York Times, Financial Times… Just to name a few, these are the major news outlets, who refer to the terrorist organization of PKK as “Kurdish rebels”
What you say matters and you always shy away from labeling PKK as a terrorist organization except when “quoting” Turkish officials. You act as if it is recognised as such only by Turkey. Just like Al Qaeda, PKK is recognised a terrorist organization by your governments too. Please respect our suffering as much as you respect your own.
No one can deny or justify the damage that the PKK has done, not even many Kurds themselves, some of whom also consider the PKK to be a “terrorist” organization. But I always find these kinds of groups distasteful when they completely ignore the reality of why the PKK was created in the first place: Turkish aggression and discrimination against the Kurdish minority.
How many other groups or campaigns out there, created by actual Turks, condemn the Turkish government’s consistent discrimination and aggression against the Kurdish minority, the majority of whom are peaceful and merely wish to maintain their basic human and cultural rights?
This week, I was in awe by a courageous step from enlightened Turks who do not deny the dark past of their country for the sake of nationalism:
[BBC] An internet petition has been launched in Turkey, apologising for the “great catastrophe of 1915″ when hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians died.
Many international historians say the massacres and deaths of Armenians during their forced removal from what is now eastern Turkey were “genocide”.
Turkey firmly denies that, saying those who died were just victims of war.
The petition – the first of its kind – was initiated by prominent Turkish academics and newspaper columnists.
Hopefully soon there will be a similar courageous action taken by Turkish academics on behalf of Kurdish human rights within the country. There are some Turkish authors and columnists writing about the struggles of Kurds in Turkey, but there are also many powerful Turks, along with average citizens, who consistently deny any wrongdoing and justify all crimes taking place against innocent Kurdish civilians. If this doesn’t change, it’s hard to be optimistic about the situation of Kurds in Turkey, especially not after the re-arrest of Leyla Zana, a prominent and peaceful Kurdish human rights activist.
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Good article.
Turkey is not a democracy. The military is in charge and dictates internal and foreign policy.
The west is slowing recognizing the problem is not just a band of terrorists. The discrimination and unjust suffering the Kurds feel in Turkey is slowly gaining national attention.
Turkey needs to be really careful here. Without granting Kurds rights, Turkey will never be accepted to the European Union.
The West has its own plans for Turkey, they only want Turkey’s neighbours (read Iran) to be destroyed first. Turkey is tied down by the Kurdish problem of its own making and the West wants it that way. If the Turks woke up and treated Kurds well then there would be no need for a huge army, no need for the billions spent on the war machine, and Turkey could even possibly become a serious regional player. But no signs of progress as Turks are so dull headed that they can’t see past their chauvinism and hate, which will be their undoing.
It is true that Turkey should stop the aggression and oppression of the Kurds but I find it not realistic that there will be any serious effort to question the military actions against Kurds by Turks because of the climate that is artificially created. Accepting that PKK is a terrorist group shall not stop us from acknowledging the fact that, by default, all armies are also terrorist organizations. If we are for peace we have to agree that both are terrorists and shall be stopped.
For some years there has been some optimism about the issue but in the last couple of years things started to heat up again. It’s impossible to say who started first but very clearly both sides know that they are fighting a war they cannot win, a war that is bound to go on indefinitely without a winner, unless there is a peace where people win. PKK is the greatest obstacle against the Kurdish cause for the moment and there is good evidence that it’s main purpose is not independence but destabilizing Turkey on behalf of other power centers (you name it). Being a Turkish citizen, I know that there will be no serious negotiations as long as the killing continues.
And Azad, isn’t it the same kind of blunt racism to say “Turks are so dull headed that…”? Many chauvinist Turks think that Kurds are so dumb that they are being used by USA to divide and conquer Turkey (as if it is not conquered already). This kind of argument goes nowhere. Many Turks believe they shall apologize from the Armenians and give all the rights they need to the Kurds, but Turkey is still a country ruled by powerful minorities. It’s not that Turks want to kill all Kurds, no more than Kurds want to kill all Turks; it’s that some Turks and some Kurds pursue personal profit in keeping a senseless war going on forever. That’s all.
Eray, you seem level headed and I thank you for your input. Sadly, Turkey is ruled by a minority of fascists that dominate the mass media and form opinion against Kurds, such that the vast majority of Turks I meet harbour very extreme views against Kurds. (For a taster go on Youtube and see the large number of Turks (MIT or Turkish nationalists behind this, hard to say, maybe both?) writing on Islamist pages and on Islamist websites generally encouraging Arabs to kill all Kurds. It is pretty extreme stuff). They are manupulated like puppets. This is very dangerous for Turkey for remember that once the fascists control one area they will move onto the next. Yestreday it was teh Armenians and Zaza, today it is the Kurds. Tomorrow it will be open minded, liberal Turks who stand in their way. In this environment of hate how can you see a positive outcome?
And for the record, I stand by my opinion of the majority of Turks- blinded by hate and mendacious to the point that they see no reason and appear to feel no humanity for the other. obviously, I would like to be wrong on this but having had ample opportunity to travel through Turkey and seeing what I have, compounded with meeting so-called educated Turks here in the West let’s just say that I won’t hold my breath.
Please do stand up and have your voice heard in turkey as clearly Turkey needs more people like you. When your voice is heard to the point that I can hear of support for minorities and democracy in Turkey then I will be only too happy to say that Turkey has a class of people on the side of reason. I remain to be convinced.
I agree that there is much extreme racist material to be found in Turkey and majority of the people support the oppression in Kurdistan in one way or the other but these two does not put them into the same box. A big majority of that majority who support them are not extreme nationalists by any means.
Let me put it this way. After the 80’s Turkey’s politicians became strong followers of US ways of governance, which included a strong propaganda machine, which just numbs people’s minds to the point that they cannot or even are afraid to think for themselves and just follow what is being broadcast. Turkey is also not more literate than USA, so most people readily accept what they are told. And they are told much nonsense all the time while people who try to use some common sense are either murdered, jailed or bribed into changing sides. This is not unique to Turkey but there it is stronger than in other regional countries where there are other forces in play and less Western influence.
So over the years,the common low-brow way of viewing what’s happening in East Turkey became something like this: “The Kurds had all the rights all other people of Turkey always had but they were still made to believe by outside elements that they are oppressed and started demanding independence which we’ll never allow. Anyone who holds a Turkish citizenship is Turkish and although his mother tongue is Kurdish, he still has to go to government school and vow every morning that he is Turkish. The opposite of this is treason and it is our right to attack and destroy all traitors.” This is somewhat similar to the argument behind the Armenian genocide, “they were used by the Russians to divide the country from within and because of this treason we just forced them to go where ever (while we didn’t intend to kill them we didn’t care if they would die, and in fact, it was mostly the Kurdish who killed them)”. This argument is so sick that, since Turkey and most Turkish people still refuse to apologize to the Armenians, deep inside they hold the belief that they would do the same to Kurds if this happens again and wouldn’t mind if a million of them dies (and this is why Turkey won’t apologize in the near future).
However I still do not see it as “Turks- blinded by hate and mendacious to the point that they see no reason and appear to feel no humanity for the other.” I know most people in Turkey are very hard to make sense to when it comes to these “sensible” issues or “red lines”. That’s one of the reasons why I choose to live abroad. But I still see it as being blinded by ignorance rather than hate. Of course some people get infuriated after seeing the touching news about a terrorist bombing of civilians and experience hate but for the most part it is that stupid nationalistic blindness which can only come from ignorance. And believe it or not, there was more hate among common people in the 90’s than now but after so many years of futile fighting many people today see the point that there must be another way to resolve the problem. In fact before the new wave of violence which started in 2006, there were some years when most people considered the possibility of some kind of autonomy and more rights (also thanks to the EU process which helped Kurdish become a legal language for broadcasting and even permissible in schools).
So, I believe there is no genuine hatred between the Turks and the Kurds but the actions of PKK and reactions of Turkish armed forces and unofficial militia try to keep the level of animosity as high as possible to continue the fighting. Common people know deep inside that nothing will be solved with violence but are also scared to voice this opinion publicly (perhaps, I could be charged for saying what I wrote here in Turkey, where even the word Kurdistan is illegal.) So, please think twice before judging a whole nation with hatred. We can say that American people were ignorant, brainwashed, misinformed, etc. to go and vote for Bush for a second term but can we honestly say that “they hated Iraqis or Muslims?” Same applies to Turkish people. They are acting out of a manufactured fear of a splitting country, not out of a genuine racist hatred. Please think about it.
In fact i am hopeful about Turkish Goverment and Kurdish relationship. Turks describe themselves primarily as “Turk”, secondarily “Muslim”. But Kurd describe themselves primarily as “Muslim”, secondarily “Kurd”. And recently Turkish goverment has islamic fundamentals.
Turkish people started dispense with nationalism. 8 year ago anyone can talk about Kurdish human rights in Turkey. But anymore people can discourse about “armenian catastrophe” and “Kurds rights”.
Recently there are a arguement about Kurds and Armenians. It seems Turkish people are fascist. That is not true. Turks was fascist but anymore Turks can talk about these problems. 8 year ago anyone can dare talking about Kurdish rights.
Turks and Kurds will argue for a while. I think this way more functional than fighting to solve problems.
Kurds are in the head man. They are 100% terrorists and got brain problems just like all Iraqies.They are killing turkish soilder casue they want turkey idiots. We let them live in peace in turkey and not they are kiling turkish people man use are terrorists and allways will be. I wish america killed all americans in Iraq man. And now kurdish want to make a party they want land crossing from istabul to anakara how crazy are kurds man. Stupid kurdish terrorists PKK are terrorists they killing our soilders man Fuck kurds and there generation
They should go bak to there own country man what are they doing in turkey . Kurds dont even like there own country
And Inshallah there willl be no peace for you kurds
AHHHHHHHHH DUMB KURDS
Can yo tell me if there is any infighting in Georgia at this time Oct 24, 2009 Or is it peaceful. I am not familiar with who lives in Georgia. I am not making any excuses. We try to pray for peace all over the world no matter where. All life is important. Whom ever or Who ever you are.
The article is lacking facts and is build up by ignorance. Users like AJ are clear proof of ignorant people coming here and writing about what they’ve heard in the streets and what they assume. I live in southeastern Turkey and I’m an ethnic Turk. There has been a suffering of Kurds untill the early 1980s, but they’ve always had their democratic rights such as voting etc. fullfilled. 1991 the Kurdish language as officially allowed and ever since that, Turkey has taken major steps to fullfill Kurdish rights. Today a Kurd have every single right a Turkish citizen has + special rights such as being able to learn their native languages (Kurdish) in several schools in the region. Now tell me, looking from the perspective today and not some outdated ideal of the Kurds situation, what are the Kurdish rights that aren’t fullfilled? What is the suffering of the Kurds? If anything, it is those who have supported terrorists organizations like PKK who have brought the problems to themselves. Theres no differrence today between other Anatolian cities and the southeastern ones where the majority consists of ethnic Kurds. The only problem, like I explain, is the terrorist activities which the Kurdish people have brought to themselves by sympatizing with such acts.
The ones dying today aren’t the poor Kurds, it’s the Turkish youth doing their military service in the southeast, who are working as civil guards, that get raided by PKK attacks and mines.