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Paranoia in Turkey
28.1.2007
Opinion, Jan. 25
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There
was a huge turnout in Istanbul on Tuesday for the
funeral of the assassinated journalist Hrant Dink.
Mourners held up placards saying, "We are all
Armenians" and "We are all Hrant Dink." It was a
heartening display of support for values that the
slain editor of the bilingual paper Agos defended at
the cost of his life: free speech, acknowledgment of
the 1915 genocide of Armenians in Turkey, and
reconciliation between Turks and the 60,000
Armenians who remain in Turkey.
Encouraging as that affirmation of tolerance and
pluralism may be, Dink's murder and his funeral
illuminate a dangerous conflict that pervades state
and society in Turkey.
Dink was killed by a 17-year-old who had been given
a gun and told to carry out the murder by an
ultranationalist who had served 10 months in prison
for bombing a McDonald's. The assassin told the
police he had seen something on the Internet
alleging that Dink had said, "Turkish blood is
dirty." This was an allusion to the Armenian-Turkish
editor's conviction under an odious law that makes
it a crime to insult Turkish identity.
For the people who marched in Dink's funeral
cortège, there is a clear connection between the
nationalist paranoia that produced such a law and
the murder of intellectuals who are branded as
disloyal.
That nationalism has been nourished on political
myths that are rooted in the ideology propounded by
the founder of the post-Ottoman Turkish state, Kemal
Ataturk.
Turkey's military and security services have
interpreted Kemalism in a way that defines cultural
and linguistic autonomy for Kurds and other
minorities as a rebellious challenge to the ideal of
Turkishness. The secular ideology derived from
Kemalism has been equally intolerant of outward
shows of religious piety, prohibiting women and
girls from wearing head carves in school.
To gain entry to the European Union, Turkey's
political leaders will have to conduct a broad
educational campaign, uprooting myths about the mass
murder of Armenians and the military's dirty war
against the Kurds. Before Turks can take on a new
European identity, they will have to redefine what
it means to be Turkish.
iht com
*
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan"
Southeast Turkey. The Kurds have no rights in
Turkey.
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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