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It's About Time Turks Come to Terms With
Their Past and Present
26.10.2007
By Rauf Naqishbendi
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October
26, 2007
Recently, two major issues have haunted Turkey.
First, their impatience to intrude militarily into
Kurdistan in northern Iraq, and second, the passing
of two nonbinding resolutions by the United States
Senate: one in support of partitioning Iraq into
three autonomous states, and the other an
acknowledgment that the World War I-era killings of
Armenians by Turks were genocide. The confluence of
these has resulted in widespread irrationality on
the part of the Turks.
Sensible nations support their neighbors in the
spirit of economic cooperation and to promote
national security in their region; they know that
turmoil in neighboring countries can drive waves of
refugees over their borders, and chaos could spill
over into their country. But this guiding principle
clashed with the insensible Turkish government. The
case in point is the Kurds in Iraq, a young
democratic nation that has proven to the world that
they are by far more democratic than any other
nation in the Muslim world. Turks begrudge this and
make every attempt to dampen this achievement by
inciting chaos; Turkish authorities daily threaten
military intrusion into Iraqi Kurdistan. The crazy
thing is they are pursuing their arrogant aims at
the cost of alienation from the world community,
their own self-destruction and a major catastrophe
for Mesopotamia.
For nearly a century, the Turks' have shown extreme
intolerance of Kurds, not only the twenty million
Kurds in their country (one-third of Turkey's
population), but also Kurds in neighboring
countries. They are determined to liquidate the
Kurds or at a minimum disenfranchise them of their
national and human rights.
For more than a century, Turks denied the existence
of Kurds in Turkey and instead labeled them
"mountainous Turks". This went on until the birth of
the Kurdish Workers' Party (known as the P.K.K) and
the recent rise of the Iraqi Kurds as an undisputed
democratic nation. Turks then changed their tune and
claimed that an autonomous or independent Kurdish
state in Northern Iraq would entice their Kurdish
population (that they had always previously denied
existed) to demand the same. These circumstances
forced Turks to admit the existence of Kurds in
Turkey. Did it ever cross the Turks' mind that they
should apologize for their past and present
atrocities against Kurds? The answer is nay for
Turks have no sense of humility; instead they
exonerate themselves, presenting poor and ugly
justifications. They only deceive themselves; the
rest of the world knows the truth. The
aforementioned bigotry has been incorporated into
Turkey's law through a constitutional declaration
stating that every citizen of Turkey is a Turk,
robbing over twenty million Kurds of their natural
identity, and justifying their deprivation from the
rights of citizens. They have abandoned their
language in public, official and media sectors, and
further hindered their rights to practice their
culture.
For every act of suppression and human rights abuse
a sense of indignation arises, sometimes in a
peaceful manner and in extreme cases, when civilized
dialogue fails, with bloody resistance to equalize
the violent crimes committed. This is exactly the
situation for the Kurds in Turkey. First they pled
for an equitable system of social and economic
justice in Turkey and their innocent, peaceful
demands were rebuked by a violent wave of mass
arrests and incarcerations by the Turkish
authorities. They then had no choice but to resign
themselves to an armed struggle led by the P.K.K.
Now Turks are calling the P.K.K terrorists as if
they were the ones who started the conflict and
ignore the fact that the P.K.K would never have born
if it weren't for the terrorist system of government
and people of Turkey.
History shows us that when nations carried their
bigotry to extremes, they brought ruin to others and
self-destruction on themselves. Violence breeds
revenge and revenge brings about a deep-seated
resentment. In most instances bigotry is engendered
by a vigorous self-pride and so often is
unsubstantiated, as is the case with the Turks.
Their bigotry is not limited to Kurds - Armenians,
Assyrian Bulgarians, Serbs and Greeks all lament
their bitter experiences at the hands of Turkish
rulers. Is the whole world wrong except for the
Turks? They killed one and a half million Armenians
and Assyrians because they didn't resemble Turks and
were Christians. Unfortunately, the problem is not
only the Turks who have engaged in human rights
violations for so long and against so many nations,
but also the other nations of the world who have
remained aloof and let the Turks go as far as they
have gone. It is time for the world to act on behalf
of humanity and hinder further Turkish human abuses.
So often so little can be given and so much can be
achieved if obstinacy is overcome. Recognizing the
rights of the Kurdish minority in Turkey will bring
peace, more security to Turkey, and will enhance the
public image of Turkey. If Turks were to confess
their past wrongs toward Armenians, it would make
them by far more respectable than their current
precarious stand. Turks could elevate themselves
from their low standing to a higher ground of
respectability if they desired. Do they?
It is well understood that no nation can destroy
another without going down with them. Turks would do
much better if they didn't let their self-pride
blind them to reality. However, if they continue in
their current path, they will burn themselves in the
flames of their own anger and hatred, and thus have
no one to blame but themselves.
americanchronicle com
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
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.
Others estimate over 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.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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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