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Exactly, Who is the Turkish Establishment at War
with?
25.6.2007
By Sabah Salih, OP/ED |
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June
25, 2007
One faction in Turkey’s military and political
hierarchy has been of late behaving much like the
neighborhood bully who believes that through sheer
bullying he can get his way. But more often than not
bullies are in for a nasty surprise.
This is so because bullying is a sign of insecurity
and anxiety, not of bravery. Bravery means, among
other things, being fair to your opponent, whereas
bullying means viewing your opponent according to
the wishes of your imagination.
And this is exactly the case with our Turkish bully.
It never gets tired of belligerent rhetoric. It
always demonizes its opponent. It uses its enormous
power to manufacture national consent about its
enemy. It views any effort at subjecting its views
to debate as treason. And it clothes its bullying in
the lofty language of national security, which is
often a euphemism for aggression against the
defenseless.
And the defenseless in this case are the mountain
dwellers of Southern Kurdistan. Our Turkish bully
has chosen to shell them, because, like all bullies,
this one too specializes in going after the weak.
Our Turkish bully calls its aggression a legitimate
fight against so-called PKK terrorism--a term which
we couldn’t do worse than taking it at face value,
for this is an ideologically constructed term, and
though not a good one (It unravels the moment you
place it under scrutiny), it is designed to
accomplish several things: shut down debate, hide
the real issue, make everyone tow the official line,
demonize “the enemy,” and justify war. But this
approach has so far backfired very badly on our
bully: our bully has now become a prisoner of its
own shady term. What’s worrisome, though, is that
our bully is now trying to drag the whole nation
into this prison as well.
For our bully the real issue is much bigger than a
few isolated acts of violence. Our bully is at war,
and it is at war (and has been for years) against
the Kurdish people, against the Kurdish language,
against the Kurdish culture, against the Kurdish
history, against the Kurdish flag, against the
Kurdish national anthem, against Kirkuk returning
into the Kurdish fold. Our bully cannot even bring
itself to utter the word Kurdistan.
But, as our bully is also well aware, its wishes
have zero chance of becoming a reality. It doesn’t
dare to enter a single Kurdish city. It knows that
the people of Kurdistan are no strangers to fighting
when attacked. Bombing innocent and unarmed
villagers may provide a temporary satisfaction, but
in the end our bully will have nothing to show for
except the usual bland of bellicose rhetoric and
more bullying. Meanwhile, Kurdistan continues to
gain politically and economically.
If only our bully can muster enough moral courage to
liberate itself from this stupid phrase and starts
treating the Kurds the way it wants the Turks to be
treated, Turks and Kurds can easily find ways to
work together, not against each other. Demonization
only breeds more demonization.
Dr. Sabah Salih is professor of English at
Bloomsburg University.
Article from
Kurdistan Observer
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