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In The Past Turkey Was a Gendarmerie
State: Now It Is a Police State
27.1.2012
By Dr. Aland Mizell
— ekurd.net
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Gulenists and the AKP will close the BDP, the main
Kurdish party
January 27, 2012
While most of the world is busy focusing on the Arab
Spring, a possible war on Iran, the US and Europeans
debts, world financial markets, and the price of
oil, Turkey and Gulenists’ police are busy jailing
all the Kurdish intellectuals, journalists, elected
leaders, students, and writers. The ruling Justice
and Development Party (AKP) is strongly backed by
the Gulenists, and their media is conducting a dirty
campaign against the Kurdish political party, the
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), with a clear
motive. It is part of the strategy of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Gulenists against the
Kurds’ only representative party, the BDP, with its
36 democratically elected MPs.
The government aims at tarnishing the image and
values of the Kurdish political party in the eyes of
the Turkish and Kurdish people. These Kurdish
elected political leaders are behind bars, and
hundreds of others have been in jail for months or
in some cases years without convictions. Illegal
wiretappings also breach the citizens’ right to
privacy. In Turkey’s operations against the Union of
Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), many Kurdish
journalists have been imprisoned. It is unusual for
a democratic country’s police to launch operations
against civil society’s organizations and use
excessive force against its citizenry. The question
must be asked– is Turkey really a democratic
country? What has changed since Gulenists and the
AKP took over Turkey?
In the past Turkey was a gendarmerie state; the
military would do all kinds of illegal activities
because no one dared to question them. That is why
we saw ‘deep states’ come about in Turkey. So what
has changed since the military is essentially gone?
Nothing has changed except that Turkey has
transformed from a gendarmerie state unquestionably
to a police state. Police now exist to defend the
Gulenists’ ideology. Today the AKP and Gulenist
groups know that closing a party detracts from their
good image and yet they want to get rid of the BDP,
the only party that represents Kurdish interests and
one that has been elected by the more than two
million Kurds.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
described the BDP as an extension of the PKK thereby
demonstrating that he does not respect the will of
the millions of Kurdish voters. If the BDP is an
extension of the terrorist organization, then more
than two million people who voted for BDP candidates
are terrorists as well. Would Prime Minister put all
the Kurds in prison? No.
Here is the contrived rationale behind the Gulenists
and the AKP’s dirty game against the Kurds. They
know that there is only one party that really
represents the Kurdish interests. Further, they know
that there is only one party that rejects Gülen’s
ideology in southeastern Turkey, and that it is the
biggest obstacle to the Gulenists’ ideology being
successful. Mr. Gülen himself addressed his
followers acknowledging that they failed to
assimilate the Kurds and explaining that that’s why
they have problems today. Since they cannot close
the party, because this punitive action would not be
good for Turkey‘s image, they are trying to link the
BDP with the KCK and the KCK to the PKK, since the
PKK is considered a terror organization.
Consequently they can put all the elected Kurdish
leaders in prison and pass legislation for them not
to run for office again, so that the ruling party
can gain time to establish a new Kurdish political
party that will agree with the interests of Gülen
and then will be loyal to Gülen and his ideology,
but will not necessarily defend Kurdish interests.
They probably will endorse Kemal Burkay, a Kurd, but
one who agrees with the AKP and the Gulenists’
policies. Remember in Turkey when you say, “I’m a
Turk,” you don’t have problems, but when you say,
“I’m a Kurd, and I want to have basic rights,” then
you become the problem. Mister Burkay understands
this.
There is another trap waiting for the Kurds– the
Islamic card. Gülen is already using it to recruit
many Kurds to his movement. The Islamic regime’s
treatment of the Kurds will not be any different
from previous regimes’ treatment of them. As
mentioned, under them Kurds did not have problems so
long as they denied that they were Kurds, and this
factor will be the same under the Islamic regime. As
long as you do not say, “I am Kurd,” you are
welcomed with no problems. Today in Turkey the
Kurdish Parliamentarians were democratically elected
by the Kurdish people and given a victory, but the
Muslim administration is not happy and is using
intimidation to attack and put the Kurds in jail one
by one, charging them in court, and financially and
spiritually harassing them in an attempt to lower
their morale, so that they will give up. They are
using many kinds of tactics to justify their means.
Purposefully working on a plan to bring in the
Kurds, Gülen wants his circles to discuss Kurdish
issues rather than Europeans or other scholars. If
today Kurds are somewhat known in the international
arena, is it because Kurdish lobbyists have carried
out many important activities concerning Kurdish
issues. Because many Kurds who moved to the West
were already older and had a hard time integrating
into Western culture,www.ekurd.net
it is important to bring the younger generation into
the political arena. The Kurdish government should
fund the lobbyists, so that they can focus on
lobbying. The Kurds should work together, not just
as individuals. For example, the Kurdish problem in
Syria should be the same problem as that of the
Kurds in Turkey or Iraqi Kurds. I believe nothing is
impossible for the Kurdish people to accomplish; if
Kurds have enough will, they should always find
sufficient means, not excuses.
Dr. Aland Mizell is with the University of
Mindanao School of Social Science, President of the
MCI and a regular contributor to the Kurdish Media.
You may reach the author via email at:
aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
Copyright © 2012 ekurd.net
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