Muhammed Fethullah Gulen, is a Turkish preacher,
author, educator, and Sufi Muslim scholar living in
self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania (USA), he the founder and leader of
the Gulen movement.
•
Read more
By Dr. Aland Mizell
September 10, 2012
A phobia is defined as the unrelenting and
irrational fear of a situation, activity or thing
that causes one to want to avoid it. Today the
Gulenists’ media is bombarding audiences with a
series of flatly untrue stories that render the
Kurdish elected BDP party and the Kurdish rebel PKK
within a framework of hostility, if not terror. The
Gulenists’ mediascape arguably does not represent
the Kurdish cause in a fair and true light;
stereotypes that deem the BDP as a dangerous and
disruptive force pervade the media.
The real danger is in the interpretation of such
hostile images and views in socio-political
dynamics. Moreover, the discourse that exists in the
Gulenists’ media and cultural institutions at large
sets up an imaginary border between ‘us’ and ‘them’
and thereby creates a regenerative hostility that
impedes peaceful interaction and coexistence.
Gulenists are not really advocating tolerance,
peace, and love; instead, they are advocating
Gulenism. Everything is about Gülen and his
ideology. They praise Gülen more than the Prophet
Mohammed; they disseminate more about Gulen’s work
than about Mohammed’s sunna; they publish more of
Gulen’s books than the Quran itself. Through this
ideology they are disseminating a Kurdish phobia in
tandem.
The representation of the PKK in the media in the
past few decades has been largely negative. In
reality, as the Kurds gain power and as the
democratic wave moves across the Middle East region,
the Gulenists are increasingly present in the
political landscape in the Turkish media, radically
shaping the audience’s view of realty. Therefore,
the Kurds’ cultural identity is in the spotlight,
and it is definitely changing. The question now is
how will the media play a role in changing the
representation of the BDP, the PKK and the KCK, and
how will their identity change in relationship to
past narratives? How will the BDP and the PKK use
the media to try to dispel stereotypes and to build
a more favorable image for themselves? The clear
answer to those questions is that as long as Kurds
are united in vision, not divided into factions,
they will prevail because they are right; and when
you are right, no one can criticize the truth. Truth
will prevail.
Under the Gulenists’ regime Turkey is very similar
to the authoritarian Iranian regime in which nothing
can be done without approval based on the Mullah’s
decision. Without
Gulen’s decision in the Gulen movement nothing
can take place. Gulenists are opposed to the
idea of Kurds allying themselves with
pro-democracy, tolerance, and peace and of
Turkey solving its Kurdish problems with rule of
law, equality, and justice. They oppose Turkey’s
possible rejection of the Gulenists’
authoritarian ideology denying the Kurds’ right
to be recognized as citizens.
Everyone in the West thinks Turkey is the
stabilizing element of the Middle East and that
only Turkey can restore calm to the Middle East.
Now, however, the confusion about the Middle
East and Syria has caused a Kurdishphobia to
surface irresponsibly in the Gulenists’ Turkish
media. Their influences reach out across the
nation. They originate the news, focus on issues
to their liking, elevate public figures they
approve of, and denigrate those they do not. For
example, when Gulenists and the AKP party were
on their honeymoon terms at the beginning of the
AKP party, the new administration was
glamorized. In fact, the Zaman newspaper
appeared to be owned by the AKP, party because
every day they would elevate the Prime Minister
and his policies. But once the Prime Minister
objected to Gulen’s view on how to handle
Kurdish issues, Palestinian issues and military
issues, then they switched their allegiance. Now
they are launching a campaign against Erdogan
and elevating President Gul because Gul visits
Gulen’s schools abroad and, whenever they
approve of his tour, he goes to that school.
Soon he will tell the Turkish people what movies
to see, what books and magazines to read, what
records to buy, what art to admire, what sports
to support, what mosques to pray in, what
restaurants to frequent, what businesses to
support, which person to hate, and which
business companies to go after.
They influence how society thinks on the Kurdish
issue and, in fact, they frequently choose to
target those who are sympathetic to the Kurdish
struggle and those who fight for Kurdish
problems. Whoever looks at Gulen’s media will
note that they sound like they are being paid to
promote negative news sometimes as well as
misinformation about the BDP, KCK, PKK and those
who support them. Foreigners, English speakers,
academicians, business people, and political
devotees read the Gulenists’ English version
Today’s Zaman. It sets up foreign, political,
and social views on Kurdish issues.
The real fear for Gulenists is not that Kurds in
Syria are going to have an independent or
autonomous area; the real fear for them is the
question of what if Kurds unite? Only 20 million
Kurds live in Turkey, but a total of 40 million
live in the Middle East. Consequently, Gulenists
continue to divide them into the Good Kurds and
the Bad Kurds, trying to prevent their having
one voice if they unite. The Palestinians might
be the most often internationally recognized
nation without a state, but the Kurds, on the
other hand, outnumber the Palestinians and live
all over the Middle East. Thus, their future is
going to be a global issue, and particularly the
Kurds cannot be excluded in the Greater Middle
East projects.
It is clear that today the biggest threat to the
Kurdish struggle comes from Gulenists’ religion
of Nationalism, the idea of ‘the Turkification
of Islam’. There are signs everywhere that
Gulenists are becoming increasingly hostile
towards the BDP and millions of Kurds who
support the BDP’s democratically elected
representatives. It is the only party
representing the Kurdish people and the only
party openly criticizing the Gulenists’
ideology. The hostility is deeply embedded in
the Gulenists’ idea that the Turks are the
chosen people and must lead the world to bring
the whole of the Sunni Islamic sect under a new
Ottoman Empire, and that minorities should have
the same semi–autonomous status they used to
have under the Ottoman Millet system.
In Turkey, the daily newspaper you read is
likely be Gulenist-owned or edited, and the same
for some national news magazine you buy at the
news counter. More than likely, the national
cable or regular TV network you watch is
Gulenist-owned; the publishers of the hardbacks
or paperbacks you read, even the webpage domain
and the record companies that produce the music
you buy, will be probably be Gulenist-owned.
First, the danger is that so many Kurds have
already been induced to believe the Gulenists’
ideology, because it places the authority of God
over human morality. Second, today the media has
become the greatest power within Turkish
society, more powerful than the Turkish
legislature or judiciary. One would like to ask,
“Who owns the media, newspapers, NGOs, TV, radio
stations, publishing companies, think tanks,
universities, and schools? It is not the BDP or
the Kurds, but Gulenists all dedicated to
promoting the Gülen ideology, the chosen status
of the Turks, and the way to be submissive to
him. The Gulenists’ media is launching a dirty
campaign against the BDP and anyone who supports
the Kurdish people and their cause.
Because media groups are key social actors as
they help shape the social world by exerting
control over issues, framing information and
gate keeping, they have great power. This is
nothing new; in the past the Turkish state used
this communication, and such platforms have
played decisive roles at every stage of the
existence of the Kurdish people and their
struggle. The dominance of the Gulenists’
schools across the globe spreads a subjective
history that Kurds do not have a problem in
Turkey but their problem is only the invention
of the West and other enemies of the great
Turkish people. This history also teaches that
Kurds flourished under the Ottoman Empire, and
it envisions a new Ottoman Empire. In short,
this story denies the reality of the Kurdish
people.
Furthermore the sheer scale of privately
educated men in positions of power in business,
politics, media, sports, the judiciary,
security, the police, and government is a proof
of a deep problem in Turkey. Those who believe
Gülen’s ideology stay privileged, but those who
do not accept it remain marginalized or put into
the camp of ‘the other’.
Today the Gulenists’ religious ideology draws
lines between ‘us’ and ‘them’, creating a
mentality that allows the fear of a few
extremists to vent hostility towards all those
who identify with the Kurdish cause. For
example, Gulen’s closest friend,www.ekurd.net
also known as Gulen’s spokesperson, wrote in the
Turkish version of the Zaman, “We should not
close the BDP party, but we should not spoil
them anymore, and for those who support the BDP
and the BDP members as well, we should not let
them question the Turkish justice system, and we
should not let them to be free.” Furthermore,
Mr. Gulerce was expressing to the Kurds that
they should not believe a lie: ‘If the Kurds are
free and have more rights today, it is because
of the PKK’. They should not vote for the BDP.
But the questions I would like to ask Mr.
Gulerce are: Who gave the rights to the Kurds?
Who took the rights from the Kurds? Did
Gulenists do it? Did the AKP do it? Or have
thousands of Kurdish people been displaced or
kidnapped, their houses burned, and their
villages razed? The big question is: What have
you done for Kurds? Well, you might answer, “We
opened schools in the Kurdish region, we
educated Kurds.” Yes, but you steal the minds of
the Kurds but leave their bodies, so you do not
open the schools without strings. In the process
you gain humanoids. So Mr.Gulerce, like his
leader Gülen, does not really believe in
tolerance, love, or dialogue but their ilk is
advocating that the military is the solution,
assimilation is the solution, and economic
prosperity is the solution. The Kurds are
hungry. If you give them food, they will give up
the dream of leaving an indignant life and of
recognizing their situation.
I am asking those who believe that the Kurdish
problem is solely economical this logic: If that
is true, would someone give millions of
compatriots opportunity or would they give up
their freedom and live in indignity? Gülen
himself believes those who support the PKK and
the BDP remain not more than a few that may be
counted on fingers.
Early in the 1990s, the military and the secular
government were denying ‘the Kurdish problem’.
If someone said that there is a problem, he/ she
would be mocked and automatically deemed an
enemy of the great Turkish nation or even
considered a terrorist. They claimed the Kurdish
problem resulted from terrorism, correlated it
with the PKK, and then resorted to violence and
extortion supposedly to curtail it, a response
which no civilized society should abide. It is
true that all forms of violence should be
condemned, but which civilized society in the
twenty-first century accepts making its citizens
live with oppression and without freedom? Some
Turkish liberals are slowly rejecting this kind
of outdated idea because the Turkish government
used the same tactic for years on those who
argued for Kurdish rights or who just mentioned
the Kurds. The government imprisoned them for
supposedly supporting terrorism. The Kurdish
political parties were shut down, political
activists were tortured, other individuals
kidnapped, their houses destroyed, villages
burnt, and thousands of Kurds displaced. It
defies logic. How can someone who really works
hard day and night to bring love, peace, and
dialogue at the same times deny the reality of
Kurds in his backyard and deny that anything
happened?
As a result of this, not only are Kurds paying
the price, but Turkey as well. Since Turkey is
trying to play a leadership role in its region,
particularly in the Greater Middle East
projects, Turkish democracy seems hypocritical.
Professor Büşra Ersanlı, a constitutional law
expert and member of a BDP constitutional
commission, voted for and supported the BDP for
being more democratic and for giving women a
chance to play a greater role in the party among
other things. One of the prosecutors questioned
her, “You are a Turk, but why you are supporting
them?” The real fear for Gulenists now is a
democratic movement that marches to free the
millions of oppressed minorities, allowing them
to have rights in the society in which they
live, because the Kurds are also uniting with
this liberating movement. Today the Kurdish
people are in need of true, honest friends who
are ready to fight. But without freedom of
expression, there is no possibility of a true
democracy in Turkey.
“The Turkish Parliament will do what needs to be
done”, Prime Minister Erdogan said, referring to
the recent debates over Parliamentary immunity
that started after the release of footage
showing the BDP deputies and the PKK rebels
chatting and embracing. The Prime Minister
further said, “We witnessed the deep affection
between the deputies and terrorists.” Why then
does the Prime Minister embrace leaders of Hamas,
listed as a terrorist organization by
Israel, the US and
the EU and one committed to the destruction of
Israel, but does not want even to talk to the
BDP and the PKK leaders who are Turkish citizens
and have no interest in destroying Turkey and
the Turkish state?
The Kurds are only asking for equal treatment,
basic rights, and true democracy, not Gulenists’
theocracy. It will be a great loss for Turkey
that a political party that is securing the
fourth largest share of the parliamentary seats
and stripping off their immunities is silenced.
It will be a great loss for the Turkish people
to believe the slanders and lies that have been
promoted by the Gulenists’ media and power.
Granted, Palestine should have its own state,
enjoy freedom, and not live under any other
power but, even under Israeli occupation, the
Palestinians enjoy greater freedom of speech,
religion, press, academia and other rights than
the Kurds in Turkey.
The very real problem for Turkey is that the
Kurds are not turning back, and their issues
have indeed become a global problem. After the
Palestinian issue, the Kurdish one is going to
be the most important problem of a minority in
international politics. People’s true characters
and goals are revealed during extraordinary
times. We can ascertain the true quality of a
person’s justice, love, tolerance, and
democratic identity during the bad times because
these times are a litmus test. The character
revealed in actions will indicate if Gulenists
truly believe in tolerance, peace, and real
democracy.
It is time for Turkey and Gulenists to realize
that the Arab Spring at the core is a movement
for democratic self-determination. The Kurds’
emergence of a self-determinate greater
Kurdistan is the dream of millions of Kurds. As
long as Kurds are united, as long as Kurds are
not fighting against each other, as long as
Kurds learn the lessons of the past, the only
hope for Turkey is to make peace with the PKK
and by coming to the peace table and accepting
the necessity of a framework of federalism and
autonomy. Gulenists are not genuine when they
talk about multiculturalism, tolerance and
peace, but rather they are the Great Bifurcator,
and as such they are the biggest obstacle to the
Kurdish peace process.
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
Top |
®
