Where is the other half in the Kurdish question?

İhsan Yılmaz

Very few people in Turkey can deny that it was the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that sabotaged the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government's Kurdish opening attempts. The Habur incident was a clear PKK-orchestrated provocation that abused the bona fide intentions of officials. Just one week after Abdullah Öcalan declared that peace was near, out of the blue, for unknown reasons, the PKK started killing innocent civilians in the streets.

We all know this. Nevertheless, at the end of the day we are talking about terrorists who have been killing innocent people for the last three decades, so there is no surprise about their reflexes and actions, while a continual placing of blame is not innovative and does not help to solve the problem. When the government finally realized that it is responsible for the security of its citizens and started chasing after the PKK's parallel state structure, the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) and intensified its fight against the PKK in the mountains, they promised us that Turkey would not return to the dark 1990s and that democratization will always be on the agenda. Months have passed and now the Kurdish opening and democratization are not even spoken about.

Put differently, the government made it clear that it would not confuse the Kurds with the PKK terrorists and that democratization would not be affected. Thus, security measures would be complemented by the Kurdish opening, but this second half is still missing.

What is worse, thanks also to irresponsible opposition politicians, the rhetoric on the issue has been vulgarized and securitized. In such a climate, discursive gray shades are not allowed and, unfortunately, the government's attitude is shifting towards an a la Bush Jr. “You're either with us or against us” rhetoric, disallowing even constructive criticism. Even commentators who make it very clear that the state is right in prosecuting the KCK, as such a parallel state cannot be accepted, but say there must be a clearer distinction between freedom of expression and violence and terrorism are accused of protecting the terrorists. One is inclined to think that the AK Party's soul has been captured by Kemalism and its state-centric, Jacobinist and semi-authoritarian mentality.

The Kurdish question means that the issue is not a matter of economic underdevelopment, so thinking that when they are fed the Kurds will forget about their ethnic, cultural and linguistic identity is not only naive but also insulting. The genie has long been out of the bottle and the Kurdish ethnic identity has been politicized. We are not in a position to blame them. This is what the Turks did more than a century ago and that is how they alienated the Albanians and the Kurds within the Ottoman Empire.

In a similar vein, the Kurds also discovered this “great invention” of humanity, ethnic nationalism, and there is not much that we can do to stop the process. There is not a single example where we can talk about a reversal of the politicization of ethnic identity. Not all of them want to establish an independent Kurdish state, as this does not seem to be an intelligent option, but almost all of them would feel more honorable seeing their children cherishing their ethnic, cultural and linguistic identity in the public sphere, not secretly in private at home, and this includes the expectation to get an education in Kurdish.

We must now seriously debate and discuss opening, not just allowing, at least private schools where students are taught in both Kurdish and Turkish. We will soon move in this direction if you remember the Kurdish TV issue, which was once taboo, but now not only the state but also the Fethullah Gülen movement has a Kurdish channel. Yet the sooner the better. When we hesitate to empathize with the Kurds, do not put ourselves in their shoes and recognize their rights only as a last resort, we will continue to lose their hearts and minds.

Published on Today's Zaman, 16 November 2011, Wednesday

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