In no way am
I questioning the legitimacy of the Gezi Park protests. The
overwhelming demonstrations in Istanbul, which have now spread across
the country, illustrate the increasing dissent among the people in
Turkey against the government’s horrid human rights violations and
authoritarian rule. These protests need solidarity – they are necessary
and positive developments. And it was about time!
However,
without attacking the movement, I have to ask the global media: Where
were you during thousands of Kurdish protests and uprisings that
preceded #OccupyGezi? Kurds have been killed, beaten up, tear-gassed,
arrested, and tortured on their protests (with popular support) for
decades in Turkey, much worse than the images we see today. Millions
of Kurds occupied the streets in Turkey this year and this sort of
terrifying police violence is not at all new to them. The difference is
that nobody cared. Why?
I
have heard of stories of protestors who say things such as “The police
attacks us like we are terrorists”. This weird arrogance is very
problematic. Would these protests take place
in the South East of Turkey (i.e. the Kurdish cities), instead of
Istanbul, the protestors would be called "terrorists", "separatists" and
"traitors", the police would be praised as heroes! I don’t wish for any
more pain, but perhaps these protests will create empathy and open some
Turkish people’s eyes to what Kurds face every day in Turkey. If Turks
get to walk in the shoes of those that the state politics and its media
alienated them from, those that they have perceived as "terrorists" for
decades, but in whose position they now find themselves in, perhaps this
will constitute a change in their consciousness. As Kurdish MP
Selahattin Demirtas explained: "It's the time to understand the Kurds".
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| Newroz 2013 in Amed (Diyarbakir) |
To be
clear, I am definitely not against these protests. In fact, I
passionately follow the events and hope for genuine changes. But where
was the world and the anger of the Turkish population after the
murderous massacres in Roboski (Uludere) or Reyhanli? Who looked after
the Kurdish mothers that were collectively beaten up on the streets,
lungs filled with pepper spray, just because they wanted to celebrate
Newroz, the new year of Mesopotamia? Where is the anger over lynchings
of Kurds and Alevis in Istanbul? Where was Turkey, when the military
burnt every tree in the Kurdish East? Were the Kurdish demonstrations
that were attended by millions of people over decades, never worth being
fashionably termed as a “spring”? Why is police violence against Kurds
not frowned upon? How many news outlets reported about 19-year-old Sahin
Öner, who was killed by a tank in Amed (Diyarbakir) a few months ago?
Don’t Kurds deserve the same solidarity and media attention? Why is
there such a selective empathy when it comes to who is rising up in
Turkey?
Another
troubling factor is the increasingly nationalist color of the protests.
Though it would be ignorant to generalize this multi-facetted movement,
especially in the light of the complex political culture of Turkey, it
is important to pay attention to the dangers that a rise of anti-AKP
Turkish secular nationalism could bring about, if certain parties take
advantage of the unrest. Turkish flags, national anthems –Just to oppose
the AKP, some resort to the “We are Atatürk’s soldiers” mentality which
is, however, responsible for prevalent racism and numerous human rights
violations in Turkey. Certain groups seem to fear a loss of
“Turkishness” under the current AKP government, mostly because Erdogan
is perceived as an authoritarian Ottoman sultan with his increasing
Islamization of Turkey and who defies Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s republican
principle of secularism. But Erdogan never
degraded “Turkishness” in his eyes; he actually continued to oppress
non-Turkish groups and to reinforce punishments on those that insult
Turkey or Turkishness, just as his secular precedors.
A
reactionary response to the Islamic-conservative authoritarian AKP
regime seems to be found in good old Kemalist secular nationalism yet
again. Neither one is known as an advocate of human rights, though –
Kurds know this too well. What started as a protest against the
destruction of trees at Gezi Park is now seen as an opportunity for some
to raise anti-AKP momentum for their own gains. It
is wrong to think of these protests in terms of a simplistic
black-or-white "political religion versus secularism" narrative. Of
course secularism is desirable, but secularism for the sake of it is
not sufficient to establish a true, coherent democracy. Especially in
Turkey, secularism has violated human rights, because it was accompanied
by harsh nationalist chauvinism that ethnically discriminated against
all non-Turks. Were there no human rights violations, extra-judicial
killings, village destructions, massacres under secular rule in Turkey
prior to Erdogan? Replacing
one sort of fascism by another would only turn the clock of Turkish
history back a couple of years. The legitimate protests must not be
exploited for such interests.
Resistance
is good, resistance is life. But democracy can only come through unity
and equality of the peoples in Turkey, not through nationalism and
“Turkism”. There are many fascists among the protestors that call
themselves “devrimci” (revolutionary), just because they oppose the AKP
government. The real revolutionaries in Turkey who were executed by
parties that now declare themselves to be revolutionary would roll over
in their graves! A new, alternative thinking must develop in Turkish
consciousness that is democratic and secular without crushing the heads
of the many ethnic and religious groups that don’t fit into the myth of
the glorious Turk.
My
hope is that the protestors in Istanbul and all over Turkey let go off
this Turkism paradigm. I am not accusing every protestor of racism
obviously, but even a small rise of Turkish nationalism could be
dangerous. After all, it has a mass-murderous history. Certain parties
that oppose the peace talks between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
and the Turkish government may use this movement to disrupt the peace
process. This must not happen. Instead, this movement must unite Kurds,
Turks, Laz, Arabs, Alevi, Sunnis, Yezidi, Christians, Orthodox people of
all genders and demand genuine democracy in Turkey. While many
revolutionary quotes and pictures that are normally associated with the
Kurdish movement and the leftist spectrum of Turkish politics were
widely shared, two Turkish Hashtags were trending worldwide on Twitter
at the same time last night. “Good thing you are here, Atatürk” and
“Good thing you are here, Tayyip”. Both of these streams massacred,
imprisoned, censored and tortured Kurds and other groups and
dissidents. In such an ethnically and religiously diverse region, the people shouldn’t have to pick between two evils...
Social
media, international solidarity, creative forms of protests – these are
all amazing tools of mobilization in this era. It is great to see such
fresh, dynamic, creative global support for the demonstrations in
Istanbul. But in spite of hundreds of overwhelming protests in Kurdistan
and in the Kurdish diaspora, the Kurdish struggle has been
marginalized. This selective empathy, interest and attention is
disheartening, when we consider the legitimate demands of the Kurds, who
have been politicized from young to old for decades, and who never got
this much attention or solidarity, no matter how many tons of tear gas
their bruised bodies inhaled. The global media that now wonders why
there is no democracy in Turkey must first criticize itself for its own
silence, when it came to the oppression of the Kurdish people.
Democratization in Turkey must include the Kurds. If this Turkish
uprising leaves the Kurds behind, just as the so-called Arab spring left
women and ethnic minorities behind, we cannot speak of a revolution in
any worthy sense. Tyranny would only change its face again.
Of
course, one should express solidarity with the Turkish protestors, but
when talking about a “Turkish spring”, please do not forget the hundreds
of Kurdish springs that preceded it and which will continue beyond Gezi
Park. If the amazing energy of #OccupyGezi gets taken advantage of by
certain nationalist groups, the same protestors that have discovered
their inner revolutionaries in the last couple of days will continue to
watch their football games, when the Kurds get tear-gassed tomorrow. May
this struggle form unity and uprising in a meaningful, democratic way
that encompasses every group in Turkey. In this sense, resist, Gezi
Park, but resist for all!
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| Twitter users apologizing to the Kurdish people for looking away for so long |
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