 AYDINLIK TÜRKİYE'NİN HABERCİSİ |
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AYDINLIK TÜRKİYE'NİN HABERCİSİ |
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Finding unity in diversity
I wouldn't like to deceive anybody, let alone my readership. So, please bear with me.
I owe my readers an apology: I was deadly mistaken when I stated last week that nobody has ever claimed that the Kurds are of Turkish origin. I was mistaken when I refuted the thesis that the Kurds are in fact mountain Turks. This apology stems from the fact that a writer, Kemal Yavuz, a retired four-star general, devoted a whole column, in Turkish-language daily Aksam, to prove that the Kurds aren't ethnically different from Turks.
The Kurds, according to the writer, are also of Central Asian origin, and the name of their ethnic group has no meaning in any other language but Turkish (as "snow heap"). Since their arrival from Central Asia, the Kurds have mingled with other nations and lost their purity. The Kurdish language is a mixture of local dialects and a derivation of Turkish in grammar and syntax. Even the word "Apo" (nickname of the leader of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK) comes from "Apa" in Turkish meaning "uncle." He describes two books, “scholarly,” he says, by a three-star army general and a researcher. His last blow to the universally accepted knowledge is a story he told. The story is about a Kurdish chieftain speaking in front of a visiting cavalry regiment to which Kemal Yavuz had belonged in 1969. The chieftain told them that his generation spoke only Turkish whereas his immediate successors spoke both Turkish and Kurdish, and their offspring started speaking only Kurdish.
I apologize profusely for my naiveté last week and I would like to correct myself by changing my thesis that there are at least three people who believe that the Kurds are in reality Turks of different stripes. The only problem is that the Kurds of today don't accept this counter-thesis. Even if we take the good general’s narrative at face value, today’s Kurds are the descendants of that outspoken chieftain and have a lot of difficulty in understanding his thesis.
Thank God that we've had enough common characteristics and mutual bonds with the Kurds that our ethnic diversity hasn't created any problem for a peaceful coexistence throughout history. The Kurds and the Turks have lived happily side by side in Anatolia for almost 10 centuries. Ethnic diversity and a multiplicity of cultures didn't cause any problem for the people of an empire whose claim to fame was its unbiased attitude towards all its subjects. If we find a way to recreate the atmosphere of a mutually beneficial coexistence we'll soon find out that we have many common values, other than ethnicity, to dwell upon and that our differences in ethnicity enrich us culturally.
I'm sure you're well aware of the maturity of discussions as this recurring issue has once more resurfaced. Participants of every inclination have joined the heated debate very seriously and exerted every effort to convince the other party of its wrong footing. The only exception to the point is politicians. The opposition came out to condemn Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan for using the term "Kurdish problem” openly. The usual suspects in the media, who never miss an opportunity to condemn the party in power, used endless ink to criticize the intellectuals who dared to meet with Erdogan to give their opinions on the matter. But this all happened in a civilized manner and without resorting to intimidating tactics.
This is dead important. I remember a time when a prominent columnist tried to make a point by drawing parallels between the Turks and the Kurds in their approaches to those who lead them. His column entitled "Atakurt" caused him to lose his place in the paper. Those who dared to deviate from the official line on the matter in the past were taken before specially designed courts. Not this time. The only exception to the rule is another Aksam writer, Professor Umit Ozdag, who voiced his uneasiness about a Cumhuriyet columnist who took part in the meeting of the intellectuals with the prime minister and wrote articles against the conventional line of the paper he works for. Ozdag, who's known to have ambitions for leadership of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), suggested that the intellectual should write for Ozgur Gundem, a Turkish language paper with a Kurdish bias, rather than Cumhuriyet. Cumhuriyet is a left-wing paper but it supports the official line. Please take note: A right-wing professor and many left-wing writers at Cumhuriyet are on the same wavelength.
Luckily, the conventional wisdom and spirit of the times are with those who hope to engender an end to terrorist activities and establish a peaceful coexistence between all different inclinations in the country. When the prime minister decided to reach out to the people of Diyarbakir, local leaders didn't understand the importance of his action. They asked their followers to remain at home and tried to show the visiting leaders of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party who the real power in the region is.
Well, they made their point as their followers stayed at home and the prime minister spoke in front of an audience very limited in numbers.
Are they happy now? I don't think so. They've been doing everything lately to rectify the damage: not to Erdogan’s or the AK Party’s image but to their own. Political leaders and people working in different nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), as well as local intellectuals, have signed a petition of support for Erdogan’s endeavors and invited him to the region. When I last spoke with Mr. Erdogan, I saw him as determined as ever to pursue the new line he himself opened. He'll visit a city in the region soon and will further outline his project of bringing democratic values to fruition everywhere.
Regardless of those people who still concentrate on a presumed uniformity of different ethnic groups in the country, I think Turkey has found its self-regard and rightly deserved confidence in discussing once-forbidden and taboo matters unreservedly. Turkey has discovered a new reality: Unity in diversity.
I don't apologize for this.
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