The Kurds and Turkey: Victim and Victimizer
- KurdishMedia.com - By Dr Rashid Karadaghi
- 23/10/2007 00:00:00
The ancient, deep-rooted conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish people is flaring up again, fueled by the Turkish obsession to keep the Kurds, all Kurds everywhere, in chains and in the box that the occupiers of Kurdistan have put them in. The Turkish racist, militaristic state, mislabeled erroneously by many who are blinded by their perceived self-interest as “moderate” and “democratic,” cannot tolerate seeing the Kurds just south of their part of occupied Kurdistan in charge of running their own affairs and enjoying freedom and security, and having a government, a parliament, a disciplined army of freedom fighters (the Peshmargas), and a president. For many years now, the Turks have been issuing their frequent and usual threats that they will not tolerate even an autonomous Kurdish region with expanded authority, let alone an independent Kurdish state, as if it was their mission to do everything in their power to keep the Kurds anywhere in the world from attaining their freedom and their national rights.
Having the enormous power of the state and control of the mass media, Turkey has succeeded, unfortunately, in convincing the powers-to-be in the world that it is the victim in this perennial conflict with the Kurds. Nothing could be further from the truth, for Turkey continues to victimize the Kurds by committing organized, state terrorism against them within its borders and is about to commit, as it has done in the past, terrorist activities against their brethren beyond those borders, too.
Looked at in isolation, the recent violent acts against Turkish troops may seem to suggest that Turkey is the victim. However, as much as this writer is against violence of any sort and from any side regardless of the justifications, these incidents must be looked at in the context of one hundred years, not counting six centuries of the cruel Ottoman rule, of abuse and terror by the Turkish state against the Kurdish people for no reason other than being Kurds. Let no one be deceived by Turkish propaganda about cosmetic “reforms,” for twenty million Kurds are still viewed as sub-human by Turkey, subjected to daily terror by the state, and denied even the most elementary of human rights, which is using one’s own language in education and communication.
How can Turkey or anyone else expect the Kurds to keep quiet forever in the face of the inhuman treatment they are getting from the state that is supposed to nurture them and treat them with dignity as a people with their own identity? It would take a thick book to narrate all the atrocities Turkey has committed against the Kurdish people since the establishment of modern Turkey following WW1. So, who is the real victim and who is the real victimizer in this conflict?
The world must realize, and so must the Turks, that at the root of the current conflict there is a very obvious and fundamental problem, namely, that a nation of over thirty-five million people is being denied its most basic rights, a condition they will no longer accept regardless of the consequences. Why is this simple truth hard to understand? Until and unless the occupiers of Kurdistan --- be they Turks, Arabs, or Persians --- wake up to the fact that they can no longer rule over the Kurds and their homeland and deny them their God-given rights, there can be no peace in the area and everybody will be the poorer for it.
The Turkish parliament made a historic blunder last week by giving the trigger-happy Turkish army a free hand to conduct military operations in South Kurdistan presumably to pursue PKK fighters. Ostensibly, the Turks are after the PKK, but every Kurd and anyone familiar with this ancient conflict knows that the real goal of any operation will be to destabilize the stable situation in South Kurdistan. Turkey has been trying desperately to use its agents to create trouble for the Kurds in South Kurdistan since the Iraqi liberation in 2003 and is now seizing on this situation as a golden opportunity to meddle in Kurdistan’s affairs directly. But if the Turks think it is that easy to achieve their evil goal, they are mistaken.
The Turks are making a big miscalculation if they think that the Kurdish people are going to give up the freedoms they have achieved with the blood of untold thousands to Saddam’s (and previous Iraqi governments’) tyranny without a fight. If Turkey thinks this is going to be another Cypress, it should think again. There is no doubt that the Kurds will get hurt in any confrontation, which is why they hope Turkey will reconsider its aggressive posture and let reason win over arrogance, but there should also be no doubt that they will inflict more damage on the invading army than they will receive.
Bloodshed and violence cannot solve the fundamental conflict between Turkey and the Kurds, but recognizing that the Kurds are a people with their own identity and aspirations for freedom might. This is why the Kurdish leadership in South Kurdistan has repeatedly called for dialogue in the hope that bloodshed can be averted. However, statements such as the one made by the Turkish deputy prime minister, which is typical of statements made by other Turkish officials also, that Turkey “Does not talk with Iraqi Kurdish groups,” do not signal any willingness to search for a peaceful resolution of the crisis. While the Kurds are trying to defuse the crisis through dialogue, the Turks are escalating it by their arrogance and their refusal to recognize that there is a legitimate government in South Kurdistan with which they should talk directly.
The Kurds don’t want this fight, but if it is imposed on them, no one should doubt that they will be true to their age-old tradition and defend themselves against any aggression. Turkey must also realize that the very thing it fears most may happen sooner than later if it carries out its foolish threats.
- KurdishMedia.com - By Dr Rashid Karadaghi
- 23/10/2007 00:00:00