By Rebwar Rashed:
The Turks of Turkey are a product of the Mongol Holargu conquest following the destruction of Baghdad in 1258. Almost 800 years after this bloody conquest of the upper Middle East, many Turks still suffer from an inferiority complex. That’s a lack of self-worth, a doubt and peculiarity. These feelings of not measuring up to “normal” standards of the cultures of the area can be easily seen in Turkey’s political and military behavior. This can explain the Turkish identity crisis throughout these 800 years and especially since WW1, when European nation-building became a model in the area.
That Eastern Thrace is a part of Turkey — the northwestern part, which is only consists of 3% of the territory — does not make necessarily Turkey a part of Europe. This bitter reality scares Turks and increases their sense of identity crisis even more.
This abnormal feeling of identity crisis is further strengthened by the fact that the Kurdish people, as well as the Armenians, Assyrians and Jews, are indigenous people of the Middle East.
Ataturk’s painful Turk-nation building, to be sure, made Turkey appear more European and less Islamic, although only on the surface, but this never changed the essence of the country’s culture of being an “outsider” and Muslim, as has been increasingly evident in recent decades.
Therefore the only people the Turks feel comfortable with are people outside of the Middle East. This explains why Turks go beyond Turkey to find friends, but have a big enmity against their neighbours and the indigenous people. This also explains the atrocities and genocides committed by Turks over the centuries against Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, Laz, Cherkes, Bulgarians and others, both in the Middle East and Europe. Waging a war of total destruction against other nationalities, confiscating their lands and properties, banning their culture, language, music and so on, can be explained by the Turks’ fear of the indigenous people.
This inferiority complex has caused the Turks to overcompensate, trying vainly to belong to something strong, and it has resulted in extreme asocial political behavior displaying opportunism, double standards, extreme hatred and ignorance. The slogan, “Turks are the most important people of the world”, are the first words Turkish kids, and other non-Turkic nationals, have been forced not only to learn, but also to believe in. Thus the Turkish schools have functioned as military facilities for the population right from the start.
So, why is Turkey doing everything to eliminate Kurdish people?
- Turkey, especially after 1952 when it became a NATO member and got tremendous military and financial support, has been practicing every kind of barbaric method for the annihilation of Kurdish people, expecting Kurds to vanish away. The Turkification of Kurdish people was a bloody and a painful process. By military logic, the Turks were waiting for the Kurds to wither away and die out. However, instead of dying out, the Kurds survived and, especially after 1984’s armed struggle, started to fight back in an organized manner with purposeful operational structures. Thus Kurds remind Turkey of its atrocities and genocides. Kurds are the living faces of Armenians, Assyrians, Jews and the others.
- Kurdistan has a rich soil, it’s the land of sweet water, oil, important minerals, good fertile land and it has a strategic position in the Middle East. There has been ruthless exploitation of natural resources in Kurdistan, while the state of Turkey has done all it can to eradicate the Kurdish people or leave them in misery, poverty, ignorance and fear. They have done and still do everything to wipe out the Kurds simply because Kurds stand in their way.
- Kurdish people are waging a struggle for freedom and can, even with difficulty, defend themselves. The state of Turkey is no longer the only military power. Without the Kurdish armed struggle, Turkey could put the entirety of Kurdish political activists, even the elected MPs, in prison for life. There are already many thousands of Kurdish political prisoners in Turkey, among them many children and youths.
- Kurds are now organized politically. They have been successful in building legal political parties, despite all kinds of obstacles, with the HDP getting over 13 % of the votes and having 80 MPs in the parliament. This shows the world that Kurds can easily win their freedom if they get the chance to implement peaceful and democratic methods.
- Kurds’ peaceful and political struggle gives a rebirth to the suppressed Armenians, Assyrians and others to claim rights and compensations. Turkey has confiscated and brutally stolen the property of others in a Jihadist manner. The Jihadist spirit of Islam has always been, sometimes hidden, a large part of Turkish state-foundation.
- Erdogan had many plans, among them, to become a Sultan of the Middle East, launching Turkish Sunni Islam as a model for the rest of the Islamic world and claiming the leadership of Islam, with “historical” tasks such as “liberating” Jerusalem. Now, with Kurds standing up for their rights, Erdogan’s dream has shattered into pieces.
- Almost the whole world understood the Kurdish question through the official narrative of Turkish state. The Turks talked about Kurds, of Kurds, for Kurds and they represented Kurds too. Now, the Kurds have the ability to talk for and about themselves. The story of the Kurdish agony is told by the Kurds themselves. Kurdistan can represent herself now.
- The nature of the Kurdish struggle for freedom is peaceful and political. This makes Turkey insecure. Turkey prefers war because it has much experience of warfare and none of peace efforts. Turkey gets confused in peace time and thinks that there must be a trap. Therefore Turkey does everything to re-escalate the political violence and transform it into a military violence. That’s why, in every single speech of Turkish officials, there is a glorifying of war and violence.
- Since the Treaty of Sevres, for Turkey, a good Kurd is a dead or a surrendered Kurd. Seeing Kurds once again in political and armed struggle makes them lose all tolerance. The shadow of living Kurds has impact of almost science fiction proportions on Turkey.
- Erdogan’s Syria policy is built on day-dreams. Turkey wants to carve out a buffer zone in Rojawa (Northern Syria). As a first step, it seeks to conquer Aleppo and in a long run it aims to conquer Mosul. These expansionist thoughts have always been there, waiting for the train of opportunity. That’s why, more than a month after its declaration of war on ISIS, the US and other Western nations are still waiting for Turkey to get engaged in a fight with ISIS; but all we hear is that Turkish jets are still just about to start flying from İncirlik to attack ISIS targets in Syria. In serious political spheres this has become a joke. In short, Turkey has become a loser in the area due to its unrealistic and rather ridiculous demands, but it sees the Kurds as the cause of its problem.
That´s why Turkey is doing everything to eliminate Kurdish people.
What is to be done?
The Turks must bury the culture of violence and hatred. The Turkish intellectuals, politicians, journalists and other citizens with civil courage must reread Turkish history far from today’s official narrative: recognizing atrocities and genocides committed against indigenous people of the M. E; asking for national reconciliation and for forgiveness; granting national and democratic rights to Kurdish people; lifting embargos on Alawites and non-Muslim identities; paying compensation to all victims, and so on. But, first of all, learn the language of peace and build a culture of friendship and good neighbourhood attitude.
The universal values of human rights, freedom, liberty and relations based on mutual interest and mutual respect, are the key to a longstanding friendship. Turkey will hopefully take the first step soon!
Rebwar Rashed has a Ph.D. degree in Political Science. He has translated several books into Kurdish and also written many articles in Kurdish and English about the Kurdistan National Liberation Movement, human rights, anti-Semitism, equality between the sexes and ethnicities, and the need for a democratic and peaceful struggle.
Published on kurdistantribune.com