Letif Serhildan
I am not a fan of the Turkish republic. Turkey has denied the very existence of the Kurds, continued violations of human rights against the Kurds and other ethnic minorities in the Middle East since its foundation in 1923. But I do admire certain things about Turkey. Turkey emerged from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. Ataturk’s vision was to form the state along similar lines to European nations. Unfortunately some of these states were under the influence of dictators. For example, some of the laws that Turkey adopted were inspired by the Italian model under Mussolini.
The most admirable aspect of Ataturk’s vision was to create a secular state. The least, and undoubtedly the most damaging to Turkey’s long-term modernisation, was the denial and assimilation policies towards the Kurds. After it emerged that Turkey had gotten away with the genocide of Armenians in 1915, no other nation dared to ask questions about the Armenians after the peace treaty in 1923 in Lausanne. Turkey had no intention of saying sorry to the Armenian people. It simply denied that such atrocities had been carried out. It was swept under the carpet; no one till today in Turkey dared to talk about it. It was followed by 28 uprisings against the Turkish state by the Kurds, each of these uprisings were put down.
Until 1978 when Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) emerged under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan, whose vision was to create a better society for the Kurds and Turks alike in Turkey. He did not emerge as a separatist. But it became very clear after the 1980s military coup that Turkey was not ready for a political solution to the Kurdish question. They had no desire to accommodate the Kurds politically. The resulting armed struggle began in Turkey in 1984, over the years, Turkey began it is dirty war against the Kurds, by clearing out more than 3 thousands of villages, evacuations of towns, hamlets, 3 million Kurds had to flee to places in Turkey like Istanbul, Izmir etc. Almost forty thousands people mostly Kurds died in this conflict. In spite of many attempts by the Kurdish side to have the conflict resolved Turkey responded aggressively.
The conflict is steering up again under the leadership of Turkish premier Erdogan. Since he took over 8 years ago he said that he would bring Turkey closer to EU membership, however that was not the case. His real political vision was to get closer to Eastern States such as Iran, Syria. The vision of Ataturk in my opinion has been betrayed by this Islamic backward minded man who seeks to find a way to bring old Islamic Sharia law to Turkey. Bring Turkey back to more than 100 years instead of forward to European democratic ideal. His strategy is to create further mistrust among the Turkish people of western democracy by blaming EU states for pushing Turkey away from EU. You can not simply enter the EU club without rules and criteria. Still denying the Kurds an existence and going to war with the Kurdish movement will only make Turkey worse off than before. Not only economically will Turkey suffer, but politically as a major player in the Middle East will loose its potential.
If Turkey tries to please Iran and Syria by attacking the Kurds, it makes big mistakes again. The only solution to Turkey is to accept the Kurds in Northern Iraq as autonomous Kurdistan, makes peace with the PKK and dialogue with Ocalan. Finally support PJAK against the barbaric Islamic state of Iran and let the Kurds in Middle East and Turks live side by side in as more prosperous, strong nations at peace with their multiple identities and celebrating their shared potential. Because Turkey can only be strong again once they have the support of the Kurds. If they didn’t know that, all they have to do is look back to the Ottoman period. Turks were strong because they had the Kurd’s backing at the time. Ataturk’s and Ocalan’s visions are very similar for Turkey. Only when educated Turks realise that the only way forward is to get close to EU, ideologically as well as politically, and solve the Kurdish question, can Turkey reach its potential?