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? 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. 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...
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 23:42:07 +0000
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