Monday, 16 August 2010
Soran Khedri:
In an article which published in Sunday Zaman on 15/08/2010, by a columnist Mr Dogu Ergil under “the ugly side of the Kurdish problem” which seems defending Ottman Empires social and political structure.
Before focusing on the content of the article, it is of great important to highlight some points in regards of the Turkish writers who are writing about the current political turmoil in turkey and Kurdish question.
From the content of the articles, it could be perceived that the writers are adopting the classical states policies towards the social and political issues. Commonly it can be viewed from the writings that the writers are focusing on one side of the issues, whereas systematically and deliberately ignoring the other side of the issue. For instance, the facts they use in support of their reasoning could not be considered as neutral due to the fact of consideration of one side of the issue. Most of the writers are merely highlighting the issues without dialectically or in constructive way providing or recommending solutions to the issues.
This is the case with Mr Ergils writing, he tries to inject something uncertain to the society, without considering its consequence or side affect.
Mr Ergil states that the raise of the Kurdish issue in turkey is a result of collapse of Ottoman Empire and adaptation of the new nationhood social and political structure. He mentions pluralists nation, but have not had provided further details about the Ottoman Empire pluralists nation structure. It is important to trace history of the era when the Ottoman Empire ruled Kurds. The Ottomans Patricians took an advantage of two factors, which still have great influence within the Kurdish society and on Kurdish politics, first the religion (Islam) and secondly Tribal structure of the Kurdish nation.
First factor which was exploited by the Ottoman Patricians was religion (Islam). In Islam pluralism absolutely is prohibited, and the initial and supreme identity of the people who are practising Islam is religion. in contrast, In Islam “nation” or “pluralism” does not exist; all the people who are practising Islam have to adopt Islamic culture, originated from the Arab culture. The methodology used in Islam known as “Umah” an Arabic word, which it’s synonymous does not exist in other languages, substituted nations term. In Islam, when someone, introduces him/herself as Muslim, have to give up all his/her culture, norms and identity, otherwise would not be considered as Muslim.
In order to explain it in more simplistic way it is important to provide an example”. Assume that a Swedish person converts to Islam. Initial process is to give up what he/she was practising prior to the conversion. He/she have to wear, eat, walk, engage in relationship, setup family, as Islamic law considers justifiable and should not drink alcohol, eat pork, and if a Swedish person or nation criticised Islam, he/she has to stand against them and defend his/her mere identity Islam, not his Swedishness”.
In addition to that, majeure force clause will be applied in regards of nationality and identity that every person has to adopt Islam as its mere identity. Umah was invented as “identity” with the objection to bring about all the diverse nationalities and identities under single umbrella, and eliminate pluralism.
As a result of the central thesis of the Ottoman Empires ruling, pluralism had no place in that system. History reveals nations whom were struggled against the Ottoman Empire; their struggle was considered as the rebellion against the “God” as it is the case in current ruling regime in Iran, Islamic republic.
However, Islam was exploited by the Ottoman patricians to expand and promote their power and rulings over the nations of the region as it is the case with AK Party in new turkey. Because Islam is the mere common factor, which was and still shared among various nations in the region, Ottman Empire established and formed its government system in accordance to it.
Kurds had rebelled against Ottoman Empire in different parts of Kurdistan. As a result of the Kurdish struggle against Ottoman Empire and Svavian Empire, both Emperors signed a treaty in 1639 “Qaser Shirin treaty” against the Kurdish struggle, and formally divided Kurdistan among themselves. In consequence of continuous Kurdish struggle against the Emperors, the will known cruel and oppressors of the Kurds in the region, further treaties (Arzrum 1 and Arzrum 2) were signed by emperors against the Kurdish nation, aimed to eliminate Kurdish identity and nationality.
Mr Ergil is attempting to mislead the public opinion, by saying that at the time of Ottman empires ruling, Kurds had no problem, and current political turmoil IS caused by the Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK).
Second factor which had and still has great influence on the Kurdish political and social structure is tribalism. More likely it seems that Mr Ergil by “Pluralism” meant tribalism, not the pluralism which does exist in United Kingdom, Switzerland or Belgium.
Ottoman patricians viewed the Kurdish social structure as a great opportunity for them to maintain their power and political position. The policies and rules, which were implemented by the Roman patricians after the end of slavery era and the raise of feudalism, adopted by the Ottoman Empire and used against the people whom were ruled by them.
The Romans had maintained their power for an amazing period of time by “dividing in order to rule”. Same principles of ruling were implemented by the Ottoman patricians; they did not just split or divide Kurdish tribes against each other. Ottoman Patricians, however, consciously developed trade of luxuries to rear privileged tribal leaders among the tribes who were bought off, and their efforts by doing so to divide each Kurdish tribe against itself was succeeded.
Ottoman Empire as it was the case in slavery era, created Kurdish tribal forces called “Hamidiyah”. Hamidiyah was directly under the control of unrestricted power of Sultans. Hamidiyahs main task was to confront Kurdish tribes who were demanding self determination and independency. As a result of the creation of Hamidiyahs and divisions of the Kurdish tribes by the Ottoman Empire, thousands of Kurdish people were died in mass killings, and thousands of villages were burnt down.
AK Party in contemporary Turkish politics is following the Ottoman Empires policies by dividing Kurdish people among themselves, even worse, AK Party and former Turkish governments enforced Kurds from other parts of Kurdistan to fight legitimate Kurdish struggle and movement in Northern Kurdistan and Turkey.
One more important point could be viewed from Mr Ergils article, which is very dangerous to the regions politics and real democracy in the globe. Mr Ergil mentioned explosion of oil transit pipelines, which are operated by the British Petroleum (BP).
Turkey failed to bring in Israeli government into to its extensive war against Kurds, when Israeli government insisted on obedience of International law, by not interfering into the states internal affairs. Turkey as a course of pressure to enforce Israel to fight Kurds approached Palestinians Islamic group Hammas and tightened its political, economic and commercial relationship with the Iranian regime.
However, Turkey now attempting to use (BP) influence to gain global support to oppress Kurdish people in Northern Kurdistan, by stating that the PKK is the cause of the losses which were inflicted to the operator (BP) in 2008, and relating it to the Georgian-Russian war in 2008.
In conclusion, it could be stated according the rules of Islam, and single culture, that pluralism never existed in Ottoman Empires, however, Islam was exploited by the Ottoman Patricians to govern and rule people in the region. Because Turkish efforts failed to directly bring in Israeli government to fight Kurds, flotilla case was systematically and deliberately organized and planned to accuse Kurdistan Workers Party as proxies of foreigners. It is of great important to notice the date of the incident; it was one day before PKK resumes its military activity in self defence against the Turkish oppressive military operations in Northern Kurdistan. As it is clear PKK put a deadline 01/06/2010 for the Turkish government to respond to the Kurdish aims and demands, otherwise they will resume their activities to protect Kurdish people from discriminatory and assimilation policies of Mr Ordogans administration.
