Kurtulus: To whom does Turkey belong?

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

Kurtulus Number 93, August 8, 1998

To whom does Turkey belong?

"We are godparents, partners by marriage, blood relatives.
Our villages, our nomad tents lie side by side
For centuries we have taken daughters as wives and given daughters away
We are neighbours, side by side
Even our chickens mix with one another..."
Ahmet Arif

One of the main daily newspapers in Turkey has in its logo the words
"Turkey belongs to the Turks". And in the chauvinistic propaganda
about the 75th anniversary of the republic's foundation, we hear these
words a great deal and no doubt will hear them a lot more in the
coming months. But is it historically really the case? Does Turkey
belong „exclusively" to the Turks?


Whoever has seen the various cities of Turkey or even has seen only
the parts laid out for tourists can see right away that this does not
correspond to the reality in Turkey. Yes, Anatolia is Turkish. But at
the same time it is Kurdish. It is also a little bit Greek, a little
bit Armenian, a little bit Arab, a little bit Cherkess (Circassian), a
little bit Laz...

Anatolia has been the home of various peoples over millenia. Turks,
Kurds, Arabs, Laz, Cherkess, Bosnians, Azeris and many other Muslim
and Christian peoples have poured their sweat into Anatolia's soil,
cultivated it, derived produce from it as well as the most beautiful
traditions and values.

The peoples living in Anatolia and the different faiths sometimes held
by the same nationality, the different tribes and clans living in
various regions have created their own values, traditions and
cultures. From marriages to cultural festivals, to receiving visits
from neighbours, from funerals to births, from day-to-day contacts to
family structures, the differences among them are not difficult to
detect. They are rooted in geography, religion or the economy.

But these cultural peculiarities were never an obstacle to the peoples
living with each other in a fraternal manner amid mutual friendship,
respect and tolerance. They lived together fraternally while
maintaining their own cultural peculiarities. The mutual ties have
also logically given rise to shared cultural characteristics. So for
example, Kurdish and Arab influences can be detected in Turkish
culture. The same applies to the cultures of the Kurds, Arabs and
other peoples.

Even if the languages and religions of the peoples are different, they
have still helped one another from time to time. Sometimes they were
in neighbouring villages. In one area the villages are inhabited by
Turkmen.  But on another side of the same mountain there are Kurdish
villages. If you then descend onto the plain, there are Arab
villages...

The peoples are so mixed together. They invite each other to weddings
and cultural festivals. At funerals, they pay condolence visits to one
another.

Sometimes different nationalities live in the same village. The upper
or lower side of the village, or even next door to each
other. Together they celebrate festivals or share good and bad times.

The Sümela monastery is known to everybody, for example, even if only
through television and the newspapers. While a ceremony is held in the
church in keeping with its religion, the Muslims wait outside,
sacrifice sheep and prepare for the festival. When the ceremony is
over the Christians come out of the church. Turks, Laz, Georgians,
Greeks, and Armenians celebrate...

Sheikh Bedreddin's followers knew no distinctions of language,
religion or nationality when they organised their life in Aydin, they
shared everything, and everything was built through common effort and
toil. In the face of the attacks from the Sultan and the rulers, they
swung their swords together and the blood they all shed mingled.

Were relations between the peoples on the soil of Anatolia always like
that, characterised by fraternity and tolerance? Unfortunately,
no. Sometimes the peoples attacked each other and found the cruelest
oppression to be appropriate. So, why was that the case? What
destroyed the image of fraternity? What was it which would not let the
peoples share among each other? Actually there is no "satisfactory"
answer to this.

The rulers, from the Ottomans to the present day, have sought to
secure their own domination by setting the peoples against one
another. So they created artificial differences among them and sowed
the seed of hostility.  They organised provocations and exploited the
beliefs of the peoples and with the help of their own religious
leaders, religious law courts were established. Causing the effusion
of another people's blood was deemed to be righteous, and a place in
paradise was said to be reserved for those who made blood flow.

If a people rose up against exploitation and oppression, the rulers
sought to win over another people to help in putting down the
uprising. Sometimes this was successful. For example Sunnis would be
used to put down uprisings by Alevis, and Alevis would be massacred.
In this way, Turks were armed against Kurds and hostilities fomented,
and the same was done to cause discord between Kurds and Armenians,
Armenians against Turks and Arabs against Greeks. For example, during
the War of Liberation the imperialists tried to use the Armenians to
break the resistance. As another example, the Kemalists used Alevi
Kurds to defeat the uprising by Sheikh Said and the Sunni Kurdish
tribes. During the First Imperialist War (World War I) Armenians were
massacred. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were murdered or forced
to emigrate.

Not just to crush uprisings but for other reasons, the peoples would
be stirred up against each other. Sometimes it was major landowners
and feudal lords who incited the people so as to win the lands and
riches that belonged to others.

As a result of this agitation, the provocations and massacres by the
rulers have given rise to certain prejudices. Thus the Arabs are seen
as dirty.  They are disparagingly termed "fellahin". On the other
hand, Romanians are called "thieves", and nobody will sit down next to
them. Armenians and Greeks are "infidels", the "historic enemy". Kurds
are "primitive", the Laz are "stupid", Turks are "oppressors",
"unbelievers"...

The rulers have intensified the "divide and rule policy" even further
with capitalism and especially in the dissemination of news through
the media.  Based on the grandeur of the ruling nation, the rulers
have made chauvinism into one of the cornerstones of their rule.

Fascism uses chauvinism by developing theories of the superiority of
the Turkish race to create a mass base for itself. All other peoples
are said to be enemies. On all sides there are enemies... "The only
friends of the Turks are the Turks themselves." It wants to use
circles influenced by these chauvinist politics against other peoples
or at least to educate them in such a way that they agree with the
policy of the state and are against the struggle of the peoples.

But one of the biggest obstacles to the chauvinist politics and
propaganda of fascism is the reality of the peoples in Anatolia.

Along with the development of capitalism, the peoples have more and
more mingled and interwoven as part of the flight from the countryside
to the cities. Today, especially in the biggest cities, people of
every nationality and faith live together. They are neighbours in the
same city quarters. They drop their sweat on the floors of the same
factories. At school they share the same desks. They are ground down
by the same oppression, exploitation and poverty and feel the same
hunger pangs.

So we are asking who is responsible for the poverty and oppression
experinced by the workers? Can the one who is responsible for the
oppression for the pains suffered by a worker be a worker from another
people who labours in the same factory? Of course not. Or if today
languages, cultures and traditions of peoples are forbidden, are the
Turkish people responsible for it? No they are not. The culture and
traditions of the Turkish people too are threatened by the depraved
imperialist culture. Attempts are made to destroy the ties between
people, the values, the traditions, one after another. This is the
common problem faced by all our peoples. The system is to blame for
this. It is also the system which disseminates the corrupt imperialist
culture, bans languages and cultures and exploits and oppresses the
peoples.

On the other hand, the owners and rulers of this system are
fundamentally neither Turks, Kurds nor Laz!

It is clear that this state belongs to none of the peoples of
Anatolia. It is also not the state of the Turkish people, that is also
clear. Whose state is it? Before everything else it is not the state
of our peoples. This cannot be altered by its name, "Turkey" nor by
the demagogy of "this state is the state belonging to us all, but
there are separatists among us."

Let us take a closer look at the rulers. Do they not come from all
nationalities?  Isn't Sabanci a "Turk"? Isn't Cefi Kamhi a "Jew"?
Isn't Sedat Bucak a "Kurd"? Isn't Besim Tibuk a "Laz"? Are there not
"Georgians", "Azeris", "Sunnis", "Christians", "Alevis" and
"Armenians" among them? Yes there are. They have all formed a
coalition. This is not a coalition of brotherhood, nor one of the
unity of the peoples... This coalition is a coalition of exploiters,
the dishonourable and the scoundrels. They sit at the helm of the
treadmill, exploit our peoples, oppress and murder them..  Their
religion, their beliefs, their nationality is "money". To keep the
system going they murder Turks just like Kurds. Or is that not the
case?

It is our peoples who create and produce everything with the sweat
from their brows. Can there really be underhandedness, rivalry and
enmity among those who bring about everything through their sweat and
their toil and who are the real possessors of all values and of
everything that is beautiful?  Not really. Hostility and oppression
are merely the methods of those who want to lay hands on the fruits of
this toil without working for it. Enmity, hypocrisy, separatism,
provocations, massacres and every kind of filth are to be laid at
their door.

It is in the interests of the peoples to put an end to repression. To
end the suppression of identity, culture and language.

To drive out of the country this coalition of thieves who have sold
the land to imperialism and their masters the imperialists, and to
free the country.

One of the indispensible conditions for this is the unity of the
peoples living in Anatolia and Thrace. Just like in the War of
Liberation...

The place to achieve this is in the ranks of the Front. The Front is
the unity and the common struggle of all our peoples. In the ranks of
the Front all peoples struggle to bring about their own power. In the
ranks of the Front, all people are free. Culture and identity are free
and no people stands above another.

This power is the power of the people. Because only with people's
power can the culture and language of every people develop and be
enriched. Under people's power, the state has the duty to secure every
opportunity for the peoples in this regard. In this state structure no
peoples will stand over others or enjoy hegemony. Its basis is
fraternity and friendship between the peoples. Setting up people's
power means securing a life in fraternity and freedom for all our
peoples. The power of the people is the expression of the fact that
all our peoples will share in the government that will resolve all
economic, political, military, cultural and social questions. The
power of the people is the liberation of the people.

The Front is convinced that Turkey is the Turkey of all the peoples
who live in Anatolia and Thrace. The Front's ranks are the ranks of
the fraternity of all the peoples.

Hundreds of martyrs are the proof of this. Haydar, Sabo, Niyazi,
Yemo...  Kurds. Bedii, Gülnaz, Halil Ibrahim, Kemal, Berdan, Devrim
Yasar... Arabs.  Ali Tarik, Hasan, Murat, Mustafa, Idil,
Müjdat... Turks. Sinan, Bahattin, Ayse... Laz. Osman, Ahmet Fazil,
Arslan... Georgians. Avni, Ismet, Ümit Dogan... Cherkess.

They were members of the Central Committee, commanders, fighters in
the ranks of the Front.

They came from different cultures, confessions and nationalities to
meet in the ranks of the Front. To liberate the peoples, they fought
with weapon in hand against the common foe. They shed their blood on
Anatolia's soil, and caused hope to grow.

The system is the enemy of our peoples. It is the system which divides
the peoples and tries to oppress them, exploit them and has turned
Anatolia into a prison. All peoples are brothers and this land belongs
to them. The ranks of the Front show our peoples who is the enemy and
who is the friend. On the other hand the struggle of the Front is the
expression of freedom and the liberation of the peoples in this
brotherhood and sisterhood.

http://www.ozgurluk.org/kurtulus

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Press Agency Ozgurluk
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