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By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli:
INTRODUCTION: I first published this article in January 2009 and since then the AKP has dithered and delayed its constitutional reform and a genuine democratic solution of the Kurdish question, which will ensure a conflict-free Turkey in peace with herself and the world. The arguments are still valid and challenging especially at present when the AKP regime wavers between residual Kemalist ultra-nationalist sentiments, which can only be fed with blood and destruction, and a more humane, rational envisaging of a future which would create genuine equal opportunities for democratic co-existence.
With the opening of the first formal Kurdish TV this week and the beginning of ABCD steps for allowing Kurdish language to creep out of its 85 years of imprisonment and linguicide in Turkey, the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is not only trying to meet the absolute minimum of the demands of Kurdish identity in Turkey, but is also addressing the essential issue of Turkish identity itself. And this is very important for the AKP, which considers itself as the central ground and thus a possible bridge between modern democratic European secularism and the Islamic legacy. The Kurdish issue could not be excluded from any equation, adjustment or reconciliation that AKP might aspire to bring about in this respect.
Turkey has only two choices in relation to the Kurdistan issue (and this is how it should recognize it): It can watch Israel’s actions in Gaza very attentively, learn from them and imitate them as the model it wants to use in relation to the Kurds and Kurdistan. Or to pause and ponder and choose the alternative direction of dialogue, democracy and mutual recognition. Here, I must of course qualify the comparison. The Kurdistan Workers´ party (PKK) is not Hamas. It does not fire rockets to populated towns. It does not dispatch suicide bombers to blow up civilians. It does not have any dogmatic ideology – religious, national or social – which shields its leaders against dialogue, compromise and political solutions.
But there have been and still are forces within the Turkish Establishment that wish to push the PKK and the Kurds in general to choose an extreme Hamas-wise position in order that they too can pour their racist hatred against the Kurds in the language of violence, repression and destruction. The AKP has an opportunity to stop and reverse this anomaly which contradicts both its modernist Western democratic credentials and its adherence to a more moderate humanistic version of Islam. The Kurdish question is not only an historical trial for the AKP to prove its own identity and ideology by recognizing diversity as both the essence of Islam and democracy at the same time, but also it provides the AKP with a unique opportunity to give Turkey a new modern identity which reconciles religion and secularism and makes it a model for all Islamic nations to look to, while impressively increasing its credentials with the EU and removing the last hurdles on its road to accession.
If the AKP considers itself an Islamic party, there is nothing easier than to return to the essentials of the Quranic discourse to justify its belated drive to diversity. In some very important verses, which are too well known to need quoting, the Quran very clearly, powerfully and unequivocally establishes the principles of national, ethnic and linguistic diversity as God-given divine principles of human existence in the world. The Quran stresses that:
1. If God wished, He could have created all the humankind as one nation. But He chose not to do so. (But Kemal Ataturk insists on this!)
2. He created human beings in different forms and languages. The diversity of human languages is the sign of God’s will and wisdom. (But Erdogan DOES NOT recognise or act according to this divine law).
3. God has sent prophets to different peoples in their own languages. The Quran is in Arabic solely to make the Arabs understand, appreciate and accept the message of Muhammad.
4. God created human beings as male and female, nations and tribes so that they would know each other and God has not given preference to any nation over another one. It is only through individual conduct and good deeds that the degree of one’s piousness is established. (But Kemalism and Turkish ultra-nationalists insist on the supremacy of Turkish race).
5. As well as nations and tribes, the Quran is unequivocal in recognizing other religions.
These are the basic principles of the Quranic Islam in relation to ethnic, religious and social diversity. It is an established fact that throughout the history of the Ottoman Empire this diversity was maintained and respected, allowing the Ottoman Empire to be a cosmopolitan conglomeration of diverse nations, religions, languages and cultures.
Human beings ARE by virtue of language. The act of ´knowing each other´ established by the Quran as the divine principle of human existence can only happen through dialogue, that is the use of languages for communication, communalism and creating the conditions of common good. The Quran says: “And argue with them with what is better”. Those who deny and defy these principles are not, according to the Quran, Muslims. They are the worshippers of the devil (Satan) because in the Quran only Satan challenges God’s messages and defies them.
Thus, those Arab, Turkish and Iranian chauvinists that have been or are still using religion to impose their language and ethnicity and deny other people’s language, identity and culture, are, in religious terms, infidels and worshippers of Satan. No wonder, Ahmadinajad behaves the way he does and the Iraqi Ba´thists met the fate they met.
No Islamic party has been in power in Turkey since the abolishment of the Ottoman Caliphate and cosmopolitanism by the Western-inspired ultra nationalist Kemalist ideology. The immediate result of Kemalism was the total genocide of the Armenians and the partial genocide of the Kurds and the start of the long satanic and barbaric process of repressing Kurdish identity in particular and diversity in general.
Now the AKP- that claims to be a moderate Islamic and modern secular party at the same time and there is nothing contradictory in being as such- is in power. It has the opportunity to choose between being a satanic party or an Islamic party in the sense I have explained above.
Now let us move to the second aspect of AKP identity. The party leaders often emphasize their commitment to democracy and secularism. The essence of democracy is not just the recognition buy also the enabling and activating of diversity as the true process and practice of civil society. Now the European Union embraces 26 nations and languages. This diversity has only strengthened the Union and enriched and empowered every single nation and society within it. I do not need to say anymore and give lectures to Turkish officials about what democracy means in practice. They have the opportunity to demonstrate this in practice and recreate the Ottoman cosmopolitanism on the basis of both Quranic and democratic principles of recognition of diversity of nations, languages and cultures.
But it is impossible for the AKP to have its cake and eat it. In other words to have it both ways: to claim Islam while practicing Satanism and to claim democracy while exercising fascism.
What Israel does in Gaza, Turkey has been doing in Qandil and border villages of south Kurdistan for more than a year now. If the world does not know about the death, destruction and displacement resulting from this, it is due to the compromise and cowardice of so-called Kurdish ´leaders´ whom Turkey now wants to use as a tool to Kurdify its fight against the PKK. This is also an outdated, discredited strategy. The AKP should be bold, honest and strategic in its recognition of Kurdistan as a very huge strategic decisive step in the recreation of the image and identity of Turkey as the cosmos of harmony and peaceful coexistence of diverse nations and cultures with all the great opportunities and interests that Turkey, as well as other nations, can reap from this.
