Can we live together?

By Ahmet Abidin Özbek:

Personally, I am always against discrimination, racism and separation. I think almost like J.Krisnamurti: he always said that nationalism, religion or ideologies become the main reason for divisions and make people enemies of each other. I also know that all nations, religions and ethnicities are related to each other. I am a strong supporter of Darwinism, evolution theory and agnostic values. I believe that humanitarian values, secularism and socialism are the most significant values for society. I wish for no one to hate another person because of their differences. It is clear that there is no pure race, belief, ethnicity or religion. All are in some way connected to each other. Even our human nature is somehow linked to the animal and natural worlds.

So there should be no racism and no hatred at all on this Earth. Unfortunately, there are still many conflicts, war crimes, hatred, pogroms etc, etc. If we adopt any type of extremism – such as those based on Nazism, Arabism, Catholicism, Sunni or Shi Islamism, Hinduism, Bureaucratic Communism, Fascism, Capitalism or any form of nationalism – there will be no exit at all. I believe that all the ideological extremes, racist or religious fanaticism are common historical stupidities based on absurd values. We should not expect any contemporary or civilized society to operate corrupt values.

Historical evidence proves that Kurdish people belong to Arian or Hindu-European groups while Turkish people belong to Asian groups. If we go back 5,000 years in history any European, Iranian or Hindu, Pashtun or Baloch people can be relatives to the Kurds. Meanwhile, the Chinese, Japanese, American Indians or Mongols can be relatives to Turkish people. Even if we go back even further, the Hindu-European and Asiatic people are also relatives.

My point is that we are all somehow connected on the Earth, but it is a matter of past times and civilizations. In our journey as human beings, we also became different. Our languages, religion and values changed hundreds of times in the course of history. And our physical appearance, faces, hair, skin and eyes also changed, depending on different climates and geography over millions of years. But I don’t think that God, the creator, Lord, Allah or the Universe sent different Eves and Adams for different nations.

Over time, we became different people. So there are people calling themselves Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, Jewish, Tutsi, German, Chinese, Spanish, etc.

There are two phases of civilizations. First, we said we are all connected to each other. Second, that through a process of change we also became different from each another. So if someone says that, “I am Kurdish and I belong to Kurdistan”, that should be no problem for their Turkish neighbors.

Unfortunately, Turkish culture today shows only hypocrisy and idiotic values because it wants to root out all other the civilizations connected to it and deny the existence of other cultures. I would like to give some basic examples from daily life about my thesis.

Here I have a big challenge to understand Turkish logic. According to this, Kurdish people were good people when they used to work hard in the fields, factories, dams, or fight for Turkish ideals. They were good people with their hospitality and their obedience to all things obligated to them by the state. Let’s put it this way: when we were slaves to Turkish culture, religion and values we were a really good nation, good people. If you talk with some Turkish people, please listen when they say: “We loved Kurdish people before because we could trust them but now things have changed and we cannot trust them anymore”. These people continue: “Kurdish people do not support anything in Turkey and they are not trustful anymore”. So Kurdish have become bad people because they don’t submit to Turkish culture, values and language. They go on to say: “Kurds are bad people because they are in an uprising against Turkish principles”.

There are many people of the Balkans and Macedonia or the Caucasus who immigrated to Turkey since the Ottoman period. In reality, they are not Turkish but they called themselves Turkish and also Sunni. Mostly they are acting more Turkish than the ethnic Turks in Turkey. It is okay to me if they feel this way. If someone ethnically does not belong to a culture but feels close to it, there is nothing wrong with this. For example, there are Chinese in Australia, Arabic people in South America, Jewish people in France, Armenians in the USA, etc, etc.

What is wrong is if you deny the rights of people living next to you. It is okay if you are not Turkish but you feel Turkish (like Balkan people in Turkey) or if you live in another country and defend your Turkish origin (like the Turks in Germany or other countries). But what about the Kurdish people – their past, their culture and their country called Kurdistan? Why is it a problem for you to accept that Kurdish people are different to you? Why do Turkish people strongly deny Kurdish people’s values? Why do not Kurdish, Alevi, Christian, Laz, Jewish or any other ethnic group have real representation in the Turkish Parliamentarian system? Why are there not millions of people on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara to protest against the rulers? Why have Turkish and Sunni populations become so selfish and ignorant? Why don’t they want to share something that should belong to every citizen of the country?

In reality, Turkish logic is undermining their own culture, while they try to be the superior race. If Turkish people are realistic about their culture and history, they should stop trying to assimilate other cultures. Let’s say the Kurds and Turks are forced to live together in Turkey, if there is no possibility of a federal system or an independent Kurdistan. What are the conditions that the Kurds might accept, if offered to them by the Turkish state? I have two options in mind. Is it equal citizenship in the same land and accepting others as they are, protected by constitutional law? Or is it a new formula of Turkishness, which is designed like the melting pot to destroy Kurdish and other cultures and values that we have seen since Ottoman times?