Kurdistan Portal

Wann lernte der Journalist Mustafa Akyol die Kurden kennen?
Was dachte er über Arbeiter, die kurdisch sprachen?

Hadi Özisik – Internethaber/Abant
5.Juli 08

Der Journalist der „Star“-Zeitung klärte auf, dass er als Kind über eine Existenz von Kurden nichts wusste und diese erst kennen lernte, als er 14 Jahre alt wurde.

In Ankara geboren und bis zum 14. Lebensjahr  ohne jedweden Kontakt zu kurdischen Bürgern, spricht Mustafa Akyol über ein Erlebnis, als er in Istanbul Zeuge eines kurdischsprachigen Gesprächs zwischen zwei Arbeitern wurde:

„Da unterhielten sich zwei Arbeiter, wobei ich dachte sie seien Touristen. Ich überlegte, denn die Sprache war anders, sie waren keine Touristen. Später erfuhr ich, dass sie Kurden waren.“

Diese Worte sprach der Journalist Mustafa Akyol auf der Abant-Konferenz aus. Was jedoch deutete Akyol damit an?

Hadi Özisik – Internethaber/Abant
5.Juli 08

Auf der Abant-Plattform („Das kurdische Problem – Eine gemeinsame Suche nach Frieden und Zukunft“) sprach am zweiten Tag auch Journalist Mustafa Akyol:

„In einer sehr gut verkauften Zeitung steht neben dem Logo: ' Die Türkei gehört den Türken '. Worin liegt die Bedeutung? Wenn sie der Bedeutung nach die Einwohner der Türkei andeutet, bedarf es dieser geläufigen Ansicht nicht. Die Türkei wird selbstverständlich nicht den Chinesen gehören. In einer anderen Bedeutung liegt Kurdistan. In unserer Geschichte gab es auch eine Kurdistan-Region. Die Gebiete im Südosten und Nordirak nannte man „Bilad-i Etrak“. Wenn sie die die Politik in Nordirak als kurdische Regierung umschreiben, werden die Turkmenen sogleich Beschwerde einlegen. „Auch wir gehören zu dieser Regierung“, werden sie erwidern. Wenn wir Kurdistan sagen, so ist meiner Ansicht nach ganz Türkei dieses Kurdistan und die Hauptstadt ist Istanbul. Denn die größte kurdische Stadt ist Istanbul. Gleichzeitig ist ganz Türkei auch „Türkistan“. Denn wir sind allesamt Geschwister und können nicht verschieden sein.“

Auf der Abant-Plattform überraschte der Journalist Cengiz Candar mit einem mutigen Vorschlag.

Hadi Özisik – Internethaber/Abant
6.Juli 08

Cengiz Candar schlug die offizielle Anwendung der kurdischen Sprache in Gebieten mit großem kurdischen Bevölkerungsanteil vor. Die Verkehrsschilder sollten seinem Vorschlag nach auch auf kurdisch beschriftet sein.

Die auf der Abant-Konferenz besprochenen Probleme und Lösungen sollten getreu Candar zusammengefasst und der Regierung wie auch dem Generalstabschef vorgelegt werden. Man wolle weiterhin von den kurdischstämmigen Abgeordneten der AKP wissen auf welche Weise die Regierung an einer Lösung des Kurdenproblemns ansetze.

I have been in Diyarbakır for many days now. And the city itself is not the only thing melting in the July; it is as though everything is changing shape here. This includes politics, people and streets -- everything. Without making it too obvious, Diyarbakır is preparing for its new role. 

It is becoming one of the important centers for solutions not just in Turkey, but in the Middle East as a whole. Yes, proud Diyarbakır is taking its position next to cities such as Jerusalem, Baghdad and Damascus, which have all become key to Middle Eastern politics. What's more, Diyarbakır is turning into a city that cannot be overlooked by regional actors or global actors. What is going on here these days has pertinence for everyone, from the northern Iraqi regional administration to Washington and from the European Union to Tehran. When, during his Baghdad tour, Prime Minister Erdoğan said, "I am not a Sunni or a Shiite, I am a Muslim," he was really providing a clue about the new regional role being shouldered by Turkey. The presence of tension between the Sunni Arab world and the Shiite world appears to be not only a historical reality, but also a cyclical reality. During this same trip to Iraq, when Erdoğan told Talabani, "I don't want cooperation, I want integration," he seemed to be giving a clue not only as to the direction of Middle Eastern policies in this new period, but also as to what the new headquarters for solutions will be during this period. So it is not at all difficult to perceive that one of these new headquarters is set to be Diyarbakır.

It is, of course, inescapable that regional Kurdish politicians will be reading and interpreting these recent developments on different levels. Ahmet Türk, who was elected as the head of the predominantly Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) at the party's recent congress, has said, "If the Ergenekon investigation doesn't pass east of the Euphrates, the Kurdish problem will never be solved." With these words, Türk showed his awareness of the direction taken by current change in Turkey. The course the nation is currently on makes democratization and the uncovering of all the bad business that has accumulated in the repositories of the state absolute requirements. While certain factions continue to insist that those gloomy and obscure state repositories should be left undisturbed, what they fail to see is a certain simple truth: that many average Turkish citizens have a deep sense and understanding of what is really going on. When I talk about the Turkish people, I mean here the average citizens of the nation, factions that are better able to understand the deeper meanings of the allegations that have emerged during the Ergenekon investigation than even certain Turkish intellectuals and politicians. People are finally aware that the insistent cries of "Look over here, look at this!" that have been ringing out for a quarter of a century now in Turkey have finally made their way, in a certain form, to the pressing agenda of the nation. And the decisive factor in which party will be receiving votes when people go to the ballot boxes is not a bag of pasta or coal from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), but instead the convictions that arise from this deep sense of understanding of what is actually going on. This must be the case since the AK Party lost support amongst the Kurds during the Turkish military's operations in the Kandil Mountains, and it is now passing through a period of visibly rising support for its decisive stance in the Ergenekon investigation.

Passing through Diyarbakır with these thoughts in mind, everything I see seems to signal some sort of turning point. There is a feeling around that, from now on, nothing is going to be as it was in the past. After all, there is no one in Turkey who knows the name "Veli Küçük" as well as Diyarbakır's residents do. You can also be sure that the people of this region have also known for years the name Levent Ersöz, a retired Turkish brigadier general who is said to be on the run from the authorities these days. It may be that the Gendarmerie Intelligence and Anti-Terrorism Organization (JİTEM) is as distant a reality for certain places in Turkey as, say, the British intelligence services are. But here, in this region that surrounds Diyarbakır, JİTEM means nightmares and unsolved, nameless crimes.

Near the end of the Diyarbakır Great Mosque, we sit and talk to some local elderly residents in a café frequented by bird lovers -- specifically, grouse aficionados. The talk turns from grouses to politics. Everyone there agrees -- somewhat timidly -- that the ongoing Ergenekon investigation represents some hope for them. One elderly man says, "The prime minister will be victorious if he follows this Ergenekon investigation all the way to its end. But if he becomes afraid and loses his courage, he will lose his head." Of course, in this region it is no simple metaphor when people talk about measuring the success or failure of politicians by way of the possible loss of their heads.

The support and sympathy for the AK Party that has come as a result of the ongoing Ergenekon investigation cannot only be explained by the ruling party's determined stance in this all. The people of the region are well aware that the DTP did not, until very recently, adopt a clear stance on this investigation. The real coordinates in this all are not realities that are difficult to sense. People who have experienced pain are closely interested in the final ending of the bad experience they have lived out. The most important factor for a person who has experienced this sort of evil in their lives is the very life that was disrupted by this wrongdoing. What else can explain the fact that the political stance that place people's lives first and foremost is the political stance most able to capture the hearts of the people? Regular citizens in this region now clearly perceive that politics and policies that focus not on bringing to an end these acts of wrongdoing, but on who will best be served by bringing these acts to end, will no longer be accepted.

It is necessary to view the most recent developments in Turkey as a test not just for this nation's democracy, but also for its spirit. Perhaps this is Turkey's reality test and history will record exactly who stood where during this period. What lies on the horizon is not just the hope that we might achieve a real democracy, but also the real coordinates for domestic peace. And it may be the first time that we as a society have been able to approach them so closely

Everyone I spoke to in Diyarbakır expressed the feeling that true goodness and serenity are much more important and critical than any calculations about power that may be occurring in Ankara, because they are the ones whose homes have been burned and who have been personally hurt. They are the ones who are unable to feel Kurdish in their own country. They thus take close interest in the solutions to all of this, not in whom or what might be served by these solutions. But you see, the thing we call politics takes its shape with these emotions and feelings in the average citizens in this city. The DTP is now doing something it has never done before: preparing for the upcoming local elections by installing new lights and planting new flowers along the city streets. I hope that, following the upcoming congress, the DTP will push aside the interests of the PKK and give over all its support to the urgent cleansing of the nation's dirtied repositories. If this happens, the DTP will be contributing to the new role cut out by history for the city of Diyarbakır, a city that I am sure they are deeply tied to and love very much.

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The people of Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan should learn from their past mistakes and work for a future of friendship and peace, Arbil Gov. Nevzat Hadi said at a meeting of the Abant Platform in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil yesterday.

“The border between Turkey and Iraq is Iraq’s door to Europe, and that door has never been and will never be closed,” Turkish Consul General in Mosul Hüseyin Avni Botsalı, also attending the Abant Platform’s 18th conference on “Searching for Peace and a Future Together.” The conference began yesterday in Arbil with the participation of over 200 intellectuals from Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan.

In his opening remarks, Gov. Hadi underlined that the decision for peace and friendship rested with the people. “This is why we have to be realistic and we should not cause each other to worry. The people of Kurdistan are ready for peace,” he said.

At the conference, Salahaddin University President Muhammad Sadik underlined that universities play a critical role in the improvement of science and the use of science for the public good. "But this task is not easy to perform; this is why we are hoping to cooperate more intensively with Turkish universities. This meeting of the Abant Platform will be so important to the joint future of both countries," he said.

Political science professor Mümtaz'er Türköne stated in his opening remarks that the platform had hosted meetings abroad before but that at this meeting the platform members did not feel as if they were in a foreign country.

"We are home; we don't feel like we are in a foreign country. This is due to your hospitality and also because we are the children of the same land. We are the people who find happiness in the same things, we share the same values. This is why we are considering this Abant meeting as the most important one," he said.

"We are all Kurds," Türköne said to emphasize the similarity between the two nations. "For example, I am from Sinop, the northernmost part of Turkey. But I am a Kurd, too. I think like a Kurd, I feel like one and I will die like a Kurd." The academic spoke about Ziya Gökalp, an ethnic Kurd who was a theoretician of Turkish nationalism. Quoting Gökalp's adage, "Turks who do not like Kurds are not Turks and Kurds who do not like Turks are not Kurds," Türköne said, "The political approaches at the state level may be different, but this principle is the measure of the people."

He also recalled the existence of some maps labeling Turkey's Southeast as part of a "Kurdistan," saying that those maps are a dream to some people while a nightmare for others.

"But let's face the reality, the biggest Kurdish city in the world is İstanbul. There are more Kurds there than anywhere. This is why we are partly Kurdish, partly Turkish," he said.

He also spoke about the Abant Platform, saying it stood for democracy, tolerance and dialogue, and was welcome to all sorts of ideas as long as they were in line with the platform's opposition to violence. Speaking about the platform's previous meeting on the Kurdish question, Türköne recalled that it had underlined the importance of education in one's mother tongue, general amnesty for Kurds who are members of the separatist terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and further democratization. He said that not only these essentials, but also establishing a good relationship with the Kurdish regional administration of northern Iraq was a crucial element of any solution to the Kurdish question, adding that this was why they were in Arbil for Abant's 18th meeting.

The Kurdish question is not only Turkey's problem, but also a problem for Iraqi Kurds, since the issue has serious effect on the relationship between them and Turkey, he said: "What we want to underline is that the problem is one [belonging to] the state. There is no problem between the Kurdish and Turkish peoples. This is a political problem. We are trying to change our state, and we need your contribution to the solution of this problem."

Islamic thinker Fethullah Gülen also sent a message to the Arbil meeting. In his message, Gülen said, “In the last century, the region has been object of international attention. With no bout, both war and peace are teaching different humane an international relationships and providing serious gains. In addition to the tragedy it brings, perhaps there is also a teaching, maturing aspect to war. But in the end, it is necessary to go back to societal life, in other words, to a process of normalization.”

Ich war mir nicht sicher, ob ich diesen Text in den Thread "Abant-Plattform" schreiben sollte, oder ob ich ihn hier veröffentlichen sollte. Ich habe mich für diesen Thread entschieden, um die Diskussion über die PKK evtl. auf eine andere Ebene zu tragen...

Aus "Türk" mache "Kürt" und daraus ein "Kürdistan"...

Eine Kleinigkeit erwies sich bei der Abant-Konferenz als große Schwierigkeit: das Wort "Kurdistan". An der Konferenz nahmen zahlreiche Intellektuelle aus der Türkei und viele südkurdische Personen teil. Auffällig war, dass türkische Sprecher die Region als "Nord-Irak" bezeichneten, wohingegen die Kurden auf die Bezeichnung "Süd-Kurdistan" bestanden. Dieses kleine Wörtchen ist aber zugleich eine Rückblende in die türkische Geschichte. Jahrzehnte lang war das Wort "kürt" verboten. Heute nimmt man das Wort "kürt" in den Mund, weigert sich aber von einem "Kurdistan" zu sprechen (bestes Beispiel hierfür ist der Verbot des Buches "Durchs wilde Kurdistan" in der Türkei). Hier zeigt sich auch, wie groß immer noch die Angst vor dem Separatismus ist.

Die Hauptforderungen der Abant-Plattform "Sprache, Kultur, Identität" sind sehr lobenswert. Zur Kultur zählt aber auch das Wort "Kurdistan".
Dass die Separatismus-Angst noch nicht raus ist aus den Köpfen beweisen die Demonstrationen im Südosten der Türkei gegen die Inhaftierung des PKK-Gründers, Abdullah Öcalan. Türkische Nachrichten sprachen von "separatistischen Demonstrationen" oder von "Demonstration zugunsten des Separatismus-Anführers" (türkisch bölücübaşı) oder "die Separatisten an der Arbeit"...

Das Beharren auf der Bezeichnung "Separatisten" ist ein großes Hindernis im Lösungsprozess der Kurdenfrage. Dabei muss man unterscheiden. Für die einen ist es Separatismus, wenn man sich zu seiner Identität bekennt, für die anderen hingegen, wenn man mit der PKK sympathisiert. Beides ist unzutreffend. Man kann von einem Menschen nicht verlangen seine Kultur aufzugeben. Tut dies jemand, dann muss er / sie sich die Bezeichnung "Assimilationsbefürworter" gefallen lassen. Auch die Bezeichnung der PKK-Sympathisanten als "Separatisten" ist nicht mehr zutreffend. Zum einen waren es ganz normale Zivilisten, die für Öcalan demonstrierten, zum anderen hat die PKK ihr Ziel eines unabhängigen Kurdistans schon vor langer Zeit aufgegeben. Nun geht es nur noch darum auf die Friedensangebote der PKK einzugehen. Die Türkei hingegen hat es noch nicht einmal geschafft die einfachen Forderungen von Abant, nämlich Gleichberechtigung der kurdischen Sprache und Kultur (bzw. Muttersprachunterricht für kurdische Kinder in der Türkei) in die Tat umzusetzen. Viel Arbeit steht diesen Menschen bevor...