Monday, October 30, 2006

Doğu Ergil:" Matter can be transformed from warfare to inclusive politics"

"Turkish Daily News "Confusion!" by Dogu ERGIL


Is there a way out of this dismal situation? Of course there is: a sound strategy that will provide us a convincing and hopeful picture of the future -- our future -- and the way to reach that target. Do we see it? No! That is what alienates the people in general and make them lose hope for the ? their -- future.

Let me give one example where we lack a viable strategy: the Kurdish question. Up until the '70s and the '80s, we officially insisted that there were no Kurds in this country. Rebellions broke out in the middle of the '80s. They were labeled as ?an ethnic group? in Turkey, and ?northern Iraqis? in Iraq; in short they were referred to tribesmen and bandits. Those that are up in arms are still bandits that will be wiped out ?tomorrow? (that never came). However, all of a sudden millions of Kurds appeared in Turkey officially acknowledged as what they are in the '90s. We common citizens are now put in an awkward position: how can we call these people Kurds when we had learned that they were non-existent and hallucinating that they existed was a criminal offense? I will still call them "Mountain Turks" as our elders asked of us for the sake of loyalty to their understanding of "national homogeneity". Otherwise as a citizen, I would feel responsible for silently endorsing the evacuation of thousands of villages and forceful displacement of their inhabitants some of whom now threaten our cities as common criminals. Is creating unsafe cities the end result of a strategy to create a safe countryside? How efficient!"
FHTK

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