Turkey: Winning Kurdish hearts and minds, How the AKP overshadowed Kurdish nationalism in Turkey ’s southeast

Sun Jul 29 18:24:02 UTC 2007

TURKEY : Winning Kurdish hearts and
minds<http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/07/turkey-winning-kurdish-hearts-and-minds.html>

How the AKP overshadowed Kurdish nationalism in Turkey's southeast

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Since the beginning of the Republic, Ankara's Kurdish policy has been based
on the principle of "Turkification," an authoritarian policy that has
sparked violent reactions. But now, the AKP is accomplishing something that
the state has never been very successful in doing: Winning Kurdish hearts
and minds

MUSTAFA AKYOL
DİYARBAKIR - Turkish Daily News

Hasan Uğur is a "haci," a word used to describe pilgrims to the Kaaba, the
Muslim holy shrine in Mecca. Like many hacis, he has a nicely trimmed beard
and wears a kippa-like cap. After some comments in Kurdish and some prayers
in Arabic, he kindly passes loaves of bread and dishes of goat meat to me
and a dozen other men, who are all brothers, nephews or grandsons of Uğur,
and are all sitting on the same carpet. This is one of the handful of houses
in the Dalbudak Mezrası, a mini village tied to Ergani, a province of
Diyarbakır.

While enjoying the generous hospitality of this large Kurdish family, in
which all fathers have at least seven or eight children, my eyes are caught
by a less friendly object hanging on the wall: An AK-47.

Don't think that Uğur and his relatives are members of a separatist group.
No, actually they are fighting against a separatist group, a terrorist one,
namely the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Uğur's nephew, Hacı Ulaş is a
"village guard," the name given to Kurdish locals who are armed and paid by
the Turkish government since the mid 80s. The duty of the guards is to
protect their villages from the attacks by the PKK terrorists, and to help
the regular army during their counter-insurgency operations in the
mountains. "Once, 50 of them came down from that hill," says Ulaş, showing
the steep mountain that scenically lies behind his village. "We resisted
many hours with only eight men, until the army units came to help." On the
wall of his living room, there is an official certificate given by the
Turkish military congratulating his brave and heroic effort for the
homeland.

Ulaş is only one of the more than 50,000 village guards in Turkey, who are
all Kurdish, but do not buy into the separatist agenda of the PKK and,
instead, remain loyal to the Turkish state. But why some Kurds fight for
Turkey while others fight against it? The old and wise Uğur has a clear cut
answer. "They are anarchists," he says, "they are all infidels." His nephew
agrees. "If someone doesn't recognize his God and his prophet," Ulaş argues,
"then he won't recognize his government."

Islamic identity seems to be an important reason why Ulaş and his fellow
village guards, and millions of other Kurdish citizens of Turkey, dislike
the PKK, which claims to fight for the liberation of all Kurds. The PKK
started as a Marxist-Leninist organization, and although it toned that
initial ideology down a bit after the early '90s, it is still left wing and
secular. The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), which some Turks
consider as the political wing of the PKK, is again very secular in its
rhetoric. Aysel Tuğluk, the co-chair of the DTP who got elected to
Parliament in last Sunday's elections, recently argued in her article in the
daily Radikal that Kurds don't "need to appeal to God" to solve their
problems. For a godly Kurd, that is not the most attractive rhetoric in the
world.

Respecting Kurdishness

In last Sunday's general elections, such Kurds flocked to the Justice and
Development Party (AKP) led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The AKP won a major
victory in all of Turkey, to be sure, but its triumph in the southeast,
where most Kurds live, was particularly astonishing. In Diyarbakır,
considered as the base of Kurdish nationalism, the AKP's votes increased
from 68,000 (in 2002) to 190,000. In Bingöl, another Kurdish city in which
the PKK has been powerful, the AKP won an astounding 71 percent of the
votes. In the whole southeast region – which some Kurdish nationalists call
as "Turkish Kurdistan" – the AKP's votes exceeded 50 percent, while the DTP
candidates could barely get 25.

Of course religious identity cannot fully explain why the AKP is so popular
among Turkey's Kurds. Another reason is the AKP's more embracing attitude
toward Kurdishness. Unlike "state parties" such as the Nationalist Movement
Party (MHP) and the secular-nationalist Republican People's Party (CHP),
both of which are totally absent in the southeast, the AKP emphasizes that
it respects Kurdish identity. Erdoğan became the first prime minister in
Turkish history to acknowledge, "the state made mistakes about the Kurdish
issue," and has repeatedly emphasized the Kurd's right to express their
culture and identity. Under the AKP government, and also thanks to the EU
process, Kurdish citizens gained the right to open language courses and
official Turkish TV, for the first time in its history, broadcast in the
Kurdish language.

That's why even the Kurds who vote for the DTP don't dislike the AKP too
much. "The CHP and the MHP are fascists," says a taxi driver in Diyarbakır.
"But while I will not vote for AKP, I can't say that they are bad guys."

An additional factor is the AKP's policy toward northern Iraq. Most Kurds in
Turkey sympathize with their relatives south of the border, and that's why
they are firmly against any military incursion into northern Iraq. And it is
no secret that in recent months, while the Turkish military has been arguing
for an "operation Iraq" and opposition parties such as the CHP and MHP were
cheering for that, the AKP government resisted the war mongering.

'The protector of the poor'

Besides all these identity issues, the AKP also won hearts and minds in the
region by the effective and successful services it brought to the people.
Since 2002, the year the AKP came to power, both the central government and
the municipalities run by AKP mayors seem to have done a good job. About
1,100 villages, which had no running water before, now have it. Hundreds of
new schools have been built and the students get their textbooks for free.
For very poor families, there is additional financial support for their
children's education. The government built thousands of new and cheap
apartments for families that were living in shantytowns. Abdurrahman Kurt,
who is the head of AKP's Diyarbakır branch and just became an MP last
Sunday, has visited thousands of families, asked them about their needs, and
then organized charity networks to take care of them.

"This is not just about giving out," Kurt's assistant adds. "It is the first
time for many of those families that someone prominent knocks on their door
and cares about them. They feel respected and cared about, a feeling which
was absent in this region for decades."

The AKP's success is also more notable when compared to the performance of
the DTP mayors. Kurt notes that the DTP mayors are interested more in
ideological matters then in taking caring of the city. They also lack the
experience of the AKP mayors in governing. "We are the only alternative to
Kurdish nationalism," says Kurt. "We are the party of whole Turkey."

A different path

It seems that the AKP is accomplishing something that the Turkish state has
never been very successful in doing: Winning Kurdish hearts and minds. Since
the beginning of the Turkish Republic, Ankara's policy has been based on the
principle of "Turkification": Converting Kurds into ethnic Turks by banning
their language and culture, and imposing a whole new identity. This
authoritarian policy has sparked violent reactions from Kurds, the latest
one being the terrorist PKK.

Perhaps the military garrison in the middle of Diyarbakır is very symbolic.
It has a huge wall on which Atatürk's famous motto is written in equally
huge letters: "How happy is the one who says 'I am a Turk'." Yet, there is a
very high and fortified barbed wire fence around this wall, to protect it,
apparently, from those who are not that happy about this whole Turkishness
rhetoric.

On the other hand the AKP's Diyarbakır headquarters was full of cheerful
men, women and children on election night, which were all Kurdish citizens
supporting this "party of whole Turkey." Their spirit seems to be the best
chance that Turkey has in order to handle and solve its 80-year old Kurdish
question.

A liberal governor

In the recent years another actor in Diyarbakır who helped in winning hearts
and minds is the "vali", i.e. the governor, of the city, Efkan Ala. In
Turkey each city elects a mayor for itself, but Ankara appoints a governor
who rules most of the official institutions in that city. And since the
governors are appointed by the center, they are generally seen as solemn
figures who represent the state, but not the people.

Ala (42) is a different vali, though. He is widely respected in Diyarbakır,
even among the Kurdish nationalists, as a man of the people. Appointed by
the AKP government in 2004, he distinguished himself as a liberal and
open-minded governor who established dialogue with all segments of society.
During my visit to his office, he outlined a very liberal political
philosophy, which included quotes from Karl Popper and emphases on civil
liberties and pluralism. "Most people in this region are only looking for a
more open and democratic Turkey," Ala says, "and when they are treated with
respect, they respond with acceptance." There will always be some marginal
Kurdish nationalist, according to Ala, but the state will gain the support
of most of the Kurdish citizens when it accepts "Anglo-Saxon type of
liberalism."

Hasan Uğur

As a devout Muslim Uğur despises the PKK terrorists whom he calls
"infidels." He has never seen Ankara or Istanbul in his life, and the only
international trip he ever took was to Mecca, as a pilgrim to the holy
Muslim shrine. He prays for the well being of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan, and the continuance of the AKP government, which he thinks is the
best that Turkey ever had.

Adem Akar

Akar is a "hammal," i.e. a man who earns his life by carrying loads on his
back. He, like many other Kurds in Ergani, has voted for the AKP which the
calls "the protector of the poor." His son had a surgical operation last
year, and he benefited from the healthcare system created by Erdoğan's
government. He says the AKP's local networks also take care of the poor and
the needy.

Hacı İsa Biçer

Biçer is a veteran civil servant from Ergani's Salla village. He has been
deeply offended by the Turkish military's "secularism memorandum" that was
issued on April 27, in effect, to block the presidency of the AKP's Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gül. "Gül is the most worthy person in this country," he
says. "They say his wife wears a headscarf. So what? We are a Muslim
nation."

http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/07/turkey-winning-kurdish-hearts-and-minds.html
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