WHEN SILENCE IS BETRAYAL: BEING SILENT AGAINST INJUSTICE IS A CRIME ITSELF
By Aland Mizell
Kurdish Media, UK
Nov 3 2006
The collapse of the Soviet Union opened the door of opportunity
for Turkey. Private companies and the Turkish government quickly
implemented special policies to develop their presence in Central
Asia. Because many Turks believed that their ancestors come from
Central Asia, many Turkish people called Central Asians "Ata yurd,"
meaning fatherland. In their view, the Soviet Union was a divided
Turkic nation for more than seventy years. After the fall of the
Communist regime in this area, Turks were happy to go back to their
ancestral land. Turkish nationalists like the Grey Wolves and religious
sects like the Gulen community seized this opportunity, especially
the Gulen movement’s leader with his businessmen, teachers, students,
and supporters to go to Ata yurd. Gulen and the Turkish government,
with ex-president Ozal leading the charge, undertook a twelve-day
trip to Central Asia to establish economic and cultural networks
between the Gulen movement and other social networks.
Gulen opened schools all over Central Asian countries. Turkish
delegates visited these countries getting emotional, saying that
after such a long time Turks were able once again to visit their
fatherland. They invited Uzbek, Kazakh, Turkmen and Kyrgyz officials
to Turkey to rebuild the broken bridge. It was a huge economic
opportunity for Turkish markets to explore Central Asian countries,
and for Turkey to take advantage of its history, culture, religion,
and background to use the Central Asian rich resources and to invest
heavily there. Turkish nationalists even wrote a song about how
they missed their fatherland. The Gulen movement took advantage
of this same historical, cultural, and religious background and
helped their brothers and sisters in Central Asia. When the people
of Central Asia asked them why they helped with schools and free
education, they replied that they did so because brothers should
help brothers. Not only that, but also they explained that Central
Asia is their fatherland, so they should help one another. This was
a very valid point because, yes, Turkey should help their brothers
and sisters in Central Asia; and, yes, they should take advantage
of the rich economic resources and eliminate the poverty to end the
suffering of poor. Since that time, Turkish businessmen have invested
multi-million dollars in Central Asian countries.
Shared resources among brothers would be mutually beneficial. Why
can the Kurdish people in Iraq not share the rich oil resources with
their other Kurdish brothers in the north? Why can the Kurds not
reestablish their economic, social, educational, and political bonds?
Kurds who live in the south of their region have much more Kurdish
educational experience than the Kurdish people who live in the north,
because the Turkish regime forbids Kurdish education in public;
the regional government in northern Iraq does provide Kurdish schools.
Therefore, it makes sense for the Kurdish people who want to learn
the true history of their ancestors to study in southern Kurdish
universities. When Turkish religion groups and nationalist groups
opened universities in Central Asia, and the Turkish government spent
so much money opening universities in Turkistan just to teach Turkish
history and to rebuild brotherhood, why can the Kurds not do it?
Political barriers prevent such policies. When the mayor of the
Diyarbakir wanted to invite Kurdish leaders from Iraq to participate in
the Kurdish Nevroz holiday, the Turkish government radically opposed
the invitation and accused the Kurds of racism and separatism.
Powerful Muslim leaders like Gulen always talk about peace, justice,
and equality. Many people believe in his word. But if Gulen is so
sincere in what he is saying, why then is he so silent about Kurdish
injustice? Why did he never publicly denounce the Turkish government’s
prejudiced policy toward the Kurdish people? Today Gulen and others
accuse America of being oil thirsty and claim that this is the reason
that America is in the Middle East. Well, then Mr. Gulen, why did you
open schools in the southern Kurdish region? Why did you open schools
in Central Asia, Russia, China, Cambodia, the Philippines, Colombia,
Japan, America, Australia, and Germany as well as in many other
countries? When you open schools in all those country, you teach the
Turkish language and Turkish culture, and you open Turkish businesses
as well. You criticize America for being in the Middle East because
of national interests, which is true, but you also have national
interests. At least America does not have a plan to conquer the whole
world as you do in setting up a pan-Islamic global state. At least
America saved the Muslims from the Serbs while other Muslims could not
do anything. In front of your eyes, Saddam gassed thousands of Kurds.
Why were you so silent? Saddam’s helicopter chased Kurds, Kurds running
to find a safe place to hide from his slaughter, and Turkish soldiers
sent them back. Why were you silent? Isn’t silence against injustice
a crime?
It is acceptance of injustice. Now that the Americans and the British
have taken power from Saddam, you are bothered because the Kurds
will have a decent life. Without justice peace is nothing but a nice
sounding word.
Courage has no value unless joined by justice. Thirty minutes of
justice is worth your years of prayers.
After Gulf War I, the world was shocked by the status of the
Kurds, especially Saddam’s ‘genocide against the Kurds and Turkey’s
oppression policy toward the Kurds. Kurds do not have a friend but
their destiny. The world was silent, when Saddam gassed thousands
of Kurds and when Turkish soldiers and especially its police forces
kidnapped, murdered, tortured, raped, and denied their basic God-given
rights. God supposedly created every human being equal, and none can
take and individual’s rights way.
Also God created every creature in His image, so the human tragedy is
awful in itself, but the silence of those who should be concerned by
virtue of their ties with humanity is worse. The spiritual leaders who
preach human values such as morality, God’s love, equality, those in
the Christian and as well as Muslim communities, make the silence more
terrible. While the world was silent, the devil was murdering Kurdish
men, women, and children. Genocide against the Kurds happened in 1988,
but nobody knew until the Gulf War. Or did the people know but just
were silent? Where were the principles of God’s love for humanity,
equality, and moral values? Why was God’s love suddenly turned to
God’s hatred if judged by these spiritual leaders’ response? Does
God not like the Kurds?
Where is God’s justice that many Muslim leaders talk about? Why were
fellow Muslims so silent while many Kurdish mothers cried for their
love ones? Why were they forgotten? After the second Gulf War, the
Turkish government officially expressed their concern over the fate
of 300 thousand Turkmen living in Iraq, but we have not heard the
same concern from the Muslim leaders about millions of Kurds living
in the same region.
The Turkish government and religion leaders for all their concern made
sure that the Turkmen were safe and sound and that harm did not come to
any of them. Was this concern because the blood of Turkmen has a high
value compared to that of other ethnicities? Was it because God created
Turks superior to the Kurds? For more than thirty million Kurds, their
dignity is daily taken away; their rights have been denied to them
before the eyes of the corrupt religion leaders, elite politicians,
media, and even society itself. Every day we see houses of Kurds being
burned by the military, we see the Kurdish people being humiliated,
we see the Kurdish people suffering, and we see Kurds disappearing. We
even learn that the Turkish government put a bomb in a bookstore,
trying to terrorize the region. On our television screen everyday
international news bulletins document that the military is trying to
make a veritable hell of their lives.
Not only has that Gulen been silent against injustice, but also he is
denying that anything happened in Turkey, "Therefore in our country
there is no deprivation due to discrimination in general terms, so
some current events cannot be considered the last drop overflowing
the glass. Everybody can become soldiers in Turkey. Every group can
have one of their people be generals or even president. Look for
example, our second president from Malatya was Kurdish, and so was
Turgut Ozal, the eighth president." Does his statement declare that
nobody in Turkey is being deprived of the benefaction of democracy?
He further argues, "Sometimes the state’s protection has been
perceived as oppression by some. Whether the state did actually
oppress anyone, I can’t say. That would be lack of respect for
my state. But the impression was created by the propaganda that
provoked the people." Denial may be the stepsister of silence. How
many journalists working on articles related to Kurdish issues has
the government killed?
How many Kurdish intellectuals have been kidnapped or assassinated,
or how many newspapers offices and magazines have been raided.
Interestingly, none of those who have committed crimes against Kurds
have been caught.
Why were Muslims absent in such a bewildering manner when many
Kurds suffered from genocide? Why does Gulen remain silent about
the tragedies of millions of Kurds while he is concerned about the
fate of the three hundred thousand Turkmen in Iraq? Is the blood of
the Kurdish people cheaper than Turcoman blood? Why do Muslims and
other religious leaders still keep silent in the face of injustice;
being silent in the face of injustice is in itself is injustice. If
Kurds are not now being angry, when will they be angry? Why was not
their voice heard or action seen in angry protest? When Israel bombed
Lebanon, millions of Muslims went to streets to protest against the
U.S. in Lebanon. Who bombed the bookstore in Semdinli province? Was
the government creating terror by first burning houses and villages,
and then by forcing them to leave their home, by making them homeless,
and now by bombing public spaces? Are these actions for protection of
the people or destruction of the people? It is true that there is no
problem in Turkey about being a beneficiary of democracy or getting
moved up to a good position unless you have to be Turk to do so.
However, when you say, "I am a Kurd," those observations do not
apply; instead, you are automatically labeled a terrorist. In other
word, there is not a problem as long as you say, "I am a Turk in
Turkey." Also Gulen says Ozal was a Kurd as well, but how many times
did Ozal go on television and say, "I am a Kurd"? Is it very sad for
Kurds that many Kurds who are successful businessmen, intellectuals,
or young intelligent students believe what Gulen is saying and are
being indoctrinated.
Why then should Kurds trust the Turkish government? When Tayyip Erdogan
gave a historical speech in the main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir,
for the first time he pointed out that "the great states are those
who learn from their mistakes." He hinted that the long policy of
suppression against the Kurdish minority had been the greatest error,
but did Erdogan keep his promise? Did Erdogan compensate the Kurds
for the houses that had been destroyed by the military? Did Erdogan
build new schools, roads, and clinics? Did Erdogan create jobs and
opportunities to eliminate unemployment? What he did was increase
the size of the military in southeastern Turkey and based the biggest
battalion around Diyarbakir.
When Diyarbakir’s mayor Baydemir explained that southeastern resources
should not be going to the west for processing, he explained that
Batman’s oil is going to western Turkey for processing. Why should
it not be processed in eastern Turkey, so that it will create the
jobs for the Kurdish people? Again many Turks accuse Mayor Baydemir
of being racist and charge him with wanting to divide Turkey and to
establish an independent Kurdistan. Why do Turkish government officials
create such paranoia? What Baydemir was saying is that the petroleum
belongs to the east, the east is suffering high unemployment, and,
consequently, why can the oil not be processed in eastern Turkey;
in that way the policy will create some jobs for the Kurds.
Who bombed the bookstore in Semdinli province? Was the government
creating terror by first burning houses and villages, and then by
forcing them to leave their home, by making them homeless, and now by
bombing public spaces? Are these actions for protection of the people
or destruction of the people? It is true that there is no problem
in Turkey about being a beneficiary of democracy or getting moved
up to a good position unless you have to be Turk to do so. However,
when you say, "I am a Kurd," those observations do not apply; instead,
you are automatically labeled a terrorist. In other word, there is not
a problem as long as you say, "I am a Turk in Turkey." Also Gulen says
Ozal was a Kurd as well, but how many times did Ozal go on television
and say, "I am a Kurd"? Is it very sad for Kurds that many Kurds
who are successful businessmen, intellectuals, or young intelligent
students believe what Gulen is saying and are being indoctrinated.
In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, in his letter from a prison cell
wrote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." When the
writer Orhan Pamuk stood against injustice and broke the silence saying
that "one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in those lands
and nobody but me will talk about it," he was charged with denigrating
the Turkish national identity and insulting Turkishness. Thanks
to the European Union Turkey could not put him in prison. Now many
Turkish religious groups, newspapers, and nationalists are attacking
Mr. Pamuk and questioning his intellectual capability. What Mr. Pamuk
did show was that a human being cannot sit in his home and not be
concerned about what is happening in southeastern Turkey, because for
Mr. Pamuk and us, we are inescapably and mutually tied in a single
destiny, and whatever happens to one directly affects all, at least
indirectly. Injustice anywhere in Turkey is a threat to all people
living in Turkey. It is the business of God fearing, peace loving
people to speak up against injustice.
Like sociologist Ismail Besikci wrote that one of the most tragic
events in the history of the Middles East and in the world in our
time was the implementation of an interstate system of colonialism
in Kurdistan. Even though Besikci himself was a Turk speaking against
injustice, he served years in prison for not being silent. The colonial
system in Kurdistan can be easily described as a human tragedy because
of the suffering of millions of Kurds. History has been determined;
millions are dead and their family property has been divided. Silence
reaps grave consequences. Religious leaders in other countries remained
silent in the face of racism. When Hitler operated the vast factory
of death where the Nazis tortured, shot, gassed, starved, raped, six
million innocent human beings — Jews, the handicapped, and dissidents,
the world failed to confront it. Now Germany is speaking out, but the
victims are dead. Seemingly then as now even God was silent, perhaps
waiting for one of his creations to speak out against injustice.
Aland Mizell, a Kurdish legal expert, is with the University of Texas
at Dallas school of Social Science and a regular KurdishMedia.com
writer.
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