THE ON-GOING PHYSICAL CULTURAL GENOCIDE

Kurdish Aspect
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July 20 2009

The occupiers of Kurdistan namely Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and the
former Soviet Union and their rulers are unaware of what century and
what kind of world they live in as once again the latest developments
have showed. As if they are behind times for a hundred years or even
more. As if they are unaware of international law and the development
of goodwill between different languages, cultures that became common
value of humanity within the past century. Germany apologized to the
Jews and the world public opinion about the genocide of the Jews. To
make sure that it is not forgotten, genocide monuments erected in
Germany and the concrete evidence of this tragedy, ensures that
concentration camps are protected and open to the public. Putting
it another way, Germany has confronted its history. Australia has
apologized for what was done to its indigenous population, Aborigines,
they too confronted their history.

It may not be on the same scale but in our world, no civilized
country’s intellectuals, rulers are trying to cover-up, deny or
defend the genocides against other people which are shameful events
in their history. But in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and the former
Soviet Union everything is the opposite of this. For example, Turkey
has not confronted its history and is adamant and stubborn in its
behavior. It is less than a century since the Armenian Genocide
happened in front of the eyes of the world. This shameful act for
humanity was condemned by the parliaments of many countries. Each
time the Turkish government and its parliament has responded to these
condemnations with anger. Excluding few conscientious intellectuals,
the so called intellectuals and artists of Turkey have followed the
footsteps of their politicians and tried to hide, deny, even falsify
history and are using every trick in the book to blame the Armenians.

Of course, in Turkey, the example of a shameful act is not just the
Armenian Genocide, but what was done to the Assyrians, Greeks and
Kurds are crimes against humanity too. During the genocide of the
Armenians, the Assyrians got their share in this slaughter. In the
following years, that means before the Greek and Turkish governments
exchanged populations, the Greeks who were oppressed and threatened
were deported from Anatolia in their hundreds of thousands … One
of the leading figures carrying out such activities was CELAL BAYAR
who was nicknamed ‘GALIP HOCA’ and was from the CUP

(Committee for Union and Progress Party).1 after the war and the
exchange of the populations, some Greeks were allowed to stay in
Istanbul because some Turks stayed in Western Thrace. [But] most of
these Greeks left Istanbul as a result of oppression and the events
of 6/7 September which were organized by the state.

The genocide against the Kurds has been ongoing since the time
of the Ottoman Empire. Marshal Moltke’s memoirs are full of such
stories. During the First World War, alongside the genocide of the
Armenians, 700,000 Kurds from Kurdistan were exiled, and deported to
central and western Anatolia. This was an ethnic cleansing and many
of these people died as a result of hunger and cold.

After the war, in order to Turkify Anatolia and to establish a
unitary state, the second biggest population group, the Kurds, were
declared as non-existent. The state was established according to only
Turkish elements. Kurdish history, language and culture as banned. The
Kurdish peoples just reaction to all this was brutally and bloodily
suppressed. After each uprising was put down, the civilian population
of the region, without any discrimination – [including] women,
children, young and old – were subjected to genocide. For example,
after the Sheikh Said revolution, they killed 20,000 civilians. After
the Agri uprising, in Zilan Stream region, a population of more than
30 villages was exterminated. After the 1938 Dersim uprising, 60,000
people, disregarding [the fact that many were] women and children,
were bayoneted, shot, herded en masse into the mills and burnt or
were killed in caves.

The journalist AYSE HUR recently reported on an interview that had
taken place in 1986 with the ex-Foreign Minister of Turkey, IHSAN SABRI
CAGLAYANGIL. [He said]: "The Dersimis [i.e. Kurds in the region] had
taken refuge in the caves. The (Turkish) army used poison gas. Through
the caves entrance … they were poisoned like rats. Aged from 7
to 70 … the Kurds in Dersim were slaughtered … The [military]
operation was bloody. The Dersim case was finished. The government’s
authority was established in the villages and in Dersim … Today,
anyone can go to Dersim. Gendarma can go, so can you. But lately,
especially in the borders region, the Kurds influenced by the external
powers started an independence movement. Some Kurds live in Turkey,
some in Iran…." (AYSE HUR, 16/11/2008 TARAF GAZETESI).

After these uprisings and many smaller ones, the masses were exiled. By
doing so, they wanted to clear out the Kurds from the region. The
appearance of the PKK and its armed struggle was used as a pretext to
evacuate and demolish more than 4,000 villages and towns. 3-4 million
[Kurdish] people were exiled from their homeland as thousands of
‘unsolved murders’ of Kurdish intellectuals and patriots occurred that
took the form of full massacre. These are the end result of policies
that have been implemented over the past 30 years.

The oppression and bans continued along with forced assimilation
and Turkification policies. They wanted to wipe out the language,
culture – in short, the very existence of the people who lived on
their land for thousands of years, who had deep roots and contributed
to the civilization of Anatolia, Iran and Mesopotamia, who had their
own distinct and rich history and language.

In conclusion, we can say that, all the things done to the Kurds,
and at different times and places, were beyond ethnic cleansing and
they are physical and cultural genocide. The system that started this
policy towards the end of Ottoman Empire and that spread all through
[the Turkish] Republican period wanted to exterminate tens of millions
of Kurds through genocide, deportation and assimilation. Even if
this has not been fully achieved [to date], such policies had a huge
destructive impact on the lives of the Kurdish people.

Has the situation changed today? No. Today, Turkish statesmen are
neither brave enough to confront their history nor to make real
changes in their policies that are suitable for our times. They are
disregarding world public opinion and international law and carrying
on with their policies without fear. Today the system is using the
terror that it had created, carrying on with its militarist and racist
activities. It is resisting [initiatives aimed at] opening a peaceful
path for a solution.

They are not allowing [Kurdish] exiles to return to their land. The ban
on language and culture is ongoing. Even today, there is no freedom
of expression and organization for the Kurds. The intellectuals who
support them are punished according to the laws such as Turkish Penal
Code article 301 and by similar articles.

The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently visited
the Kurdish region and had this to say to the people who asked for
cultural and political rights: The ones who don’t accept the idea of
one state, one nation, one flag, should leave the country… In fact,
this is an infamous slogan of fascism: love it or leave it…

On 10/11/2008 (The anniversary of Ataturk’s death on10/11/1938),
the Defense Minister, Mr.VECDI GONUL, who was in Brussels for a
meeting, openly claimed that without the genocide of the Armenians
and the deportation of the Greeks, there would have been no national
state. These are Vecdi Gonul’s exact words:

…The most important step during the establishment of the nation was
exchange of the populations. Just think, would it have been possible
for us to become a nation state, if the Greeks had continued to live
in Aegean region and the Armenians in many parts of Anatolia?

The Defense Minister, Mr. V.Gonul went on with an example from Ankara:
"… Just one district of Ankara was Muslims in those days …" and
added that another one [was] Greek and another one Armenian. He
also stated that, at the time, Izmir Trade Organization was made
up of non-Muslims. Mr. Gonul is admitting that with genocide and
deportations, Turkey was ethnically cleansed; the finances were gained
by Muslim Turks, and by doing so, the nation state was set up and
what is more, he defended such action.

Honestly, there are no Greek or Armenian districts, Greeks or Armenians
left in Ankara. Such Greek or Armenian districts don’t exist in
Istanbul either. Despite all that the ones who stayed behind and how
they feel is not a secret. The events that took place in Malatya and
the murder of HRANT DINK with the knowledge and support of the police
and gendarme authorities are still fresh in our minds.

Today, the extermination of the Kurds, and the physical and cultural
genocidal policies that are implemented against the Kurds, are a
continuation of that "NATION BUILDING" mentality. It is obvious
that the Turkish statesmen believe that they have not completed the
task yet.