KurdistanObserver.com

Sever: The Problem Is Neither Physical Nor Economic: It's The Denial of Kurdish Identity

Banned HEP's Mus Deputy Mehmet Emin Sever: ‘Leyla Zana lost her chance'

Nursun Erel
The New Anatolian/Ankara

According to Emin Sever, before the PKK was a revolt by Kurds in Turkey, but now the movement is considered out of date by many Kurdish intellectuals

Sever describes PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan shifting views:

‘Once he used to talk about an independent Kurdistan but now he's blessing Kemalism'

The People's Labor Party (HEP) was the first Kurdish political organization to have 20 deputies in Parliament. But after Leyla Zana took her oath in Kurdish, this ended with the HEP being banned and almost all its members imprisoned. Mehmet Emin Sever was the Mus deputy at that time. Sever comes from the famous Kurdish tribe Cibran. He resigned as a successful military surgeon from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), where he had been a major. He then worked as a surgeon in Mus and in Diyarbakir for a long time. According to him, Leyla Zana lost her chance to establish a political party because she couldn't stand on her own two feet. Sever also criticizes the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for using outdated methods and accuses PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan of having changed his views on the Kurdish issue.

Below is our talk with Mehmet Emin Sever:

TNA: How would you describe the PKK?

SEVER: Almost all the Kurds have been touched by the PKK, as every family has someone in the mountains or someone who was killed during clashes, or their house has been burned down. So they have sympathies for the movement. But according to many Kurdish intellectuals, the PKK is not a modern organization, and they don't approve of its use of violence. We wanted them to change but we haven't been able to succeed. But some Kurds think that this is the 29th Kurdish revolt on Anatolian soil.

TNA: So what do you think about Abdullah Ocalan?

SEVER: In their movement there have been big changes. First they were for an independent Kurdistan but now, when we listen to him, he surprisingly talks about a democratic republic and constitutional citizenship. He changed all his goals. When he was strong enough he was talking about Kurdish independence but now he's blessing Kemalism.

Leyla was to take the oath in Kurdish

TNA: When we go back to 1991, through an alliance with the Social Democrat People's Party (SHP), the HEP was able to obtain 20 seats in Parliament and you were among them as deputy for Mus. How did everything change? How was it decided that Leyla Zana would take her oath in Kurdish?

SEVER: We met several times. The text of the parliamentary oath is based on respect for the Turkish people and we weren't rejecting this but trying to say that Kurdish people are a reality as well so they deserved respect too. At first we decided that Zana would take her oath in Kurdish and then we decided one of the deputies would add a line to the oath about the brotherhood of the Turkish and Kurdish people. It was Fehmi Isiklar who was to do that but then he gave up the idea so we held a lottery. Abdulkerim Zilan's name came up but also he refused so Hatip Dicle did it.

TNA: The prime minister of the time was Suleyman Demirel and now, years afterwards, he says he no longer rejects the Kurdish reality.

SEVER: But during that historic parliamentary session he protested against us by banging on the benches in Parliament louder than anyone else. But I believe that taboos should be removed so we pushed ahead.

TNA: As you held a lottery, were you all aware of the possible consequences?

SEVER: We considered all the possibilities. We knew that we might face serious consequences but we had to address the public on the Kurdish issue so we did it.

TNA: In your pocket there was a Kurdish flag as well, wasn't there?

SEVER: They weren't flags. They were just handkerchiefs with the colors Kurd like most. Our aim was just to protest against the conditions the Kurds faced, not to carry a Kurdish flag.

TNA: After that session the political immunity of HEP members was lifted, the party was banned, and Zana and many of its members were imprisoned. According to some, Demirel could have helped but he didn't. What do you think?

SEVER: Well Demirel always welcomed us when he was prime minister and president. Every time we knocked on his door he agreed to talk to us but he didn't ever suggest any solutions. Once we visited him as a group of deputies from the east. He welcomed us and said he always liked Kurds. He even mentioned that he had some friends from Adiyaman and Diyarbakir but the only message he gave us was to steer clear of violence.

I'm no sultan

TNA: Did you all also visit him at the Prime Ministry as HEP deputies?

SEVER: Yes, we visited him and raised the problems faced by Kurds, the problems we were facing, but he just said, 'The TSK influences the deputies.' But I disagreed with him by saying. 'In democracies, this shouldn't happen.' Also after the HEP was banned, three of us paid him another visit in Cankaya, he agreed on the issues we raised but he said that he wasn't a sultan. I think he was referring to the limits on his authority.

TNA: How do you describe the Kurdish issue?

SEVER: After Ataturk's congresses in Amasya, Sivas, and Erzurum in 1919, and once the first Parliament was formed in 1920, the people living on Turkish territory were considered in terms of a mosaic. All the different groups in this country were considered to be the same. But after the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 came the first Constitution of the Turkish Republic in 1924 which rejected the concept of Kurdish identity and so Kurdish rights were also rejected. All Kurdish revolts stem from then.

TNA: Are conditions in the east a hurdle?

SEVER: The main problem is neither physical nor economic: it's the denial of Kurdish identity. For example the Kurds can only learn about their history from their parents. For years they accepted that the Kurds would either disappear one day or be wholly assimilated. But as you see, this never happened. The Kurds say, 'I pay my taxes, I do my military service, and I even fought in the Korean War but they still don't accept my identity.' Even the names of their villages, rivers, and cities have been changed changed.

TNA: Does this mean that PKK benefits from this?

SEVER: Before the PKK there were some other organizations but they weren't as effective as the PKK on expressing the Kurdish issue. That's why the PKK is supported in those areas by the local people.

Zana lost her chance

TNA: Do you think Leyla Zana will succeed in establishing a new political party?

SEVER: After the ex-HEP members were released, we met up several times. I told them they were victimized by the state. She had great prestige at that time. She'd spent 11 years in prison as a victim of the system and later won the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1995 so she had a great reputation. If she'd stood on her own two feet and had acted independently she would have been supported by a great many. But she didn't, so she lost her chance.

TNA: You were a military surgeon and a major when you resigned from the TSK. Tell us something about those years.

SEVER: While a military cadet I studied at the medical faculty so I became a surgeon. But the moment my compulsory service ended I resigned from the TSK because I wanted to work in Mus. So I went there.

TNA: Why did you make the decision?

SEVER: At the time, on a daily basis, there were reports about women dying in the region because the roads were blocked by snow. So every time we talked about this and said that something had to be done for the area all my colleagues told me that I should go first. So I did.

TNA: What was it like in Mus then?

SEVER: Most people didn't speak Turkish. It's the same even now. Turkish is a language that's learned in school, during military service, or if you have a legal problem. For doctors it's hard to understand what the patients' problems are because they can't communicate with them in the same language. We kept on raising these issues but state officials always replied that there was no Kurdish but a terrorist issue in the area.

TNA: Do you have any political plans for the future?

SEVER: I joined Cem Boyner's party but it didn't survive because in Turkey people aren't concerned about democracy and as soon as a nationalist or Islamist party is established they show more interest in those.

TNA: Government officials and the public think the same about the Kurdish issue. Their main concern is separatism. What do you think of this?

SEVER: Separatism is disliked by all governments. But what brings it about? The government's attitude, discrimination, and unfair treatment. As long as this goes on there can be no real unity. However, if people are happy with their lot then the issue doesn't come up.