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The Make-Belief World of Turkish
Nationalism
By: Sabah Salih
Oct 30, 2007
The continuing barrage of bellicose rhetoric
coming out of Ankara indicates that Turkish nationalism is still out of touch
with reality.
Its hysterical reaction recently to efforts
by lawmakers in Washington to correct a historic injustice was a perfect
demonstration of that. Much of the world has already concluded, based on
evidence, that what the Ottoman Turks did against the Armenians nearly a hundred
years ago was without doubt genocide, or what the dictionary describes as “the
deliberate killing of a large group of people, esp. those of a particular group
or nation.”
The effort in Washington, now faltering
under intense pressure from the White House, put Turkish nationalism on the
defensive. This could have been a perfect opportunity for Turkish nationalism
to start transforming itself into a genuine voice for democracy--by honestly and
directly addressing the issue.
But, as usual, it chose an all-too-familiar
path: changing the subject; and, once again, it resorted to an all-too familiar
tactic: threatening war against the Kurds--a people whose reality it continues
to deny. The reason why this tactic works so well in deflecting attention from
reality is because through years and years of ideological brainwashing the
average Turk has come to equate the mere mentioning of Kurdistan with national
treason. Turkish nationalism, as a result, continues to remain trapped in a
world of make belief; it is one in which Kurdistan has either been erased from
the face of the earth or been transformed into a colonial Turkish outpost, where
the subjugated Kurds are all too happy to let go of their culture, their flag,
their nationalism in exchange for permanent servitude to an old colonial master.
This is the public face of Turkish
nationalism, and it is fully committed to the racist notion that somehow Turkey
is within its right to try to rid the world of Kurdistan. What makes this
fantasy so dangerous this time around is that it has strengthened the belief
that this is in fact doable. In a notably crude gesture of imperial arrogance,
the Turkish parliament already acts like it has jurisdiction over the entire
Iraq.
PKK, which is really not all that different
in both tactic and philosophy from all the other resistance movements, is just a
side issue; the real issue is whether Turkish nationalism is willing to come to
terms with the political and geographic and cultural reality the rest of the
world recognizes as Kurdistan but Turkey continues to deny and suppress. PKK or
no PKK, the Kurdish problem won’t go away until Turkish nationalism musters the
necessary moral courage to liberate itself from the psychological and political
quagmire it has put itself in before it is too late. Translating its gruesome
words into action will only ripen the Turkish state for dismemberment.
Dr. Sabah Salih is Professor of English
at Bloomsburg University, USA.
