Racial Justice and Equality - Part 1 - A complicated past and present in Turkey

Edited BY

G P Kennedy

Gul - Istanbul, Turkey

THE OTHERS

 My country, Turkey is a center of double standards and a deep well of the ‘others’. I’m ashamed of it. Nationalism has been the most influential trend in political discussions in this land for some time and nationalism exist in varying tones that is almost untouchable political trend.

 

 Who’s a Turk? It’s complicated issue. There’s always ‘us’ and ‘others’ for racist Turks and they are many. The ‘other’ one, could be an Armenian one day, a Kurd another day, or an Alevi (the minority religious group) or may be a Syrian immigrant. Kurds and LGBT members are always others. I refuse all these discriminations.

 

 ‘I was called a Georgian. I apologize fort this; but they even said something worse: they called me an Armenian. But I’m Turk. These words were Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s during an interview with a Tv channel, NTV. I have nothing left to tell you.

 

OUR BLACKS

 The Kurds are the blacks of this country and still face widespread of discrimination. There are racist attacks everywhere & everyday, so nothing new for us at all.

 

 I feel a completely different country between my generation and my daughter’s. I grew up in a very cosmopolitan neighborhood in Istanbul. Greeks, Armenians, Jews lived side by side. We celebrated Easter, Ramadan and Christmases. But strangely, my childhood stories don’t include any Kurds. Like they didn’t exist. A couple of decades later, there was none of them, neither an Armenian nor a Greek in my daughter’s time. Kurds still did not exist.

 

Kemal Kurkut - a student shot and killed by police

 I only realized that we share the same country with the Kurds when I was at the university. What kind of a sterile-white upbringing that; I did not know about any other ethic group, we share our own country.

 

 The Kurds reached these lands before the Turks arrive, but Turks always took them under control as they were the majority. Nowadays, some can say there’s a progress by to be able to mention the word ‘Kurd’.  Once upon a time, there was even an official ideology for the Kurds that there’s no such Kurds ethnicity as they were Turks who live in the mountains.

 But still speaking Kurdish can be a big problem. Hearing Kurdish language could be a threaten situation something like what happened to Chris Cooper in Central Park. I’m very sad that Kurds are being attacked for speaking their own language. The attackers usually get away with it as they claim the crime was not racially motivated. That’s precisely the problem. Hate speech and racism across Turkish people provide a breeding ground for these attacks. There is so much hatred on social media because the trolls feel safe they know nothing will happen to them.

 

RACISM IN EVERYWHERE

 After Kurds, the other ‘other’s are Armenians. The populations of Armenian Turkish citizens living in Turkey is getting fewer and fewer, from millions to several thousands.

 

 My late mother was from a little village in the East Anatolia that was originally an Armenian village. But there is not a single Armenian person in the place nowadays. I wish my grandparents would have still alive. I would like to ask them ‘okay, what happened to the Armenians? Where they have gone?’

 

 Although the government is making various gestures towards Armenia and Turkish Armenians, the incidents of 1915 and the killing of Hrant Dink are still two unsolved issues. A journalist- editor of the newspaper Agos, Hrant Dink was gunned down in front of his Istanbul office by a 17 years old Turk. Dink was an outspoken intellectual and a peace activist. His death was no surprise as he was getting death threats. Thousands of people were chanting ‘we are all Hrant Dink, we are all Armenian’ during his funeral.

Murdered journalist, Hrant Dink

BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS

 BLM protests in the US found an echo in other countries and support protests were held in different countries but not in Turkey. No surprise in there. We’ve seen fair share of our own protests, Gezipark in 2013. The government describe it a plot by looters and anarchist mobs. I’ve heard similar words by Trump after George Floyd killing.

 

 Not surprisingly, our president condemned the police killing of George Floyd in a series of tweets. He said racist and fascist mentality killed Floyd and condemned the inhumane mentality.  So, the people who were silent about all racist attacks on Kurds or the other minorities.

 

 Sometimes it’s difficult to talk about positive things in this country. There is a lot of discrimination based on skin color, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, or based on social status.

 

 For example, Turkey ranks the second worst country in Europe for LGBT equality rights. Members of the LGBT community face many legal restrictions and hostility from society. Pride marches have been banned for recent years.

 

PEACE ACADEMICS                                                                                    

 ‘We will not be part of this crime’ that was the protest call by academics who dared to do anti war protest in a couple of years.

 

 Since then hundreds of them were expelled from their universities one by one, and some were in prison. Most of them were taken away from their personal rights, and they were prevented from doing their jobs.

 

 Today, the dismissed academics are pursuing different vocations to be able to survive, some of them who didn’t receive a travel ban have gone into exile. Turkey suddenly became an intellectually drained country.

 

LIFE GOES ON WITH A HEARTBEAT

 So what do we do? How we, Turkish people respond what’s happening in our country. We said ‘we’re all Armenians’ when Hrant Dink was murdered. ‘We’re all Tahir Elci’ when a Kurdish peace activist, human rights lawyer Tahir Elci was assassinated. Are we doing enough to fight racism in this country? People campaign despite grave personal risk but with the current political situation, we are unable do anything other than supporting their campaigns and to give them a voice through our social media.

 

 We couldn’t protect those who were pushed into otherness and by one by we became the ‘other’. I keep campaigning for change for a better future and I refuse to remain silent any longer. I wish for a better country, a country for all; for not only Turkish people but for Armenians, for Kurds, for Syrian immigrants, for LGBT members, for any minorities or atheists.