A demonstrator waves a flag of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party oduring a rally to mark the spring festival of Nowruz in Istanbul. But these efforts can’t conceal a harsh reality: Trying to advertise and maintain Kurdish pride in suspicious Turkey is an uphill battle. . by Giuseppe Mancini number 38 . october 2011 . 37 Istanbul Lets Kurdish Culture See the Light Despite gradual liberalization policies, Kurdish language and culture remains mostly ostracized in Turkey. . In an effort give the Kurdish national role a non-militant coloring, some new groups and organizations are working hard to establish and nurture language programs. . They want to ensure that Kurdish youth doesn’t forget its roots. . TURKEY N icole F. Watts’ recent book “Activists in Office. Kurdish Politics and Protest in Turkey” (Universi- ty of Washington Press, 2010) is a useful book for any in-depth understanding of the so-called Kurdish question. It goes well beyond commonplace media repre- sentations, which are often confined reporting on violent outbreaks (there were several this summer in southeast Turkey) and the status of Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured in by Turkish special forces in 1999 and has been jailed since then. University of San Francisco researcher Watts avoids the security vs. terrorism trap, as well as that of state vs. PKK, and chooses to focus instead on what she calls “pro-Kur- dish political parties and activists.” She provides a de- tailed analysis of their activities over time, noting in ad- vance that that activists are not the only Kurdish repre- sentatives, and that most Kurds still tend to vote for more traditional parties, the Justice and Development party of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan foremost among them. Pro-Kurdish parties have consistently felt the dual weight of state suspicion (and crackdowns) and their autonomy, rights and freedom. This latter effort is large- ly carried out by individuals, associations, and organiza- tions that are mostly based in Diyarbakir, the ancient mul- ti-ethnic of the southeast that now counts some 800,000 inhabitants. atts probes efforts that attempt to establish Kur- dish cultural and political identity. At the same time, might also be opportune to look at efforts that attempt to develop mutual recognition and respect between the sides, ones that in effect work counterclock- wise to nationalism and exalt comprehension as the on- ly feasible way out of the ongoing conflict and regard di- alogue as central to being able to the coming debate on onerous connection to the PKK. As result, even intermit- tent institutional openings have done little to change an- ti-systemic tendencies and the implied relationship to the hotly contested armed struggle. In practice, one side has worked to spread dissenting views on the Kurdish question while the other, particularly at the local level, has tried to establish a collective political and cultural i- dentity based on Kurdish nationalism, a sort of alterna- tive to the Turkey and the state, not necessarily aimed at independence, but most certainly at establishing greater N Ap Photo / M. Sezer 36 . east . europe and asia strategies W
Transcript
A demonstrator waves a flag of the pro-Kurdish
People’s Democracy Party oduring a rally to mark
the spring festival of Nowruz in Istanbul.
But these efforts can’t conceal a harsh
reality: Trying to advertise and maintain
Kurdish pride in suspicious Turkey is an
uphill battle. . by Giuseppe Mancini
number 38 . october 2011 . 37
Istanbul Lets KurdishCulture See the LightDespite gradual liberalization policies, Kurdish language and culture remains mostly
ostracized in Turkey. . In an effort give the Kurdish national role a non-militant coloring,
some new groups and organizations are working hard to establish and nurture language
programs. . They want to ensure that Kurdish youth doesn’t forget its roots. .
TURKEY
Nicole F. Watts’ recent book “Activists in Office.Kurdish Politics and Protest in Turkey” (Universi-ty of Washington Press, 2010) is a useful book for
any in-depth understanding of the so-called Kurdishquestion. It goes well beyond commonplace media repre-sentations, which are often confined reporting on violentoutbreaks (there were several this summer in southeastTurkey) and the status of Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK)leader Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured in by Turkishspecial forces in 1999 and has been jailed since then.
University of San Francisco researcher Watts avoids thesecurity vs. terrorism trap, as well as that of state vs. PKK,and chooses to focus instead on what she calls “pro-Kur-dish political parties and activists.” She provides a de-tailed analysis of their activities over time, noting in ad-vance that that activists are not the only Kurdish repre-sentatives, and that most Kurds still tend to vote for moretraditional parties, the Justice and Development party ofPrime Minister Recep Erdogan foremost among them.
Pro-Kurdish parties have consistently felt the dualweight of state suspicion (and crackdowns) and their
autonomy, rights and freedom. This latter effort is large-ly carried out by individuals, associations, and organiza-tions that are mostly based in Diyarbakir, the ancient mul-ti-ethnic of the southeast that now counts some 800,000inhabitants.
atts probes efforts that attempt to establish Kur-dish cultural and political identity. At the sametime, might also be opportune to look at efforts
that attempt to develop mutual recognition and respectbetween the sides, ones that in effect work counterclock-wise to nationalism and exalt comprehension as the on-ly feasible way out of the ongoing conflict and regard di-alogue as central to being able to the coming debate on
onerous connection to the PKK. As result, even intermit-tent institutional openings have done little to change an-ti-systemic tendencies and the implied relationship tothe hotly contested armed struggle. In practice, one sidehas worked to spread dissenting views on the Kurdishquestion while the other, particularly at the local level,has tried to establish a collective political and cultural i-dentity based on Kurdish nationalism, a sort of alterna-tive to the Turkey and the state, not necessarily aimed atindependence, but most certainly at establishing greater
N
ApPh
oto
/M
.Sez
er
36 . east . europe and asia strategies
W
number 38 . october 2011 . 39
promoted by Erdogan, and had agitated for the creationof the course, which wasn’t as successful as originallyplanned.
Onen explained that from a linguist’s vantage pointbilingual education is not simply a legal right but onlyavailable tool in an effort to prevent the disappearance ofthe Kurdish language. Lacking formal training, youngerKurds, taught educated only in Turkish struggle to speakthe language. She says bilingual education on a voluntarybasis could also be extended to involve Turkish childrenin an effort to give birth to an “awareness of not being
alone.” As part of another program to help immigrantsthrough culture and the arts, she also teaches smallgroups of Kurdish children and helps them “try to makepeace with their own language,” which many loathe be-cause it makes them different from other children.
nen confessed that at times she openly hopes forchange but at others is overcome by a sense ofpessimism. She feels herself left out of the Turk-
ish national project because, as a Kurd, she’s an outsider,unwanted and discriminated against. Only the practicalapplication of the norms of the new constitution, whichguarantees mother-tongue teaching and freedom for all,will begin to change her mind. Meanwhile, she’s indefati-gable, working as a volunteer at the Kurdish Institute inIstanbul, which has been active since 1992 and organiz-es language courses attended by thousands, university s-tudents in particular, which publishes books on Kurdishhistory and literature, compiles oral history anthologies,and assembles teaching materials for courses. It alsomakes textbooks on Kurdish grammar, issues Kurdish-
38 . east . europe and asia strategies
come a model for similar, future programs that will at-tempt to involve southeast Turkish municipalities in Eu-ropean projects. There will be more exchanges, especial-ly in music and film industry, with Armenia and the Ar-menian Diaspora in France and the United States.
ast year, Kavala also helped found the Diyar-bakir-based Institute for Social Policy Research(DISA) a think tank created to foster study into all
aspect of Kurdish issues and recommend solutions tooutstanding conflicts and disagreements. It seeks to tack-le the problem’s profound economic dimension and ap-proach the highly sensitive matter of bilingual education,which is fraught with taboos and prejudices.
Bilgi University researcher Ronay Onen, who is fromMardin in the southeast but has been in Istanbul for twodecades, has for two years taught the only university-lev-el Kurdish language course. Her first day teaching, shetold me, was fraught with emotion. She was moved near-ly to tears when facing the 50 students who had decidedto take advantage of the so-called “Kurdish opening,”
Turkey’s new constitution in a rational manner. Take Anadolu Kultur, a private project that since 2002
has overseen the opening of two cultural centers, one lo-cated in Diyarbakir and the other in Kars (later closed) aswell as the creation of an exhibition hall in Istanbulwhere conferences and debates have been regularly or-ganized. The organization promoted a variety of exhibits,film festivals and music workshops, as well as exchangeswith Armenia. It also pushed for the development of civ-il society programs in many southeastern Turkish citiesand towns, particularly those economically disadvan-taged and culturally marginalized as a result of state re-fusal to recognize the legitimacy of Kurdish identity.
Behind the effort is businessman Osman Kavala, whois committed to promoting cultural projects at the locallevel that work to enlist active participation on the partcitizens. “Pluralism and participatory policies aimed atsocial inclusion are essential to the development of ademocratic culture,” he says. The result of his undertak-ing, which tries to break free of the notion of monolithicculture, has been largely positive. Anadolu Kultur has be-
FACING PAGE Kurdish demonstrators are silhouetted
by a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) flag.
ABOVE
A Kurdish girl demonstrates in a show of support for Kurdish rebel
chief Abdullah Ocalan, and to demand the release of political
prisoners in Turkey, during a demonstration in Strasbourg
in February 2010. PKK written on girl’s face is acronym for the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a Kurdish separatist group led by Ocalan. OL
ApPh
oto
/P.
Kara
djia
s
ApPh
oto
/C.
Lutz
number 38 . october 2011 . 41
Kurdish people, both in Kurdish and Turkish. He also s-tocks Kurdish language translations most of Shakespeare-an sonnets as well as The Communist Manifesto, not tomention a wide selection of CDs containing traditionalmusic. Many of the books are marketed by Avesta, an Is-tanbul-based publisher that focuses on social sciences,Kurdish literary classics, and literature that cover newtrends and styles. Once again, the books are in both Kur-dish and Turkish.
Avesta’s founder, Abdullah Keskin, came to Istanbul inthe 1990s to work for the first Kurdish newspaper, Welat(The Fatherland), which closed when the Kurdish lan-
guage was officially outlawed. He turned to publishing,saw his early crop of books seized and banned, and wasjailed. Overall, he’s published some 400 books read most-ly by college students and intellectuals. He receives no s-tate subsidies and finding backing or advertising is nextto impossible. He gets by on the sale of his Turkish-lan-guage books, which he uses to subsidize those in Kurdish,which sell fewer copies.
Just beyond the bookstore, in this little piece of Kurdis-tan on the Bosporus, is the home of the Destar theatergroup, which was founded in 2008 and host a companyof Kurdish-language performers. Though there are othersuch companies scattered throughout the country, theeight actors led by playwrights Mirza Metin and BerfinZenderliolu, both 29, are the country’s only Kurdish pro-fessionals, funded as part of two-year project supportedby the Turkish culture and tourism ministry. They take aBrechtian approach to acting. They want their audience(the theater hosts between 70 and 80 people) to thinkabout the moral, ethical and spiritual content of the ma-terial. Political content is secondary. “We’re not agit-prop,” says Zenderliolu.
hey stage traditional work while at the same timeattempting to present new and experimentalwork. One such play is “Leki Bula” (“The Plastic
Bride”), which attempts to get at the wounds of those whosuffer because they’re different, but nonetheless incorpo-rated into homogenized world. There’s also “Cerb” (“Ex-periment”), a silent production in which four prisonersdevelop a system of alternative communication and s-trategies for control of one another.
The language of choice is Kurdish, but audience alsogets both a Turkish and English-language translation.They mostly work out of the Istanbul theater but occa-sionally travel to festivals in the southeast. Mirza andZenderliolu admit times things have improved since thestate of emergency, which lasted from 1987 to 2002, whenMetin says “plain clothes policemen used to come to thetheater and we had to perform our plays in the companyof police radios.” Now, the playwrights dream of startingtheater school Diyarbakir, but only when political condi-tions improve. They look ahead to a time when publish-ing and teaching in Kurdish will no longer be a crime, andwhen the mere sound of Kurdish doesn’t produce resent-ment among Turks. .
40 . east . europe and asia strategies
push the importance the cultural importance of a nativetongue. It has also gone further, flirting with militancy. InSeptember 2010, for example, it invited Kurdish parentsto keep their children out of Turkish state schools for aweek as a sign of protest. The invitation produced intensepolitical controversy, but also led to media coverage oftheir position, which was the effort’s original intent.
The Institute’s publications can be purchased at theKurdish Medya Kitab bookshop, which is nestled amongcountless shops on Istanbul’s central Istiklal Caddesi.Owner Selahattin Bulut is a master of the Kurdish eclec-tic. His shop contains every kind of book concerning the
Turkish dictionaries, organizes debates and seminars, andpublishes Zend, the Kurdish-language literary magazine.
Longtime director Sami Tan sees the Kurdish Instituteas in “he vanguard of the Kurdish movement for free-dom” and considers it a vital part of meeting the chal-lenge creating Kurdish-language teaching material in allschool subjects, both literary and scientific. The instituteis an integral part of TZP-Kurdî (the Kurdish movementfor teaching and language), an umbrella organization thatunites other Kurdish institutions and uses the teachingof the language to member of political parties or trade u-nions, as well as events and awareness campaigns, to
