Washington Kurdish Institute

By: Ismet Konak October 16, 2019

Imperialism or colonialism refers to the domination and exploitation of a state and nation by another state. As a geography, Kurdistan was made an unofficial colony following the Turkish War of Independence and the Treaty of Lausanne, which officially ended the conflict between the Ottoman Empire and major world powers. As a matter of fact, in 1925 Cemil Bey, the interior minister during this period, stated in a report that the Turkish administration should rule Kurdistan in a colonial manner under a system of general governorship, and this was clearly reflects the official Turkish approach. Turkey was established as a nation-state for Turks, by its very nature hostile to the existence of other peoples living within the newly-created country’s borders. Millions of Kurdish people, who were deprived of their basic rights and even official minority status, endured the brutality of living under the Turkish state for most of the 20th century, and continue to be oppressed by the state to this day. The economic, cultural and psychological trauma caused by the state high officials, the policy of “slaughtering and plundering (Ottoman Turkish: katl û nehb)” which took place from time to time, further weakened the “link” between Kurdish identity and the Turkish nation-state mechanism. In the 20th century, in essence, the role of Kurds as “the leather of shoes of nation-state” was asserted by the Turkist mind.

In the first quarter of the 21st century, Islamists came to power in Turkey in the form of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a founding member who has been Turkey’s president since 2014 and was Prime Minister for over a decade before. The “humanistic and merciful” mind of religious politicians, who claimed to be guided by Islam, were expected by some to be different than previous rulers. They were expected to be less corrupt, to have taqwa (piety), to not covet the right of a servant, to address class contradictions between oppressors and the oppressed people, to obey calls for brotherhood among peoples found in the Qur’an (e.g., Surat al-Hujurat). Some Kurds expected that these Islamists would tolerate and work with different ethnic groups. However, the Islamists, too, embrace the established model of Turkish nation-state. They, like their predecessors, embraced fascism, a fascist approach to governance, and alliances with other fascist groups.

The Turkish nationalists were brutal oppressors of the Kurdish nation since their founding of today’s Republic of Turkey, though the Islamists that followed them have proven to be just as inimical to the Kurds’ existence in their own homeland. The latest innovation of the usurpers and the taboo manufacturers has been to appoint the trustees (Turkish: kayyum) to govern Kurdish metropolitan areas in the place of democratically-elected officials. Owing to the Islamists, in the eyes of much of Turkey’s society, the ballot box has been transformed into the detested and hated thing, i.e., a “bete-noire”. Ruling the society from the palace and concentrating the power in one center must be a disease of “atavism”. Acting like a sultan and imposing his\her own form of administration (tyranny) in defiance of the constitution and legislation can be explained only by the “God complex”. It is not a surprise that the Kurdish geography was chosen as the pilot region of tyranny.

The word “trustee” (kayyum) is an Arabic origin word, and it derives from the word “attempt, revolt” (kiyam). So, it means “to replace or to carry out”. Our honorable executives and palace scholars know very well that appointing a trustee instead of a mayor is contrary to the Article 6 of our now meaningless constitution. It would be useful to mention the relevant article once again: “Sovereignty unconditionally and unrestrictedly belongs to the nation… The use of sovereignty may in no way be left to any person, group or class. No one or organ can use a state authority that doesn’t derive its power from the constitution.” In accordance with the Articles 45 and 47 of municipal law and Article 127 of constitution, the Interior Ministry of Turkey dismissed the elected mayors of the Van, Amed (Diyarbakır) and Mardin metropolitan areas, supposedly within the framework of norms, without any justification. The report prepared by the Interior Ministry concerning this anti-democratic move was replete with anger mixed with subjectivity and intuitions. This aggressive and impulsive move indeed indicated some weakness, hopelessness and, of course, expectation of unearned income. As our ancestors say, “the goat being close to die eats the shepherd’s bread.”

The report concerning the dismissal of these elected officials mentioned the charge of “being related to terror” using all sorts of different phrasing. There is an Armenian proverb, “The bear has 7 songs, all of them are related to honey.” The Supreme Election Board (YSK) recently approved these mayors, but the Interior Ministry now is accusing them of being “terrorists” or supporting terrorist organizations. The Turkish state is affected with delirium. Perhaps the administrative organs of the state are implementing a tactical scenario to trap the individual. There is “administrative corrosion”. Just as an ocean, by acidifying, poses a threat to life, the Turkish state has also begun to threat its citizens by becoming calcareous and rusty with each passing day. The power is drowned in the crisis of “sedimentation”. It is evolving into a structure that promises its citizens only servitude or slavery (Turkish: taabbud). The citizenship process, that is, “the consensual life of an individual on a piece of land” is dying.

We have already witnessed how the trustees exploited the local administrations that they had seized from the elected representatives of the people – in many cases, accounting records tell this tale in detail. For example, we all know how Cumali Atilla, who was appointed as trustee to Diyarbakır Municipality in 2016, and his wife Lütfiye Atilla siphoned off the public budget. Under his rule, the luxury office room was constructed for 2 million lira (c. $350,000). Reportedly 1,600 kilograms of the Turkish dessert kadayıf were purchased. 92,000 lira (c. $16,000) was spent on coffee cup sets, 112,000 lira (c. $20,000) on a table, and another 255,000 lira (c. $45,000) on food. The same approach to public expenditure was followed in Mardin. The Governor of Mardin, Mustafa Yaman, for three-months of “hospitality” and for AKP’s ministers, who came to the city with the aim of election work, spent 1,588,000 lira (c. $300.000) from the budget of the municipality. Another “public service” of the trustee was to buy nuts and coffee for 165,000 lira (c. $30.000). The question of what kind of relationship there is between trustee and the firm, Artukbey Kuruyemiş, where the products were bought. Engelsiz Yaşam Parkı, built for disabled people. was given to this firm for 49 years. Turkey’s Interior Minister, Süleyman Soylu, visited Mardin on 19 January 1919 and under the “service fee”, 247,000 lira (approx. $40,000) were spent by the municipal budget. This minister, who claims to be very sensitive about the justice, seems to regard this sizable expenditure as normal. The organized, meticulously planned exploitation of local resources represents a sad stage in the state’s approach to the Kurdish question that indicates how much the system of local administration has been usurped. In a sense, the municipal budgets have been pilfered to serve as the “bell ringers” of the church of power. Instead of investigating the corruption, debauchery and the embezzlement in the municipalities, and how the supposedly patriotic trustees use the homeland for their own individual interests, the mayors elected by the citizens face unyielding pressure. It is once again seen that the “adulteration (Turkish: tağşiş)” has become a model associated with the Erdogan’s palace. In their mind, appointing a trustee means to steal the budget of the municipalities and the public assets.

The “trustee invasion” has also targeted the Kurdish language. Just as Georgian author Shota Rustaveli said, it was an overwhelming drop of the pain fallen into the heart of the Kurdish people. The “official treatment”, to which the school “Zarokîstana Xalxalok” provided the Kurdish education in Kayapınar district of Diyarbakır, was subjected, is in fact the clearest indicator of the pathological position of the dominant paradigm with respect to the Kurdish question. The school’s employees were dismissed by the trustee Mustafa Kılıç, Turkish language was made the language of instruction, and the school was assigned to the office of mufti to be converted into a center for Qur’an courses. We have once again witnessed how more secular fascism together with Islamist practice forms a Turkish nationalist-Islamist synthesis. There is always an abandonment of democracy in the book of destiny (Ottoman Turkish: lehv-i mahfuz) of the conservative and chauvinist logic. As the saying goes, “a leopard never changes its spots.”

The attack on the Kurdish language continues throughout the country. Another shocking example can be found in Van, where the Karşıyaka cemetery once displayed a sign in both the Kurdish and Turkish languages. The Kurdish text, which read “Qebrîstana Karşiyaka”, was removed replaced with a sign that says, in Turkish, “every soul will taste the death”. What is the meaning of replacing a sign in the mother tongue of the people of a region with such a statement? It is a clear message to Kurds that they have no choice but to live under the state’s authority. Elsewhere in Van, Fatma Tokat Kurdish Language School in the Ipekyolu district was subject to trustee administration.

In a short, the Islamist regime in Turkey, which acts as an occupying and destructive power, is making itself a relic of the past. As it is known, “any movement that doesn’t keep people’s hope alive is doomed to the extinction”.

Disclaimer: The views, opinions, and positions expressed by authors and contributors do not necessary reflect those of the WKI.