In Turkey, there is a significant Kurdish population that lives primarily in the southeast. For years, the people of Turkey have subjected that Kurdish population to unjust treatment, discrimination and acts of hatred.
I recently returned from a one-month study abroad program in Turkey. While overseas, I witnessed the discrimination and hatred that is rife in Turkish society.
My experiences prompted me to write this column, which is the second of a three-part series documenting the human rights issues facing Turkey.
The discrimination that I witnessed against Kurds is nothing new to Turkish society.
Seven-hundred-thousand Kurds were forced to deport from their homeland to Turkey during World War I in what The Journal of Genocide Research describes as a “death march.” Almost half of the 700,000 died, the report says.
In 1991, The New York Times reported on the reluctance of the Turkish government from helping Kurdish war refugees in Turkey. “The government would be showing a greater effort if these were not Kurds,” a Turkish citizen told The Times.
And today, the Kurdish people, most of whom are Turkish citizens, are subjected to the same treatment.
While I was in Turkey, I spoke to a young man who grew up in a Kurdish town near the Turkish/Syrian border. He was not Kurdish, but he spoke Kurdish, and he and his family identified with the Kurdish people and its culture.
As a young boy, he witnessed his town being pillaged and burnt and watched his uncle gets stabbed to death.
And last — but certainly not least — the current Turkish constitution does not allow Kurds to speak their language or gather for cultural events, Time Magazine reported.
“Updating the constitution would allow more freedom of speech and protect the rights of the minorities like the Kurds, 14 million strong, who live in the southeastern part of the country,” Rana Foroohar wrote in Time Magazine.
The sad thing is that this anti-Kurdish sentiment is engrained in Turkish society. It’s not just a few extremists committing these execrable acts.
Until the Turkish people and government recognize the intolerance that exists in their own minds and resolve to make changes, these testimonies will continue and these people will continue to be hurt.
Some may argue that the Turkish Kurdish population is not exempt from exploiting acts of violence. In fact, the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) is responsible for killing more than 40 Turkish soldiers in July and August.
Certainly, these acts are abominable. But after nearly a hundred years of oppression, can we really blame them?
When my Dad was a young boy, he witnessed the forced internment of hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans after the Pearl Harbor attack.
I was seven years old when he first told me the chilling stories of families forced to leave their homes and live in less than adequate living conditions surrounded by guards.
The account was harrowing, but I dismissed it as a thing of the past. That was his generation. My generation was better, smarter and more humane.
Now I’m beginning to question. Are we?
Reach the columnist at eeeaton@asu.edu.
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