Fréderike Geerdink
In Turkey, only Kurds are ready for change. Even a live broadcast of Öcalan’s call on the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] to lay down arms and dissolve itself, couldn’t be done respectfully. Steps by the government are urgently needed, but to be honest, the road ahead is so incredibly long that it’s hard to see it leading anywhere. All the effort, all the lives given, all the sacrifices made, and still, Turkish society and politics refuse to move even one inch.
The broadcast I am referring to, was of Sözcü TV. Öcalan’s call had been awaited for many weeks, a momentum was created, and finally, the members of the Imralı delegation were sitting down during a very busy press conference to read out Öcalan’s letter. When veteran politician Ahmet Türk started to read out Öcalan’s letter in Kurdish, the sound was faded out and the presenter said that they only broadcast in the state’s official language and not in Kurdish, a language ‘nobody understands anyway’.
This is so incredibly racist. The mothertongue of millions of people, the mothertongue of the Kurdish leader who is making the call, the mothertongue of the person reading out the letter, the second language in Turkey: a language ‘nobody understands anyway’. There is hardly a better illustration of just how little progress has been made in Turkey at all.
Wise
It reminded me of the previous time Kurds had hope that their fundamental problems in Turkey would be solved, more than a decade ago. At the time, Öcalan’s call on the PKK to lay down its arms was read out before a crowd in Amed (Diyarbakır) – I was lucky to be there. After that, the government initiated a group of ‘wise people’, a group of dozens of intellectuals who would inform citizens in public meetings about what a Turkey without the conflict would look like. I attended one of the meetings in Amed. It was emotional, but very good, and a very first step towards reconciliation.
That peace process fell apart. Violence resumed and wisdom ended. While ever since the Kurdish movement has persisted to work within the framework of the state with a focus on a new chance for peace in the future, the state has persisted in keeping its citizens ignorant about the reality of the country they live in. Education hasn’t changed; children are still taught that Turks are supreme human beings, that blood must be given for the homeland and that the outside world can’t be trusted but is always out to divide and destroy the sacred homeland.
Clue
Turks surely couldn’t understand Ahmet Türk’s Kurdish version of Öcalan’s letter, but I’ll tell you what: they didn’t understand the Turkish version either. They could understand the words, but have no clue about their meaning. All the years that could have been invested in preparing the population for a future in freedom and equality and a country free of violence because political problems are solved politically and not militarily, were wasted.
Turkish media of course report on Öcalan’s message, but their stories are richly peppered with the word ‘terrorist’. They claim Öcalan’s call is the outcome of the state-initiated ‘terror-free Türkiye’ plan. While it is in fact the outcome of the progress the Kurdish movement is continuously making in its political thinking. While Öcalan acknowledges that the PKK’s decades-old decision to start the armed struggle must now be reversed (as he did in 2013 also), the state does not retrace its steps at all and keeps insisting on a military approach.
So how can citizens in Turkey ever begin to grasp what Öcalan means to say and what the Kurdish movement is struggling for? Instead of sincerely explaining Öcalan’s thinking and the concepts that shape it, or even educating people about very basic demands connected the universally acknowledged concept of the right to self-determination, media and politicians continue to simplistically refer to ‘terrorism’ as the core problem, instead of a lack of rights.
Scenarios
They meticulously prepare the public for their desired outcome. Either 1: the PKK guerrillas come down from the mountains very soon, hand over their weapons and Turkey will be ‘terror-free’ forever and happily ever after. Or 2: when the PKK doesn’t disarm very fast, make it seem as if Öcalan and the PKK leadership in the Qandil mountains disagree, and step up the violence against PKK and the repression against Kurdish politics. In both scenarios, Erdoğan plans to become president for the third time.
The Kurdish movement – and I mean Öcalan, the leadership in the mountains, and legal Kurdish politics – lives on a different planet than the Turkish state. I don’t see the two of them coming together and agree on a deal any time soon. The distance between the planets is huge. Öcalan is trying to bridge the gap, but for now, the state’s refusal to move and to inspire its population to move with it, seems very, very firm.
Fréderike Geerdink is an independent journalist. Follow her on Bluesky (or X) or subscribe to her acclaimed weekly newsletter Expert Kurdistan.
