Agos, 23 June 2006

I need only to say a few words about the Kurdish Issue. The extreme nationalist press will not waste a moment to seize on this golden opportunity, and will cry out in defiance with headlines like, “Look at the insolent Armenian. Now he’s trying to lecture the Kurds.”

Now, ‘lecturing the Kurds’ would frankly exceed my personal capabilities. But that’s not all. In my view, it would also represent a condescending attitude that would go against my principles.

I cannot lecture the Kurds, but I can demand them to act sensibly. This is my right, my duty and my responsibility.

Because I know from the experiences I have inherited from history that if they put their reason aside and act only with their emotions, then they will fall into the trap of those who are dragging them towards a fearsome precipice. And then, it won’t only be the Kurds that lose, but I, and all the people of Turkey, all Iranians, all Syrians and all Iraqis will lose too.

I would first like to underline the following:

The fundamental method of speaking to the Kurds is to put yourself in their place. It is not ethical to talk about the Kurdish Issue if we do not resort to this method, and nor is it fair.

Therefore, the question, “What would you do if you were a Kurd?” is highly significant.

Consciously maintaining a focus on and frequently remembering this question will force us to look at the problem from the inside, as if we were Kurds, and only then will we be able to comprehend the real dimensions of the problem.

No doubt the equivalent of “What would you do if you were a Turk?” can be reciprocally applied to the Kurds, and requires a similar, empathic outlook. Indeed, for a Kurd to remain a Kurd they must have the ability to occasionally become a Turk, just as for a Turk to remain a Turk, they must have the ability to occasionally become a Kurd.

***

It is also possible, of course, to look at the Kurdish Issue neither as a Turk nor as a Kurd!

For instance, you may be an Armenian like me and feel the necessity to put yourself in shoes of both Turks and Kurds and look at the problem from both perspectives.

And of course, that is not enough either… You also have to look at the problem as an Armenian. But the danger of looking at the problem as an Armenian is clear from the outset.

“No surprises there,” they’ll say, “In any case, he wouldn’t wish the Turks or the Kurds well. He’s probably secretly happy about this conflict. He hasn’t forgotten what the Turks and the Kurds did to his forefathers in the past. He’s probably thinking that they’re paying the price for it!”

Yes, I know that I face an uphill struggle from the outset if I, an Armenian, wish to address the Kurdish Issue. But this is not going to deter me, so without delay I will go on to say what I would have otherwise left for last.

I do not hold the slightest grudge against the Turkish people or the Kurdish people because of what happened in the past. And as for my greatest wish, it is that these two peoples should not split apart from each other, and that tragedies of the sort that we have experienced in the past are not repeated today.

***

Today, when I imagine myself in the Kurds’ position, I find that I understand them very well, because my people have walked the paths they are walking today.

Today, when I imagine myself in the Kurds’ position, I find that I understand them very well, because my people have walked the paths they are walking today.

I know very well the ‘nationalism of an oppressed nation’ that is produced by the ‘nationalism of an oppressor nation’. Over the past two centuries, this land has already witnessed the same type of debates taking place, with my people at the centre.

We should never forget how the oppression and force of the nationalism of the oppressor causes the nationalism of the oppressed to lose its mind, nor should we forget the kind of errors that are committed as a result, and the repercussions of those errors.

It is exactly the same game that is being repeated today.

The nationalists of the oppressor nation are creating, through their oppression and force, a nationalism of the oppressed. They then try to legitimize their oppressive nationalism by using the existence of this nationalism of the oppressed as a pretext.

Just look at the refined or unrefined polemicists of Turkish nationalism. They are using the same strategy they used in the past. They provoke, but all the while constantly talking about provocations against Turkish nationalism.

***

The Kurds should not fall into this trap.

The Kurdish people who live in the lands of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey are experiencing a course of events unprecedented in their history. With the Kurdish autonomy in Northern Iraq having now become a state structure, they believe that they have grasped an opportunity, a chance that they have never seen before.

Whether this will ultimately be seen as a piece of luck or misfortune depends not on fate, but entirely on the Kurds themselves.

And not only on the Kurdish leadership in Northern Iraq, but most significantly on the attitude of the Kurds who live in the border areas of its neighbours, Turkey, Iran and Syria.

Will Northern Iraq become a centre of conflict that draws in its compatriots, thereby creating internal unrest in neighbouring countries; or will it become a centre of peace that transmits the peace of its own existence over its borders via its compatriots living in neighbouring countries?

This is the fundamental problem faced by all Kurds, wherever they live, and the choice they make on this issue will be the sign of whether what has been achieved is a piece of luck, or a piece of misfortune.

After decades of suffering under the burden of the nationalism of an oppressive nation, the Kurds of Turkey are now experiencing deep-seated ruptures out of which rises a nationalism of the oppressed, and they must, more than ever, listen to the voice of reason.

At the point at which we have arrived, the Kurdish people have been forced into the mangle of nationalism, and they are being dragged down towards the precipice.

We, the people of Turkey, are extending a branch of redemption to the Kurdish people who stand at the edge of this precipice.

We say, “Come, let us support coexistence.”

Hold on to this branch, my dear Kurdish brothers and sisters.

Hold on to it…

Save yourself, and save us…