Ismail Beşikçi was born in 1939, in Çorum to Turkish, Sunni-Hanafi parents. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science at Ankara University in 1962. He performed his military service in Bitlis. In Şemdinli and Yüksekova he had the chance to closely observe the life of the Kurdish people.
Following the completion of his military service, he worked as a civil servant in Tunceli for a short period of time. In 1965, he started his PhD studies on the social structure of the Alikan Tribe. During the field study, he lived with the nomadic Kurdish tribe for 7 months.
In 1967, he also took part in the open-air meetings organized by the Workers Party of Turkey known as “The Eastern Meetings” and he published his observations under the title, “The Institution of the Sheikh and the Agha (Landowner) in the East of Turkey”, offering independent and powerful analyses, that also required a lot of courage to voice regarding the conditions in Turkey at the time.
In his work, he addressed the status quo: “You may state as many times as you wish that there is no distinction to be made between Turkish and Kurdish, and assert that everyone living on this country’s land is Turkish; still you will never manage to conceal a clear and certain sociological fact. Claim as many times as you like that Kurdish does not exist as a proper language, and that it is a mixture of Turkish, Arabic and Persian; still you will not change a sociological fact… Covering up such facts, in the long run, will always lead to damaging and disadvantageous consequences for our country.”
In 1968, informed upon by a colleague at Erzurum Atatürk University, the process of his discharge from the university was triggered. Accused with Marxist propaganda and regionalism, his classes were cancelled. However, he continued his visits and observations in the East. In 1969, he published “The Order of Eastern Anatolia: Social-Economic and Ethnic Foundations”, one of the most significant works in the history of social sciences in Turkey. Following the publication of the book, his ties with the university were severed.
He was arrested soon after the 12 March 1971 military coup d’état and was sent to the Diyarbakır Military Prison. He has been imprisoned eight times in all, and in total has spent 17 years of his life behind bars. He was released following the legal restructuring of 1999. He has published 36 books on the Kurdish issue, 32 of which have faced various bans in Turkey.
Despite facing oppression and persecution from the status quo, he became the voice of truth and took great risk for what he believed was right at a time when the word “Kurdish” could not be pronounced in daily life, and even the existence of the Kurdish people was denied.
Since the day he understood the social and political character of the Kurdish Issue, he has been tirelessly seeking a solution. Throughout his life, he has been subjected to torture, threats and maltreatment, however he refuses to be silenced, and continues his work. So that society can confront its problems, he carries out his research, he writes books, he sustains the struggle, and he continues to transform.
The Esteemed Chair of the International Hrant Dink Foundation,
Esteemed Members of the Jury,
The Esteemed Chairman of the Award Committee,
Distinguished Guests...
I greet you all with love.
I salute the memory of Hrant Dink with love.
I am greatly graced and honoured by your presentation to me of the 2012 International Hrant Dink Award.
An award always comes with a certain responsibility. I will try to shoulder this responsibility. Thank you.
I would like to take this opportunity to make a brief assessment of the term, the Near East. The Near East is a term used since the Byzantine Period. The Byzantine Empire had divided the land east of Istanbul into three parts: the Near East, the Middle East and the Far East. The term Near East covered regions such as Anatolia, Pontus and Lazistan in the Black Sea Region, Cappadocia, Armenia, Kurdistan, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, and Tur Abdin. The term Anatolia covered a region we today call the Aegean Region; in fact, a small part of the Aegean Region. The Middle East covered a region extending from Egypt to India, from the Arctic Ocean to the Oman Ocean. Iran lay between the Near East and the Middle East. The Far East comprised geographical regions such as China, Manchuria, Korea, Japan and Indonesia.
The Near East has been destroyed by those who came from far away lands. The native people of the Near East, the Pontian Greeks, the Armenians, the Assyrians, the Laz people, and the Êzidî Kurds... were destroyed by those who came from far away lands. I would like to briefly focus on how this historical process unfolded.
The Committee of Union and Progress had devised a plan to reorganize the Ottoman Empire on the basis of Turkish ethnic identity. The nationalization of the Ottoman economy was a further significant target. The Committee envisaged an empire that extended from the Adriatic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Yet, this would be a Turkish Empire. Greeks, Armenians and the other Christian people presented significant obstacles for the execution of this project. The status of people who were Islam but not Turkish, such as the Kurds, was also important. The status of Qizilbashs (Alevis) who were Turkish or Kurdish, but not Muslim, was also taken into consideration.
The Committee of Union and Progress attached great importance to and developed this project in both their open and secret meetings. Following the Empire’s defeat at the Balkan War, they focused on the project in an even more determined manner. They developed detailed plans and programs. ‘Doctor’ Nazım, Ziya Gökalp and Bahaettin Şakir assumed significant roles in this project. The Pontian, Cappadocian and Aegean Greeks would be forced into exile to the Aegean islands and to Greece. The Armenian population would be decomposed under the guise of forced migration. Kurds would be assimilated into Turkishness, and the Qizilbashs into Islam. Similar policies would be implemented towards other Christian people like the Syriacs, and also towards the Êzidî Kurds. The wealth and immovable properties of the Greeks who would be forced into exile and the Armenians who would be perished through genocide would be confiscated and presented to the supervision of Muslim Turkish notables.
The First World War presented the Committee with the opportunity it sought. The moment the war began, the exile of the Pontian Greeks began, and within the first year of the war, the Armenian population was subjected to genocide under the guise of “forced migration”. The remaining two issues were systematically dealt with during the Republican period by governments that were the continuation of the Committee of Union and Progress. A huge, widespread looting opeation took place of the immovable properties left behind by Armenians and Greeks. This was how the Ottoman economy, or the Turkish economy was nationalized. This is a very significant aspect of the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey.
Today, the source of the wealth of the haute bourgeoisie is Armenian properties, and Greek properties. In Kurdish areas, the source of the wealth of Kurdish aghas, tribe leaders and sheiks is again Armenian and Syriac properties.
This was how the Near East was destroyed. The Germans provided intensive support to the Committee in the destruction of the Near East. Germany was of course defeated in World War I, but in 1919-1920, during the period of the League of Nations, imperial states of the period such as Great Britain and France also played a significant role in the destruction of the Near East.
The status and position of the Kurds during this process must be addressed in two stages. The main rule was to assimilate the Kurds into Turkishness. First, the members of the Union and Progress and later, the members of the Kuva-yi Milliye (the Kemalists) used the Kurds as triggermen in the destruction of the Armenians and the Assyrians. “The Lausanne Conference on Near Eastern Affairs” became the last instance the term Near East was officially used in an international document. Anatolia became a term denoting the Asian lands of the Republic of Turkey. When the Republic of Turkey was founded and the Treaty of Lausanne provided international recognition to the sovereignty of the new state, the denial and destruction of the Kurds began, and continues to this day.
Politicians sometimes apologize. Apologies never solve any problem. The only way to overcome these problems is to carry out serious research and investigation on the period. All these problems are related; the Kurdish issue is related to the Armenian issue. How are they related? The immovable properties of Armenians in Bitlis,Muş, Diyarbakır, Siirt and the region were confiscated by Kurdish aghas and tribes. Therefore, in order to keep these properties, they of course said ‘yes’ to the state’s official position. Whatever the state says regarding political and social issues, you say ‘yes’ because you have looted those properties. And if you do not say ‘yes’, it goes without saying that the state will not allow you to keep those properties. Therefore, these issues are both the cause and effect of each other. Individuals who will help social awareness and historical awareness grow amongst the people will engender a better understanding, and people will consciously abstain from harming each other.
If a nation becomes a target of partition, disintegration and divided rule by other nations during a certain period in history, then that nation fails to gather itself anew in the aftermath. The Armenians, like the Kurds, suffer from such a problem. Ottoman Armenia and Russian Armenia broke the might of Armenians. Between Iran, the Ottoman Empire and Russia, the Armenians failed to form a union. Today, we see the Kurds. They have a population of around forty million in the Middle East, but they have no international political status. They are separated by minefields, barbed wire and watchtowers. And the status quo seeks to spread and deepen this division and disintegartion.
We can overcome all this through research. Freedom of expression is of paramount importance in this regard. Freedom of expression is the main indicator of a modern, civilized society or state. New roads, dams, factories, big buildings are not the indicator of modern civilisation. If freedom of expression and free and independent criticism have become institutionalized in a certain society, then there is no official ideology in that society. An official ideology is the greatest obstacle in front of democracy. The institutionalization of freedom of expression shows that society, or the state, have nothing to feel guilty about. The institutionalization of freedom of expression means the absence of corruption, fraud and bribery. Or, a strong reaction and due judicial process in the event that they do take place.
There is intense pressure over the social sciences in Turkey. In the 1940s, Behice Boran and Niyazi Berkes were among those who suffered under oppression. In the 1970s, Oya Baydar and her friends faced similar operations. And today, young researchers such as Pınar Selek and Müge Tuzcuoğlu are facing similar tactics of oppression. Müge has been under arrest in Diyarbakır Prison since March 2012. What did Müge do? She cared for the children of families whose villages were burned down and destroyed. She worked with the Sarmaşık Association (The Association for Sustainable Development and the Struggle Against Poverty) and with Göç-Der (Social Assistance and Cultural Association of Migrants and Displaced People). Of course, to be involved with such issues also means to ask, ‘how did the unresolved murders take place, how were the villages burned down, how were these families victimized?’ You have land in your village, and you have water, too; but you are not allowed to use them, you are forced to live the life of a victim in the slums of the big cities. These are all topics that the state, the government do not want us to talk about. This is why freedom of expression is restricted. To prevent people from talking about the truths, and to prevent the emergence of an awareness around these issues...
In Turkey, the judiciary does not take social dynamics or social demands into account. They apply excessive criminal sanctions in such cases. I wish that from now on the judiciary in Turkey takes these values into account, and adopts not a prohibitive stance, but a stance that will encourage organization and development of such dynamics and demands.
I respectfully salute you all.
And I once again salute the memory of Hrant Dink with love.