Erdogan and the Perforated Identity
News:
Turkish President Erdoğan said: "The dawn of a great and powerful Turkey is breaking today with the entry of the scourge of terrorism into its final stage, starting from yesterday, as the scourge of terrorism, which has lasted for 47 years, has entered its final stage, God willing. Today is a new day and a new page has been opened in history. Today, the doors of a great and powerful Turkey have been opened wide." He added, "When hearts unite, borders disappear, and as a first step, we will establish a parliamentary committee to begin discussing the legal requirements for the disarmament process of the organization in question." He affirmed that: "The government will focus on its core tasks and mobilize resources not to combat terrorism, but for the development and prosperity of Turkey. Turkey has won, and the Turks, Kurds, Arabs, and every single one of our 86 million citizens have won."
Politicians and observers had gathered to attend a symbolic weapons burning ceremony, which was held in the ancient Kazin Cave near the town of Sulaymaniyah in Iraq, where about 30 men and women from the armed group placed their weapons in a large cauldron that was later set on fire, and PKK fighters announced in a statement their intention to continue (the struggle for freedom) through (democratic policies and legal means).
The Kurdish leader, Ocalan, had urged the Turkish Parliament to form a committee to manage the broader peace process, especially with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which was founded by Ocalan in 1978 and has been waging a war against the Turkish state for decades to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.
Comment:
Erdogan's statement: "Today is a new day and a new page has been opened in history. Today, the doors of a great and powerful Turkey have been opened wide," indicates that the racism represented by national affiliation, praising the Turkish element, and focusing on the Turkish identity, with its neglect of the remaining ethnic components such as Arabs and Kurds, will make the bond between Muslims based on instinctive rather than intellectual foundations, and that the state being strengthened is a state for the Turks only, while others are second class and must be loyal to the Turks. This - without a doubt - fuels conflict and does not stop between the ethnicities and components that live within Anatolia.
Thus, the national problem of the Kurds has not been resolved at all, as they still insist on continuing the struggle for freedom through democratic policies and legal means, as they have not been treated like the Turks, and nationalities have not been equalized under the hegemony of one over the others.
From this standpoint, the Kurds refuse to assimilate into society in Turkey because they are characterized by a second nationality, they are not Turks, and the Arabs who live in Turkey also do not agree with Erdogan's proposal for a single Turkish state as a homeland for all, because they are Arabs and not Turks.
It would have been correct and legitimate for Erdogan not to adopt the idea of Turkish identity and to replace it with Islamic identity, and not to call for the dominance of the national state with Turkish ethnicity over all other nationalities, but rather he should have proposed the idea of an Islamic bond that includes everyone on an equal footing, without distinction between Turkish, Kurdish, and Arab. The Islamic faith is the faith of every Muslim, whether Kurdish, Turkish, or Arab, and there is no difference between Muslims except in piety, for piety is the measure, not nationality, and faith is the basis, not the national bond with its ignorant chauvinism.
Erdogan's call to build a great Turkish state is an ignorant call and a flawed claim, and he should have replaced it with the bond of Islam as a creed from which a system emanates, which is the only correct bond based on the creed of Islam, which is in accordance with the innate nature, and based on reason, not to adhere to the decadent ignorant national bond that depends on animal instincts and bestial hungers.
Written for the Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir
Ahmed Al-Khatwani