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December 20, 2007
Why Turks Love Conspiracy Theories (II)
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Are you on Facebook? I am. It is not just a good social networking Web site used to catch up with friends and classmates, but it is also a good source to feed my personal and amateurish "paranoia watch" project. The groups created on Facebook by its Turkish users give a sense of the psychology among some of them who are impressively Internet-savvy yet desperately out of touch with reality.
One such Facebook group that I was invited to join a few weeks ago had a pretty blunt title: "BCC is a terrorist organization!" I wondered how in the world a media source such as the BBC, which is known for be ind sound and objective, would be defined as such. It took a few seconds to realize that the folks who created this group – and other ones which present maps of a “Greater Turkey” that is two times of its current size – were infuriated by the way the BBC refers to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK. When reporting about the guerrillas of this terrorist group, the bête noire of almost all Turks, the BBC uses the terms "fighters" or "militants" instead of “terrorists.” This, according to the Turkish Facebook vigilantes, proves that the BCC supports terrorism, and that therefore it is itself a “terrorist organization.”
Why do they hate, really?
Breathtaking reasoning, right? What is more impressive is that this logic dominates not only the Internet fringe, but also some mainstream TVs or papers in Turkey which passionately make “news” about the fact that the BBC or other international media sources refer to the PKK members as “fighters,” but not “terrorists.” Had they looked at how the BBC refers to other terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda or ETA, they would see that the same language applies to them, too, and that this is an international media standard of impartiality. Yet they are rather inclined to think that “Western powers” have created and supported the PKK, and they are ready to misinterpret everything according to that assumption.
But why? Why do so many Turks believe that the PKK is created and supported by “Western powers”?
Because this has always been the official explanation. The state never accepted that the origin of the PKK lies in Turkey's Kurdish question. Except a few brave figures, officials never acknowledged that the PKK started its terrorist campaign against Turkey, because the state alienated a great deal of its Kurdish citizens by banning their culture and language.
In other words, Turkey's official line never frankly answered one of the crucial questions that one should ask in the face of terrorism: Why do they hate us? This question was hardly asked, and when it was, the answer was something like this: “They hate us because they are traitors who are hired by imperialists which want to enslave our nation.”
Whereas the real answer, I believe, should be something like this: They hate us partly because of the fact that we have suppressed them. They also have a fanatic ideology based on ethnic nationalism and Stalinistic communism, which makes the matters much worse. We should fight against their aggression, but at the same time, try to mend the harm we have caused by our wrong policies. We should also work hard to reach out to Kurds who are traumatized by those policies but do not necessarily buy into the fanatic ideology of the terrorists.
Some lessons for the US
Well, this is the Turkish scene. The belief in conspiracy theories here blocks people from asking the right questions about our problems, and then trying to find solutions.
In fact, the best thing you can do about a problem is to change your attitude which has contributed to its making. Because your attitude is the only variable in the equation on which you have total control. When you reject to do that, and generally you do that because you are too arrogant to accept that you might have erred, what you do instead is to put the blame totally on the other side. You say that your enemies are essentially evil, and thus the only way to deal with them is annihilation. “We will kill all the PKK terrorists one by one,” a Turkish general once put it, “until they are finished.” Of course they are never “finished,” because you continue to create new ones by the resentment you constantly provoke.
If you are an American, or someone who reflects on American foreign policy, you might have taken a hint from all this. And I think you should. Because there are same stark parallelisms between the ways Turkish hawks see the PKK and American hawks see Islamist terrorists. Both have an “essentialist” view about their enemy: They hate us because we are good and they are evil. We could not possibly have made something wrong in order to provoke their hatred. They in fact hate our virtues. This is the same line of thinking that arrogance creates in Ankara or Washington. No wonder they also lead to similar disastrous results.
Don't get me wrong: I am not a naive pacifist who believes that love and tolerance will save the world. Terrorism is a security threat and it needs military responses. But those responses can only deal with the tip of the iceberg. Unless you deal with the social and political problems that lie beneath, and do that frankly by questioning yourself, you can't solve the problem. The icebergs will multiply, and at some point might even get you shipwrecked.
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at December 20, 2007 9:48 AM
A couple of points to comment on…
The map of Greater Turkey on facebook. I can see why you see the ‘internet savvy’ Turks who posted the map as detached from reality. What I question is if this was meant to reflect reality or an aspiration. It seems aspiration.
I googled Greater Turkey Map. The results were few. Indeed, most of them pointed to that page on facebook or forums about it. On the other hand, I googled ‘Greater Armenia’ to find maps encompassing Turkish, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Iranian, even iraki territory. Believe it or not, some Armenians have even started a greater Armenia wikiproject on wikipedia with this expanded territory covered with an Armenian flag as a description.
Maps of Kurdistan on Kurdish websites do not aknowledge Turkish, Iranian and Syrian sovereignty. I could also use the example of Cyprus represented as a whole on its flag despite the entire world knowing that greek Cypriots to not control and will not IN ANY WAY the north of the island. The reality there is two countries, not one.
It seems that the Middle East is full of territorial fantasists but the Turks in majority do not fall in this category. On the other hand, we can say that territorial fantasies prevail as state policy in Greek Cyprus, prevail within the Armenian diaspora and prevail within kurdish politics.
May I add, It may also be these kind of fantasist maps which pushes Turks to these conspiracy theories. Are we to believe that these are just attempts to anger Turks or can we notice any kind of political or even violent forces behind such maps? Common sense would tell us that these maps are used for more than decoration and are took seriously by some Greeks, Armenians and Kurds.
In regards to the BBC…
I’m afraid you have been mistaken in regards to terminology. The words ‘rebels’, ‘fighters’ or ‘militants’ have never been used for al qaida. Never. Al Qaida is designated by the BBC as terrorist. The BBC calls Al Qaida ‘islamic terrorists’ or at best simple ‘terrorist’. Rightfully so too. There is no neutral language to be spoken here.
On the other hand, the PKK are not called ‘kurdish terrorists’ but Kurdish ‘rebels’ with all the words positive connotations. The BBC are not a terrorist organisation but they indeed glorify the PKK by designating it as such. This indirectly shows support for it. I do not think the BBC realise the seriousness and insult in what they do. It is indeed very irresponsible of them. Despite the hundreds of complaints, the BBC has also failed to amend this. The BBC is playing politics instead of just reporting.
I think you need to go deeper into the subject than your present analysis…
‘There is no smoke without fire’. I suggest that these conspiracy theories would not exist had there been nothing to encourage their growth…
Posted by: Ceyhan at December 23, 2007 7:16 AM
It is interesting how facebook is used by people with different moral imaginations. Its quite cute to observe the moral policing and reproduction of cultural programming in the behaviour of the web elites of the east.
Your point about conspiracy theory and attitude change as all we can do is wise but still depressing!
salaam
Posted by: fugstar at December 24, 2007 10:04 AM
The Kurds have always had their freedoms, they are not suppressed. Just because they weren't able to open a TV station of their own language or unable to talk Kurdish in school didn't mean they were suppressed. In fact, if I talk French or Spanish in an American school, I guarantee you many teachers will tell me to speak English. This is simply a matter of communication, and whether you're talking Turkish or Kurdish, you are still communicating. Now with modern laws the Kurds have full freedom to do whatever they want. However, let's look at American history when African-Americans had extremely limited roles as well. Martin Luther King, protested the government and even spent some time in jail just ~45 years ago. He protested peacefully, and he succeeded in approving rights and laws that gave his people their civil liberties. Now, the PKK, is out there killing the innocent, blowing up touristic areas, killing anyone that is Turkish, or anyone that is Kurdish but supports the Turks.
The Kurds currently have their freedoms, you cannot undo the hate that the PKK has, because they do not have hate--- what they have is nationalism driving artificial hate toward a common enemy, The Turks. Their goal is a great Kurdistan, not unlike how those facebook people have made a "Greater Turkey" they have made a "Greater Kurdistan", just like the Armenians dream of "Greater Armenia" to this day. So you see, conspiracy theories are not a genetic trait of Turks as you so ridiculously imply, but a sociological response to events in society that is perfectly normal, otherwise, everyone would be sheep. Greater Kurdistan is the dream of PKK, and it doesn't matter if the Turkish government drops candy and money from the helicopters they will not put down their arms and surrender and hug the Turks.
You are right, violence creates more terrorists, but sometimes it stops it as well, but of course you don't seem like someone who would do his research before writing an article so that's fine I guess. They want a piece of land, Al-Qaeda wants America to stop helping Israel, and wants Israel to get out of the Middle East, the Chechnyans want an independent state. The proper way to deal with terrorism is to attack the terrorism while helping the people and showing Kurds around the Middle East that the Turkish government is here to eliminate violence not to provoke it. You bomb 15 terrorist camps, build 5 schools for Kurdish children in South Eastern Anatolia.
--- Next, onto your BBC conspiracy theory idea. The BBC does declare many terrorist organizations as "militant" or "rebels" instead of using "terrorist" as a word. However, I have heard them call Al-Qaeda "terrorist" on several occasions, so you're dead wrong again. Also, the BBC may not be a terrorist organization, and the Turks on Facebook are not implying that, they are saying that they support terrorism by making statements like these, and they have a point. Every time you call a known terrorist a rebel, it gives them motivation and the feeling of righteousness.
If you kill the innocent and civilians, you are a terrorist and have left the freedom-fighter club. Especially since Turkey has given freedoms to its Kurds, there is no reason to rebel against Turkey anymore. Everyone should be allowed the opportunity for forgiveness. This is why the Turkish government offers amnesty to terrorists who surrender, this is the political aspect of fighting terrorism, and the Turkish government is by far the leader in fighting terrorism.
Dealing with terrorism is like dealing with an irritating child. You have to show the punishment for bad deeds but ALSO the reward for good ones. This is what the Turkish government does and people like you and your nasty opinions that do nothing but convince naive minded individuals that your way is the right way-- just get off your high horse.
Posted by: JohnPatton at January 7, 2008 10:16 AM
As an Armenian, I detest the fact that people blame the Turks for an Armenian Genocide, but completely forget that most massacres of Armenians were committed by the Kurds. The Kurds are a people who have always sought freedom but crushed other people to get it.
The Turks offered Kurds citizenship of Turkey--- Even Barzani/Talabani were given Turkish Citizenship, and they used it to attack Turkey. What absurdity!
Posted by: Armenian Genocide at March 8, 2008 7:44 AM
"Now with modern laws the Kurds have full freedom to do whatever they want."
Lol!
Just today, Sirri Sakik was ensued: Because he wanted a glass of water in Kurdish...
Kurds are free, bla bla bla..
What a crap!
Armenian Genocide dude,
You are anything but not Armenian.
Posted by: Cenk at March 8, 2008 9:37 PM
It is kind of silly for you to make a joke out of the real Kurdish freedoms that the Kurds have in Modern Turkey. They are treated as Turkish citizens and given Turkish passports. Kurds speak Kurdish freely everywhere in Turkey, and when I last visited I met many Kurds who found Turkey to be quite democratic, and spoke Kurdish freely amongst themselves.
Ask a real Turkish Kurd, instead of relying on Kurdish propagandists and terrorists who live in Northern Iraq and make up stories about oppression that doesn't exist except maybe in Iran.
The Armenian Genocide is a mislabel that misrepresents the detailed and complex history of the Armenian and Turkish massacres conducted by local Muslims and Armenian revolutionary organizations. Read more here:
Armenian Genocide
Posted by: Armenian Genocide at March 19, 2008 8:14 AM
Mr.Patton, once again I could not refrain from answering and pointing on some of the things you state in your comment.
"The Kurds have always had their freedoms, they are not suppressed. Just because they weren't able to open a TV station of their own language or unable to talk Kurdish in school didn't mean they were suppressed."
I would like to see you, Sir, growing up in a land where that which is nothing but you MOTHER tongue, is completely banned for the official uses, the Mass Media and the education system. Then we could start talking about suppression and freedom. This is just about having a bit of empathy (plus knowing a bit about basic human rights before talking).
"Their goal is a great Kurdistan"
How are they even trying to build a "great" Kurdistan if there's NOT single piece of land in the earth called the country of Kurdistan. This is nonsense!!
Posted by: joe at April 29, 2008 3:57 PM
Mr. joe,
You cannot simply teach anything in ANY class in the world, it has to be educational, it has to be approved by a school board, and lastly, it has to be accepted by general society. If I wanted to make a class on UFOs and scientific UFO research in America, they will not allow me, is that an oppression of my human rights?
Last I checked, Kurdish is not an official language of Turkey, therefore why should anyone force Turkey to teach Kurdish in Turkish schools? If you want to teach Kurdish, open up your own private school and teach it there.
Banning a language from official uses is nothing new and has been done by Europe as well as the rest of the world. After all, language is a form of communication, I don't go out and complain to the United States government where I live that Turkish is not being taught in American schools. I don't complain about how Hinduism or Buddhism is not taught in my American school.
Teaching your language in a country in which the majority does not speak your language, is not a basic human right.
No country in the world can provide all human rights. Otherwise, I'd be allowed to walk naked anywhere in the world without anyone objecting, because it is a human right.
Armenian Genocide
Posted by: Armenian Genocide at May 24, 2008 6:48 AM