Although we often use the terms “colonialism” and “genocide,” as a people we are weak in acting accordingly. The discovery of colonialism explains that we are an occupied people and that we have a problem of liberation and freedom. Genocide, on the other hand, reveals that we have a public reality that is meant to end physically and culturally.
The statement “Kurdistan is a colony” is the most important statement regarding the history of Kurdistan. What is historically significant is not making that determination, but making a decision in accordance with that determination and taking appropriate action. The PKK-led Kurdish revolution is beginning to struggle with this definition. When we are in Kurdistan, when there is colonialism in a political sense, hunger, unemployment, poverty and plunder in an economic sense, assimilation and genocide in a cultural sense, and occupation and annexation in a military sense, there must be an appropriate perspective of struggle and war to that ends. We define the sum of these as “genocide”. So what are the principles and antagonisms laid down in universal law for genocide? In the second part of our article, it will make more sense to give an introduction by highlighting this topic.
Genocides, another expression of genocide, derives from the combination of the Greek words “genos,” meaning “family, tribe, lineage, race,” and the Latin “cide,” meaning “cut, chop, kill.” genocide, also defined by the term genocide; It describes the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, religious, political, or ethnic group. Definition of genocide in world law: The United Nations defined the definition of genocide with the “Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” adopted in 1948.
Genocide is the continuation of the phenomenon of assimilation. It is a systematic policy aimed at the physical and cultural liquidation of peoples, nations, minorities, religious-denominational communities that are not accepted by the method of assimilation, brought to the desired level and not separated from their identity and culture. The method of physical genocide is generally applied to communities, peoples and cultural groups that are superior to the dominant culture, i.e. the nation-state culture, and cannot be dissolved through assimilation. Genocide of the Jewish people is an example of this.
Cultural genocide is mostly practiced against people, ethnic communities, and faith groups that are seen as weak compared to the ruling elite-dominated nation-state culture, who have failed to ensure their national integrity, and who are organizationally underdeveloped. The aim of cultural genocide is to completely liquidate the target community and dissolve it in the prevailing culture. The Kurds are an example of this.
Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent (1900-1959) who witnessed the Holocaust first hand, developed the concept of genocide and defined genocide. This definition formed the basis of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in International Law and is considered the standard in international law.
Lemkin defined the methods that can be counted as genocide into eight categories.
- Political Genocide: Implementation of measures to change the names of streets, avenues, settlements, districts and provinces in the region.
- Social Genocide: Intellectuals and the intellectuals of the group are specifically targeted; because as leaders of the group they are the intellectual organizers of the resistance.
- Cultural Genocide: Locals are forbidden to speak their language in schools and publish in their own language.
- Economic genocide: When the group is deprived of economic power, they aim to live only for survival, thus preventing the national group’s cultural development, reducing their ability to think and preventing them from dealing with national problems .
- Biological genocide: its aim is to reduce the group’s population and prevent births; On the other hand, the forced malnutrition of families and the lack of food leads to a decline in births, and the chances of survival of children born into malnourished families are seriously reduced.
- Physical Genocide: Three methods are used to cause physical weakness and even eliminate the group.
a) Racial Discrimination with Diet Restriction: For example, members of the group do not receive meat and protein restriction.
b) Serious health hazards: failure to administer medication, transporting members of the group from one place to another to perish in inhumane conditions.
c) Systematic annihilation (killing): Systematic killing of members of the group. The elimination of intellectuals is a priority practice; This shatters the organization of the resistance. - Religious Genocide: Prohibition of religion because it is believed to be effective in society, systematic destruction of churches.
- Moral genocide: Instead of pursuing a national project, take the group to simpler areas, accustom them to alcoholism and pacify them.
The United Nations benefited from Lemkin’s studies on the definition of genocide and issued a decision on the crime of genocide that went into effect on January 12, 1951. The genocidal framework established pursuant to this decision;
“Any of the following acts with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic or religious group constitutes the crime of genocide:
a) murder of members of the group;
b) Serious physical or mental harm to members of the group;
c) Deliberate alteration of the living conditions of the group which is likely to destroy the physical existence of the group in whole or in part;
d) take measures to prevent births within the group;
e) Compulsive transfer of children belonging to the group to another group. Within the framework of these decisions, the groups against which the crime of genocide was committed were identified as national, ethnic, religious, racial groups, stable and fixed groups, economic and social groups, language groups, sexual groups, the elderly, the physically or mentally handicapped categories.
According to the definition given, genocide: With intent to destroy, in whole or in part, any national, ethnic, racial or religious community; killing the members of the community, physically or mentally harming the members of the community, subjecting the community to living conditions that end their physical existence in whole or in part, preventing reproduction within the community; this covers the transfer of children from the community to another community. If any of these acts are committed, genocide is committed.
With this Convention, not only genocide but also attempted genocide, encouragement of individuals or society to attempt genocide, establishment of genocidal conspiracies and complicity in genocide are brought within the scope of criminal law. The Convention emphasizes that genocide can take place both in war and in peace. With the most brutal methods and weapons, the Turkish colonial system is committing even more serious and ever more extensive crimes against the Kurds in front of the whole world. The history of the establishment and development of the Turkish state is the history of genocidal crimes. The physical and cultural genocidal policy carried out by the Turkish state in Kurdistan consists of removing the Kurdish nation from its folk nation by two methods and liquidating it by making it the material raw material for Turkification. The aim of the conspiracy, which began on February 15, 1925 with Sheikh Said and continued on February 15, 1999 with Rêber Apo, is to complete the historic genocide of the Kurds. The leadership declared February 15 “Day of the Kurdish Genocide”.
The Turkish state forced the ethnic communities of Anatolia and Kurdistan to assimilate and commit genocide, and built the identity of “white” Turkishness. “White Turkism” is not the essence, it is imposed on the peoples in the form of an artificial fictitious ideological identity. It is not based on the equal, free and voluntary association of its peoples. Its history, cultural background, language and mentality are entirely based on theft and extortion. The faucet was developed in line with history. “White Turkism” is a misconstituted identity created by the Young Turks through coercion, assimilation, massacre and genocide in the Ottoman ruins. “Turkism” that does not fit the reality of the peoples of Anatolia, Kurdistan and the Middle East. This is problematic from the start. White Turkishness is a deviation from social reality. It is fascist because of its method of assimilating diverse and rich regional cultures into itself and its mentality. This is such fascism that it even inspired Hitler’s project to create a “master race.” The founding ideological power of white Turkish fascism is the CHP. The CHP is the main force of Kemalist ideology and White Turkism. “We are clearly nationalists. And nationalism is our only element of unity. Other factors have no bearing on the Turkish majority. It is our duty to keep Turkishness alive in the Turkish homeland. We will exclude the Turks and the elements that will oppose Turkishness. If they want to serve the country, what we look for above all is that they are Turks.” (Ismet Inönü)
“White Turkism” is the name of an anti-socialist reactionary fascist system that uses capitalist modernity as a vehicle for cultural genocide against the peoples of the Middle East. “White Turkishness”: It defines a thieving system that hijacks, deviates from, and appropriates societal values such as land, history, language, culture, music, art, and literature. The identity ethnically identified as true Turkishness includes a very small number of people. The white Turkish regime has no connection with communities like the Turkmen as an oppressed people. The hegemonic forces that created and nurtured White Turkish fascism are responsible for the massacres of the Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Pontos and Kurds and the current Kurdish genocide. That is why the Kurds and Kurdistan problem is an international problem.
White Turkism, mixed with brutal power culture, represents a nationalist, racist, sexist, religious and fascist mentality. It’s a misogynistic, sexist and rapist spirit. In Turkey after the 2000s, depending on the BOP project, green AKP-Erdogan fascism came to power instead of Kemalism. All state institutions were aligned with green fascism. Green fascism changed the state system in its own way and entered a new republican period. The Erdogan personality prepared for this project was appointed “President” as legislative and executive and with the authority of the system. Just as Ataturk became the sole leader of White Turkish fascism, Erdogan became the sole leader of Green fascism. While Atatürk is considered the “leader of the Turkish world” in the 20th century, Erdoğan is considered the “leader of the Turkish world” in the 21st century.
Green fascism, which has become dominant especially with the AKP government, has also scattered the rational mind that exists on a crumb level in the state. The spirit of green fascism also intimidates, represses, arrests and destroys societal opposition groups that try to think rationally and look for alternatives. Turkey was held hostage by the AKP-MHP government, the alliance of green and black fascism. The alliance of white-green-black fascism is incapable of solving problems and is the main source of problems.
The idea of Turkishness, which aims to homogenize society with the idea of ”one homeland, one nation, one language, one flag”, is a fascist mentality based on “ONE”. Erdogan’s personality continues this line and mentality to this day. Green Turkish fascism that replaced white fascism is based on Union and Progress line, Pan-Islamist, Turanist and Neo-Ottoman ideas. The massacres of the Kurds continue. Arab countries are occupied. Erdoğan-AKP, Bahçeli-MHP-Ergenekon Yeşil and black fascist rule inherited the legacy of three Ottoman pashas. It is the biggest problem in the Middle East with its policies of war, occupation and massacre. They are pursuing expansionist imperialist policies in a wide area of Rojava, the occupations of northeastern Syria, the occupation of Başur Kurdistan, Libya, Yemen, Qatar, Afghanistan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Crimea and Ukraine. In short, Turkish fascism, which has developed in three colors, is contrary to the reality of the peoples of Turkey and the Middle East and is the source of problems. With its civil and military, right and left, religious and secular organizations, all cultural, social, political, economic and diplomatic institutions and organizations, it was institutionalized according to the genocidal war waged against the Kurds.
The colonialist Turkish regime and the AKP-MHP wartime government are conducting invasion attacks with a specific purpose. In the 20th century, they had the idea of completing the Kurdish genocide, which they prepared in 1925 with the “Oriental Reform Plan”, with the “Plan of Collapse” in the 21st century. The annihilation of the Kurdish existence has become a survival problem for the Turkish state. Erdogan defined the Kurdish war of genocide as a “national liberation war”. The national existence of the Turkish state is calculated as the liquidation of the national existence of the Kurds. Although governments change, genocide has always remained the official state view. Genocide is the centuries-old basic policy of the Turkish regime, which was established with a policy of denial and annihilation against the Kurds. Despite changing its methods and means of war over the course of a century, the Turkish state has continued its genocidal strategy without interruption. The Turkish state, which wants to be the hegemon in the region, has set itself the main goal of getting rid of the Kurds by 2023, which it sees as an obstacle. On the one hand they want to carry out the Kurdish genocide, on the other hand they want to expand their borders to Aleppo-Mosul-Kirkuk, which they lost with the occupation and annexation of Lausanne and which they regard as a national pact.
At such a critical time, the heroic resistance of the guerrillas against the occupation in all areas of Kurdistan, in Zap-Avaşin-Metina, has a strategic importance for the Kurds in the dimension of national resistance and a fate-defining importance. The existence and resistance of the guerrillas renders genocidal policies ineffective and causes the collapse of the centuries-old colonial system. The white-green-black Turkish fascism under which the Revolutionary People’s War in Kurdistan unfolded and empowered under the leadership of Rêber Apo and the PKK is experiencing its weakest period and has entered the process of dissolution. The aggression they show is due to their weakness and cowardice. This is the reason for the hostility towards the chairman and the PKK. The isolation imposed on the chairman who nullified the policy of genocide is isolation to take revenge.
Sequel follows…
Source: Raperina Gel
From: Nûçe Ciwan