"Religion has functioned as the cement of society throughout the history of Turkey" he said. If this is an attempt by the Prime Minister to refer the ongoing debates on identity and argue that since Kurds are also Muslim, they are an integrated part of this ever binding cement, it has to be said that Erdoğan's comments do not reflect the reality of the country.
History does not verify the prime minister's words
The History to which the PM refers does not support his words. Last weekend at a conference organized by TESEV, Associate Professor Mesut Yegen's speech clearly demonstrated how religion not been very "cement-like" in the last 85 years. Yeğen said that in 1920, Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) referred to the Kurds Laz and Circassians, all the "Islamic people" of Turkey, as "full brothers", and yet up to 1924 they were deprived of all their civil rights. Furthermore, from 1930 and 1990 the state has constantly denied the existence of Kurds, subjected their people to policies of forced assimilation, and conducted a massive demographical engineering program in Anatolia. When all of these things have occurred and tens of thousands have perished, to still say that religion is cement is far from being politically effective. In fact, it is a clear sign of insensitivity and a denial of both a turbulent past and a present day that is full of conflict.
After saying that Erdogan's words are devoid of historical truth, we must point out the theoretical delusion that he falls into. While Erdogan seems to be accepting the existence of different ethnic groups in his definition of "multiculturalism," (although he uses the most conservative version of this definition), by departing from such definitions he can't help chasing dreams of a monocultural national state. In other words, he wants to utilize multiculturalism to avoid questioning the nation-state and to cover up historical truths. But the history to which Erdogan refers is a very recent one--as recent as yesterday, the day before yesterday and the day before that.
The one percent that is not in the cement
Furthermore, while with these words the PM wishes to see the '99 percent' Muslim population of Turkey united, he cannot help but to fall into the trap of being discriminatory.
Erdogan, who supposes that he is symbolically uniting the majority, is making a distinction from the non-Muslim minority of one percent, who are expected to be separatist and a non-mixing element of this cement. "Turkey is not Yugoslavia, where there are Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, and they all are followers of different faiths, there are even those who belong to different sects of the same religion," he said. In saying this, the PM sweeps aside in one move all the dynamics of the European Union and democratic multiculturalism, and therefore evaluates these differences as elements that still divide a nation. In the end, those who are outside of th(his) cement are made outsiders twice over. They are outsiders that we couldn't bring to an end no matter how hard we tried, as Hrant Dink puts it: "the one percent that we turned into a museum piece."
These days prove Etyen Mahcupyan right--as never ending debates go on about various definitions of identities, Mahcupyan cites Herkul Milas's metaphor likening identities to cuckoo-clocks, arguing that sometimes one identity emerges and sometimes another. Mahcupyan's question to this is, "What if the clock is malfunctioning or there is a constant intervention from outside, so that always the same identity ends up emerging from it?"
Here, right in front of your eyes, is fresh evidence. This is very open intervention into the dream of a multicultural democratic future. The state's leaders are still trying desperately to find binding elements for things such as race, religion, creed and ethnic identities. They are still making reference to a monstrous nationalism that has been fossilized since the beginning of the century, still excepting help from national security state, still shying away from the obvious blessing of democracy. This attitude clearly demonstrates how far away we are from an understanding that the constitution provides equal rights for every citizen and makes it possible for all to benefit from them.
Yet how nicely Baskin Oral put it, when he said that if the democratic state gathers strength it will become capable of trusting to its citizens and their civil rights. But with Erdogan's declaration that people should not be called as witnesses to recent events in Semdinli, he made it very clear that state still does not trust its citizens. Here, not the state's trust of its citizens, but rather the confidence of people in their state should be the question. In order, to shed light on the events in Semdinli, the creation of such trust should be paramount.
Equal constitutional citizenship
Isn't it about time that constitution be cleansed of all ethnic descriptions and concepts of minority and majority, and in this manner, demonstrate the acceptance of the principals of democratic equal, constitutional citizenship? Turkey now looks towards joining the European Union. Her PM, instead of redefining the binding elements of religion, should try to gain his people's trust by not blaming them unjustly and supporting the diffusion of constitutional citizenship.
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Translated by Arman Suciyan
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