Thursday, November 15, 2012

Where does it all come from?

Ambitious title: we are now embroiled in the struggles of the prison hunger strike. According to the BDP there are 10,000 people now on strike--a number difficult to confirm. In any case, my father in law is now one of them. We are proud, worried, and distraught at the increasingly militant stance of the government. I have been meaning to write something all week about it--time is running out--but I can't seem to gather the thoughts. They are a mess of emotion, fear, excitement, desperation, nerves. We have faced down police tanks at demonstrations--others in the East and farther from the eyes of the press were attacked by them. In any case, I took a textbook from our high school. It's used to teach the mandatory class of 'National Security Science' which everyone in Turkey is required to take. Here is a section from this 170 page book that I think neatly encapsulates that what hunger strikers and indeed, anyone who wants to live in a just society are facing. A people trained to delude themselves into thinking a militarist, paranoid dictatorship is actually the true meaning of democracy. The parenthesis and italics are mine.

HIGH SCHOOL NATIONAL SECURITY SCIENCE
Distributed by the Ministry of Education
Published in 2010


 
FROM CHAPTER ON 'THREATS DIRECTED AGAINST TURKEY'
 
DESTRUCTIVE ACTIONS

Those termed 'destructive actions', in general, have the aim of destroying the existing regime (The secular-democratic system) through force of arms and setting up a system governed by their own ideology. Actions designed to destroy the country from the inside arrive at their goals through four phases (preparation, organization, action, and civil war). First and foremost, these activities are financed through human and narcotic trafficking. At the same time, these organizations profit from donation campaigns, the sale of illegal magazines and newspapers, the collection of monthy fees and concerts.

Our country stands confronted with constant attacks designed to spread ideology and remains the target of destructive activities aimed at obliterating the rapidly developing social and cultural integrity that goes hand in hand with a developing economy taking its place in the world of international and geopolitical politics.

In this arena, the 1980s saw the development of organizations designed with the sole aim of destroying the Constitution of the Turkish Republic and setting up their own views in its place.

 

SPLITTIST ACTIONS

Splittist threats directed at our country with great constancy go back 200 years. Throughout the process of history, threats have appeared that are extensions of the Imperialist Powers efforts to profit from the Middle East region. Today, too, movements, and demonstrations have surfaced with their own internal conditions and alliances with outsiders.

As for today, splittist activities among elements of our fatherland claiming to be separate races or nations and carrying the quality of a threat were begun by outside powers in the days of the rise of the Ottoman empire. European states, during the 19th century, not only exerted efforts to foment rebellion but at the same time played an effective role in the creation of splittist-ethnic organizations.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, westerners in various disguises as archaeologist, historians, theologians and geographers at every opportunity sowed the seeds of dissent among eastern tribes as part of their missionary work. These actions opened the road to the weakening of state power through various rebellions and uprisings at different periods.

One of the most important of these rebellions supported by foreign powers was the Sheik Sait uprising, the results of which, forced The Turkish Republic, with the Lozan Peace Treaty, to give up its right to the Musul-Kirkuk region that lay well within its borders.

The PKK, with which the Turkish Republic has struggled since the last quarter of the 20th century, was founded on November 27th, 1978 with the support of foreign countries. It began operations with the raids on Eruh and Şemdinli in 1984. The final and true aim of this terrorist organization has been to split off lands starting with Turkey, and spreading to Iraq, Iran and Syria; lands that have been theirs since their foundations, to have the Kurdish identity recognized in the constitution (this makes saying the word Kurd a terrorist act essentially) and to form an autonomous or federal Kurdistan region which later will become the United Democratic Greater Kurdistan.

                This terrorist organization, with these aims, has endeavored to implement the following struggles.

·         The murders of 30,000 people charged with the duty of securing the state without regard for the elderly, women, or children

·         To destroy the vehicles of service to our citizens and hinder the development of the Southeast region

……..

Since February 16th, 1999, with the capture of the head of this organization, they understood that they had lost on the battlefield and changed their tactics to attacks on the political field. (Thus nonviolent political struggle is also terrorism). With this aim, they took advantage of our citizens living in the East and Southeast who for various reasons were not able to find educational opportunities. This terrorist organization:

·         Forced young people without regard to gender to take up arms during their education years and turned them against the state.

·         Tried to break the national unity spirit of the Turkish people by fomenting divisiveness and splittism.

·         Profitted from the civil services for years and used them in actions against the state to incite the loyal people at every opportunity against the state.

·         Forced our children still at a tender age when they are still playing with toys to join protests and instilling in their vulnerable minds violence and disobedience against the state.

·         The above activities have been propagated side by side with armed actions and with the support of foreign powers.

This terror organization, after the terrorist attack of 9/11, in order not to draw the ire of the world have struggled to disassociate themselves from the word ‘terror’ but several countries and foundations have put these new names on their terrorist lists.

Let them change their name as often as they want, every foundation that takes aim at human life is a terrorist organization (which qualifies all the militaries of every country as terrorist) and they are responsible for all damage done to the state and every murder they’ve ever committed.

The desire and wish for humans to live in peace and security grows all the faster as the regional services and investments by the state and the passionate endeavors by the state for the people are lost through terrorist influence in the region.

THE DUTIES THAT FALL TO CITIZENS WHO ARE AGAINST THESE THREATS TO THE STATE (Though all sections of this chapter have been underlined by the student who used this book, this one is double underlined)

·         To take responsibility for the development and enrichment of a nation and people reliant on the principles of secularism, democracy, and modernity.

·         To know Turkish history and draw lessons from the past

·         As Turkish Youth (not my capitalization) to work diligently to raise Turkey to a high level of strength, wealth, and prosperity.

·         To learn the ideas of Atatürk and use them in our daily lives.

·         To know the aims of cadres of threat and propaganda from both internal and external sources who aim to impede Turkey’s progress.

·         To learn the Turkish language, tongue, culture and literature and bring it to life through the example of their own lives.

·         To know and defend the principles of Atatürk regarding the People and Nation in terms of national unity and togetherness.

·         To see clearly the truths and falsehoods of the publications of media press organizations both outside and inside the country and support ones that benefit the country and reject those that don’t.

·         To live knowing that knowledge is the guide toward the truest path and knowing the need for work and production.

 

 

7 comments:

Jeff Gibbs said...

This is not to suggest Turkey is backward or evil--by the way. US textbook battles have their problems too--what bothers me is that the kids I teach are learning to poison their minds with state worship and paranoia. And then they are going to send them out to fight the enemies they've taught them to hate--I love the kids I teach and hate to see them used this way.

Unknown said...

I see nothing wrong in the book. The fact that you are pretending it isn't dead on just proves what is in the book.

Unknown said...

The Turkish kids, who some school irresponsibly allowed a kurd terrorist sympathizer like you to poison the minds of, have more nuance and knowledge than the inbred uneducated illiterate kurds who support the PKK. How about writing about the REAL brainwashing kurds are subjected to instead of complaining about Turkiye properly warning the youth of foreign imperialism.

Unknown said...

What is the problem with that book? Everybody knows that the PKK is the invention of Russians and was concocted in a corner office of KGB/FSB headquarters in Moscow. Where do you think their weapons come from? We know for a fact that the kurdish ethnic group and kurdish nationalism are the inventions of 19th century European/Russian nationalists. Read here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2006/10/04/bordering-on-insanity.html

Anonymous said...

The Kurdish ethnic group is an invention? Wow. Well ... have fun in your little bubble. Around 98% of the world would not be in agreement with you, at least in that sense.

And if you tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about -- I've also lived in Turkey and have seen a lot of the racism and hatred against the Kurds. I haven't experienced what Jeff has first-hand, but I do know that this brainwashing against the Kurds exists and I saw it for months, years. It's unfortunate.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, I'm not surprised by the attitude of "Fevzi Cakmak". It is so difficult to know the history of Turkey when one is inside the country. The censorship and "cleansing" of history so overwhelming. Even Ataturk's original writings and speeches are now purged and censored to make them harmonize with the current narrative. There is also a total ignorance about the human costs of the total denial of language and identity. I was on a bus going across Anatolia, in front of me a Kurdish family, grandmother, parents and young boy of around 9. The Grandmother could not speak Turkish, the boy could not speak Kurdish. They were alien to each other. I had a biography of Ataturk and the boy (who wound up riding in the seat next to me) was kissing it and saying how handsome Ataturk was. It was tragic comic-- the boy does not understand what has been taken away from him, his connection to his own language and his history.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for translating this. I don't think it was designed to withstand sunlight. This kind of stuff is not meant to be read by people outside of the bubble.