A Kurd has no friend but himself!

To tell you the truth, I neither like the demon called politics, nor do I write about it unless I feel obliged to.

I think everyday politics has a tiring, wearing and even an enslaving side to it. Let alone commenting on it, you need to spend great effort to even follow the ongoing political developments which fly by. On top of that, sometimes what you thought were real political incidents may turn out to be “bogus,” while what you thought were “bogus” may turn out to be the naked truth. It is a tiring matter all aspects considered…

Of course I say all of this to be able to say “my piece today is actually not about everyday politics.”

Think about a man. He has never heard of the Kurdish issue in Turkey and we have to explain to him the historical development of the Kurdish issue and its current situation in a very short period of time. After we have told him about the history of the issue, we now have to tell him about the current situation.

I would probably explain it with these sentences: “Ok. So now, my man, the top figure of the Kurds is talking about peace. The Turkish government has developed a projection called the resolution process. Disarmament is constantly brought to the current agenda… Almost all of the Kurdish and Turkish people are very pleased about the current picture. More importantly, the main opposition parties are not in favor of sabotaging the process despite some objection. But…”

It is precisely at this moment I say “But” I would take a pause and a deep breath. Because I would be looking for the correct words for a while to figure out how to properly explain this aspect of the issue. Then I would put my mind together and continue: “However, there are two fractions in Turkey… One of these enjoys sermonizing about dialogue, tolerance and philanthropy… For some reason, they love making an enormous fuss when even the slightest thing seems to go off-track in Turkey’s east and southeast. This fraction, which is at a serious conflict with Turkey’s current political party in power, almost acts like an ambitious lover who says, “If she will not be mine, don’t let her be anyone else’s.” You may somehow make sense of the things they do. You may even say that “It is normal for them do such thing with the amount of disappointment they go through.” However, there is a second fraction which says “there will be blood”, and boy, is it impossible to understand them… We briefly call them “old cheddar” in our beautiful country. This group consists of men and women who were leftists at the beginning, but when leftism turned out to be not worth a penny, they transformed into liberals, and when that also failed they returned back to leftism. Lately, these men and women watch the developments with “concern” whenever the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Abdullah Öcalan take a step towards peace. It is a fraction which considers the AK Party’s resolution process as a “lie” and HDP’s support in the process as “bizarre.” On top of everything, they are the ones who claim that the only way to block the AK Party can be done by HDP to pass the election threshold. In short, they want to exploit Kurdish politics, votes and Kurdish youth as a means to win the hopeless battle they are waging against AK Party.

 Yes. I think if I said these sentences to this man I would more or less be able to make myself understood

The second fraction, which we have seen to have influence on HDP and which has no ideological or societal equivalent, reminds me of inept gamblers who gamble with other people’s money and keep saying “this time we will win for sure, bro.”

Meanwhile the “Kurdish representation” in HDP is badly damaged. Tens of my friends from eastern and southeastern Turkey and Istanbul, -whose opinions I usually ask for- are quite disturbed about the weight of this group within the HDP. What the HDP support base demands is very obvious in reality. To proceed on the road to peace with their honor and rights. Any ventures which have the potential to damage this road disturb these people.

Let me say this as the occasion arose. A Kurd who comes from the struggle and who starts to think that he is not being represented in a party he refers to as “my party” and an Islamist who comes from the struggle and starts thinking that he is not being represented in a party he refers to as “my party” are approximately the same thing.

Do you know what I mean?

Susanna Tamaro used to say: “An Italian has no friend but himself. Down with fascism, long live the treachery of the people… Am I wrong?”