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05.03.2009

PROBLEM OF ETHNIC ORIGIN ON THE POLITICAL AGENDA IN TURKEY

   

Ruben Melkonyan

Melkonyan_Ruben (medium)Many developments and processes in Turkey directly state that the issue of identity is one of the central problems in the country. Even at present from time to time the issue of ethnic origin appears at the epicenter of various important processes and is actively discussed being the object of interest for politicians, analysts, press. It is necessary to mention that the issue of ethnic origin is also topical in the context of both external and internal political problems of Turkey.

It is not a secret that Turkey uses the issue of ethnic origin in its foreign policy and this is one of the most important bases for the propagation of pan-Turkish ideas. It is even needless to say about Turkish policy which has definite pan-Turkish traces and which has been carried out for decades in reference to the Central Asian Turkic countries, Turkic people in the Russian Federation and even Uyghurs in China.

It should be mentioned, anyway, that shrewd Turkish diplomacy is not restricted by the aforementioned countries while using the issue of ethnic origin, it seeks for new spheres of activity and new target groups. In this context, one of the latest examples of that kind is noteworthy. The incumbent mayor of London Boris Johnson has a certain per cent of Turkish origin. The father of his grandfather was Ali Kemal, the journalist who was well known for his hostility to Kemalist movement and who occupied the posts of the minister of education and internal affairs during the last period of Ottoman Empire. In 1922 he was arrested because of his hostile attitude towards the movement headed by Ataturk and was lynched by the order of high ranked officials. Ali Kemal was proclaimed a traitor. In our opinion, it is important to mention that for fulfilling his image of a traitor his pro-Armenian stance concerning some issue was pointed out. Thus he supported the idea of selling some of the eastern Turkish provinces to Armenians for 6 million of gold. Perhaps, that is why he was ironically called in some circles Artin Kemal (Artin is the Turkish for Armenian name Harutyun).His son from English wife Osman Ali after the murder of his father changed his name and became Wilfred Johnson. The incumbent mayor of London Boris Johnson is his grandson. But after this Englified Turkish descendant became the mayor of one of the European capitals Turkey remembered its “forgotten son”. Boris Johnson was officially invited to Turkey and got warm reception and honour and the unprecedented attention of Turkish media and even more the press started to discuss whether his great-grand father had really been a traitor. It means that bringing to the forefront the Turkish descent of Johnson shrewd Turkish diplomacy tries to use it in its own interests mainly in the context of foreign policy and this may probably have a positive result as London mayor speaks very warmly about Turkish amiability, which was based on the ethnic ground.

The problem of ethnic origin is expressed more vividly and even painfully in their domestic policy and it is regarded as an important and constituent part of Turkish political technologies. One may say that this issue with different intensity but constantly appears on the Turkish political agenda, that is why we find it necessery to turn to the latest and the most recent example. Thus, the local authority elections are to be held on March 2009. The ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP) have great claims on those elections, which were stated by the prime-minister Erdogan. The acute struggle is expected on the elections of the mayor of Istanbul, where the main participants are the candidates from the ruling JDP and oppositional Republican People’s Party (RPP). The RPP nominated for the election rather original political figure – the deputy Kemal Kilicdaroglu. In the opinion of many observers Kilicdaroglu, who is rather steady person with strong nerves, is one of the rising stars on the Turkish political firmament. No wonder that in order to reduce his growing popularity and votes the issue of his ethnic origin has been manipulated. Kemal Kilicdaroglu comes from Dersim (today Tunjeli), which has always been known for its intractable character. And thus the pro-governmental “Zaman” newspaper, while presenting him, used the following expression: “He was born in Tunjeli, which is known for Dersim disorder”. The first strike was delivered; his name was connected with the “cradle of disorder, terrorism”. This was followed by the news, which had been spread recently in Turkish press, that: “The mother of Kemal Kilicdaroglu is an Armenian whose name is Yemush and who lives in Dersim”. This became one of the basic topics on Turkish political agenda and for the press. One reporter, with the special methods characteristic for “journalistic investigation”, called Kilicdaroglu’s mother and directly asked her: “Are you Armenian?” Her daughter answered that unexpected question: “No, we are Muslims”. The rumours concerning the Armenian descent of Kilicdaroglu had been manipulated earlier too, but they became more evident only when he became a candidate for mayor and rather dangerous one. But in this question too Kilicdaroglu remained calm and answered the questions asked during the interviews lately the following way: “My mother may be an Armenian, or a Kurd, or a Greek, but we will not love her less because of this”. That means that, on the one hand, he did not refute that fact, and on the other hand, he tried to shift the problem to the other plane, saying that people had no opportunity to choose their race.

However, let us not forget that oppositional RPP also uses the same political tricks, e.g. when deputy Zaman Aritman “blamed” lately president Gul of having Armenian origin, saying that his mother is an Armenian. It is known what a noise had risen, but unlike Kilicdaroglu Gul reacted rather roughly and emotionally; at first, he spoke out before everyone that their kin was Muslim and Turkish, and then their family tree was published in the press. Besides, he put forward a symbolic claim against Aritman for insulting him. All this, i.e. the speculation of the issue of ethnic origin both by the ruling party and the opposition, seems to be more contradictive in the context of the opinion of the leader of the ruling party Erdogan, which has been expressed for many times, that they are against the ethnic nationalism. By the way, the constrained behavior of Kilicdaroglu and the fact that he has not refuted his mother’s Armenian origin was assessed by the different circles but, anyway, after those rumours his popularity stopped growing fast and at the current moment, according to sociological surveys, his opponent from the ruling party is leading.

The fact that Kilicdaroglu changed his Karabulut surname in 1966, motivating that their whole village had the same surname, seems to be suspicious for many people. According to Kilicdaroglu, their kin comes from Kureyshan ashiret of Dersim. It is also remarkable that he is interested in the history of Dersim and as he has stated lately after quitting politics he would like to turn to the history of Desim and he gathered a lot of information and sources on that issue. In our opinion, perhaps, the knowledge of the history of Desim impelled him not to reject passionately the possibility of the Armenian origin of his mother because its history is full of different facts proving the presence of the Armenians. There is one more interesting detail connected with the personality of Kilicdaroglu. Recently, during one of the TV programmes, he has stated that his wife is the daughter of his mother’s sister. On the one hand, such an occurrence of endogamy may be conditioned by the ashiret traditions but, on the other hand the marriage with the relative of the mother who is supposed to be of Armenian origin gives rise to reflection.

The issue of ethnic origin has also been touched on during the loud trial connected with the terrorist organization Ergenekon. It turned out that one of the arrested, i.e. the former chief of the Special Operational Service Ibrahim Shahin, received a task and worked on finding out and registrating people of the Armenian descent in different institutions. There was a list found in Shahin’s notebook, which included information on the ethnic origin of many people rather well-known on the political field of Turkey. In accordance with that information the chairman of the Nationalist Movement party (NMP, grey wolves) Devlet Bahcheli, the chairman of Democratic Society party Ahmed Turk, the deputy of NMP Mehmed Shandir, Mehmed Eymur has an Armenian descent.

The recriminations on the basis of the ethnic origin are not a new phenomenon in Turkish reality and strange as it may seem it is spread among racist nationalists. At different times the most well-known racists accused each other of non-Turkish descent. Yusuf Gezkin, the journalist who takes rather tough stance on the aforementioned issues, has recently stated that none of those who speak from the position of the Turkism and even more none of the founders, ideologists of that trend are Turks.

It is obvious that the issue of ethnic origin gains momentum and obtains new manifestations in Turkey. One of the Turkish sociologists, turning to that widely manipulated topic, rightly characterized it as an illness spread in Turkish society.


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