Community Introduction: Kurdish villagers, Hakkari, Turkey

Group: Danny C., Selena P., James R., Andrew C.,  Lauren S.

Hakkari is the most alluring province in Turkey. Hidden away in the extreme southeast corner, barred to most foreigners for nearly 50 years, it as acquired the irresistible aura of a forbidden land, and stories of its exceptional beauty. With its soaring peaks and murmuring gorges, glaciers on the edge of the desert, and rich flora and fauna, it is no wonder that mountaineers have circulated among it ever since the visit of a German expedition in 1935.

            With a population of 240,000 inhabitants living in the capital of Hakkari's province, the base of its economy is scarce, due to the extreme geographic conditions of its region. Agriculture is limited, and livestock raising is the main source of revenue for our people. (Encyclopedia of the orient specialized encyclopedia for the Middle east and North Africa) Hakkari lies 70 kilometers from the border of Iraq and 150 km from Iran. It is connected by the road to Van, 250 km north, and to Siirt, 200 km west. The population of Hakkari is mainly made up of Kurds who speak Kurdish, a language of the western Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. The majority of us Kurds are Sunni Muslims, but a small group of less than 100,000 living in Iraq (small communities scattered in Turkey, Iran and Syria too) are Yazidis, the "devil worshipers."

Our people have a solid family structure, as shown in a survey conducted in Turkey. Women are open to the full view of the world, they take pains to provide a good future for their children and they express modern opinions about the future. The crucial thing is that women should be innovative and modern and not obey their beliefs or values implicitly. According to the results, religion is one of the main issues dominating our peoples’ lives and religious education is prevalent among the family members. As for education, the families here put significant pressure on their children. The intervention of families into our childrens' lives should be in a manner suitable for the modern era and education rights should be preserved.

The survey reveals that conservative, traditional and modern women back the modernization ideology of the secular and contemporary Turkish Republic established by Ataturk. They stand ready to adopt the concept of contemporary civilization and a modern life style. Another important aspect of our women is that they rarely adopt the opinions that some politicians may have, because their opinions on family, ethical issues and beliefs are not represented.

Our socioeconomic status is not as strong as we would like it to be. Due to the region that we live in and the extreme difficultly of improving our quality of life. We live in such an impoverished part of Turkey, and because of that, we have high levels of infant mortality and low literacy rates. Most families out here use agriculture to feed their families and sometimes to use it for means of income. As times change and the development of a Kurdish bourgeoisie increases, our people find it difficult to compee in the economy. Consequently, some have become wage earners for the Kurdish  bourgeoisie. Despite our impoverished state, we live in aregion where there is water and other natural resources. The Turkish government has tried to get full control of this area, and have even come up with a plan called “The Greater Anatolia Project” (GAP). Through GAP, the government would build dams and roads, and also help with development of other infrastructure projects. The government claims the purpose of GAP is for internal development of the country. However, we Kurds believe that the roads provide the Turkish military with better accessibility into our region, and the dams are suppose to benefit the Turkish cities at our expense. We feel like the Turkish government, unsurprisingly, is exploiting us.

Our relationship with the Turkish government has been a hostile one. We have been prohibited to live by our Kurdish ways by enacting laws that deny our freedom to be who we are. At times we have been forced to flee to isolated regions, and other times they exploit us for the natural resources in those regions we live in. It is not just the government who exploits us. Other Turks come into our region and make wage earners of our farmers, as they create a Kurdish bourgeoisie. (The Kurds State Minority in Turkey, Iraq and Iran; Page 9) And while at times some Turks do support us, they are unable to speak out. Kurds in other regions are treated just as poorly as we are, and so we share come similarities. But what is sad about all this is that most non-Kurdish supporters are afraid to speak and fight for our cause.

            All Kurdish communities are stockbreeders - mainly of sheep, goats and some cattle. In all parts of Kurdistan the cultivation of cereals is important, accounting for roughly 15 percent of the total crop in Turkey, and 35 percent, 30 percent respectively in Iran and Iraq. The principal cash crop of the Kurdish foothills is tobacco, but it is of moderte quality and connot compete in outside markets. Cotton is also grown, particularly in Anatolia. In the mountains, fruit and vegetables are the main crops for local consumption. No more than a third of Kurdistan’s arable land is actually cultivated, of which on third is always fallow.

            From 1978 to 2002, the Turkish government has placed our village under martial law, which has restricted our civil and political freedoms. Some of our people have rebelled against the tyrannical military state that was put over us and then joined the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). However, fighting between the Turkish government and the PKK has left thousands of our people dead and has caused thousands more to become refugees. (http://www.hrw.org/wr2k3/europe13.html)

            Due to the end of the war will the PKK, international and Turkey's desire to be a part of the European Union, the Turkish government has removed the military state of occupation; however, we still don't have the freedoms that we should. Our women can't wear headscarves for religious reasons at schools, and we are tortured at police stations and denied the right to see a lawyer. According to the Freedom House index, an international nonprofit organization that catergorizes countries accoding to their records on political rights and civil liberties, Turkey, on a whole, is given a score of a five. To us, it is more like a seven, which is the worst score a country can get for the civil liberties they provide for their people.

            The treatment, especially toward our women from the government, would be considered a crime against humanity. Women have been taken into prison under false allegations, and have been tortured and raped. They're torturedin manners deemed inhumane, with such methods as shocking them with electricity and physically beating them into submission (as if they are that much of a threat to the military policemen who are armed with guns and knives). And after such treatment military officers have repeatedly rape them over and over. We believe Kurdish women were also the subject of a government conspiracy in which they were carefully being sterilized without their knowledge. Doctors would suddenly swarm into the village and tell the women they were at risk to a disease they had never even heard of. They would even explain all this in a language the Kurdish women did not even speak. Being that the Kurdish women weren't allowed to leave their villages, they didn't speak much other than their native tongue. After the doctors would give their very brief introduction, they would sweep the women off to the hospital to perform their sterilization procedures. These doctors were part of a team, proven to be subordinate to the Governor of Diyarbakir province. Similar cases were revealed to have taken place in many other provinces, including Mardin, Adiyaman, Adana, and Van. Sterilization measures were carried out against Kurdish women during the mid-1990s, when the Turkish National Security Council (MGK) declared that the growth rate of the Kurdish "population control" measures was instituted. This is truly sad to see in this day and age.

            For more than 20 years our people have only known death and hatred within a country that we live in, but are not a part of. With the Turkish government wanting to become part of the EU, our village has experienced less violent behavior and has noticed some freedoms after the removal of what was called a "State of Emergency" (a nice way of saying a militarized zone). We are still apprehensive toward this new policy, but we will try to be optimistic in the hopes that the Turkish government's changes to integrate into the EU will lead to us living the lives we only dream of living now. To enjoy the freedom of our culture's arts, to wear the clothing of our religious belief, and to not be persecuted simply for being who we are.

            I don't believe it's too far of a connection to draw a comparison between our own community and the Jews. They were persecuted in almost the same way we are being persecuted. In looking strictly at the numbers, we are obviously nowhere near the level of death and destruction that the Jews were forced to bear with, however I believe the principle are the same. The Jews were being oppressed without proper cause and at the whim of someone no better than themselves. What gives any government the right to tyrannize people that simply live within its borders? The government would move around entire populations of people at their whim. They would keep us from our homes and force us to do tasks against our will. This unethical treatment of our people is identical if not similar to that of the Jews many years ago.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.casadelledonneurde.it
www.turkishembassy.org
www.db.idpproject.org
www.minorityrights.org
"The Kurds: State and Minority in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran"
James Ciment Copyright 1996 Facts On File, Inc NY, NY
"The History of Turkey" Douglas A. Howard Copyrights
2001 Green Press Westport, CT
"A Modern History of the Kurds" David McDowall Copyright 1996
I.B. Tauris & Co, Ltd NY, NY

WHO DID WHAT

1)         How would you describe your community?----Selena
2)         What language/s do you speak?-----Selena
3)         What is your religious affiliation?------Lauren, Selena
4)         How many of you are there, what percentage of the overall Kurdish population are you, and where do you live?------Lauren,
5)         What is the status of women in your community?-----Andrew, Selena, Lauren
6)         What is your community's socioeconomic status?-----Danny
7)         What is and has been your community's relationship with a) its government, b)   with other ethnic groups (i.e. Arabs and Turks), and c) with other Kurds?
8)         How free are you?------James
9)         What are some of the most important experiences your community has undergone          in the last 20 years?-----James
10)       If you had to compare your community to another sub-community somewhere   else in the world (now or in the past), to what other cases might you compare    your community and its status?-----Andrew