International politics expert Dr. Toros Korkmaz spoke to ANF and said that the earlier resolution processes in Turkey were squandered due to daily political concerns. Dr. Korkmaz said, “The failure of the 2013–2015 process, followed by high-intensity conflict and accompanying chauvinistic, nationalist, militarist, anti-Kurdish state propaganda, caused both the widespread loss of faith in peace in Turkish society and a widening of the distance between broad segments of society who do not identify as Turkish and the Kurds.”
The language of peace must be embodied in the finest details
Korkmaz pointed to the importance of urgently creating legal guarantees and ensuring the participation of actors representing the broadest segments of society in the peace process. He said: “It is equally important for large parts of society to free themselves from the hegemonic influence of chauvinistic nationalism and militarism, so that the peace process can advance and become permanent in the future. Ideological change begins with a change in language. Instead of the discourse of senior state officials that homogenizes the process, highlights Turkish nationalism, and reduces it only to terrorism and security, a new language must be established that emphasizes a shared Turkish identity, while sincerely confronting the inhumane practices of the past against Kurds. It is crucial to remove from the Constitution the definition of citizenship tied to Turkish ethnic identity. The language of institutions that form key ideological apparatuses of the state, education, culture, religion, and mainstream media, must be restructured. The language of peace must be embodied in the smallest details.”
True intellectuals for a peace perspective
Recalling that in school textbooks used by millions of students in Turkey, the only reference to “Kurd” is either as the “Traitorous Society for the Rise of Kurdistan” or as the label “Sheikh Said was a traitor who betrayed the state,””Dr. Korkmaz continued: “We cannot build peace without changing this. If Turkey does not move away from a mentality that measures its strength through advancements in war technology and the propaganda that accompanies it, toward a mentality that emphasizes scientific, artistic, and cultural enrichment, the idea of peace as a virtue will not take root in society. Unless the chauvinist pseudo-intellectuals who dominate mainstream media, constantly promoting Turkish nationalism, are replaced with true intellectuals with a universal humanist perspective who see all the peoples of Turkey as richness, we cannot realize a peace perspective in society.”
Confronting historical traumas
Korkmaz said that it would be appropriate for the Parliamentary Commission that has been established and is continuing its work to hear from representatives of Turkey’s Christian peoples, and continued: “Although the most pressing political issue in Turkey today is the Kurdish question, more than a century ago, when Christians made up more than 25% of the population, they were annihilated through state terror and violence. This convinced the cadres of the Committee of Union and Progress to either assimilate the Kurds through the same methods or, if that was not possible, to annihilate them through violence.
The 1915 Armenian and Assyrian genocides, followed immediately by the Pontic genocide, did not only result in the deaths of millions, but also in the transfer of vast amounts of wealth, leading to the creation of a Muslim-Turkish bourgeois class. The ancient local Christian cultural heritage of Anatolia was also largely destroyed in this process. As a result of these massacres, the diaspora spread across the world, and because Turkey has still not reconciled with its bloody past, it continues to suffer. The traumatic traces of recent history have carried into the present, and the Armenian Genocide resolutions have become one of the most challenging issues in Turkey’s foreign policy. Peace is not a momentary event. Peace involves a genuine confrontation with the pains of the past, and at the same time, the creation of conditions for a future without war and conflict. Peace is a processual state that heals the illnesses of yesterday and today while creating the conditions for tomorrow to be healthy.”