[Marxism] Demons of Separatism

[Mehmet Cagatay]

The text below is a part of my answer concerned with Renegade Eye's
comment on my blog. I was willing to write more but I get tired:  


"Does the "left" in Turkey support, self determination for the Kurds? The
PKK supporters seem to not differentiate Turkish workers from bosses. Why
expect different of Maoists and nationalists.

Inter-imperialist competition is a major contradiction. Turkey seems to be
taking a side."

Renegade Eye



Hello Ren, 

In the wake of PKK's renunciation of its former objectives for political
separation, self-determination, in other words, "political separation of
these nations from alien national bodies, and the formation of an
independent national state", is now an orphan desire in Turkey. However,
its ghost is still haunting the psyche of the warmongers, who are vigilant
enough (!) to perceive that political and cultural demands are simply an
obfuscation of the intention of separation. Thus, the question of
"self-determination" is being introduced generally by dull nationalists
for the purpose of escaping from the responsibility to intervene in the
causes of the miseries of Kurdish minority. The separation-phobia
engendered by Kemalism is a scarecrow in Turkey to ward of the dreadful
realities of the Kurdish question. Nowadays, no one is raising publicly
the idea of self-determination, separatism, except adherents of the
long-standing state tradition to rationalize the status-quo. Hence, in the
current political encyclopedia of Turkey, the entry of "self-determination
of nations" is not being defined as political separation, but a menace
which makes even the bourgeois-democratic revisions impossible.     

However, if we recall Lenin's pamphlet, we should identify a particular
contradiction of the Kurdish nationalism. The longing for the formation of
national states has habitually been initiated by indigenous bourgeois
class to capture the home market. But on the occasion of the natural
deficiencies of the region, the Kurdish bourgeois class has integrated
with Turkish economy so exceedingly that they defend the political unity
or their fidelity to the Turkish identity more viciously than their
Turkish colleagues. For instance, Aziz Yildirim, the Kurdish chairman of
Turkey's one of the prominent soccer clubs, recently uttered the famous
slogan on the television: "Martyrs do not die; the country can not be
divided". There is an article in yesterday's Economist exposing the
approach of Kurdish bourgeois class on Kurdish nationalism: 

"Despite Mr Barzani's popularity, the Turks can take heart from the
millions of Kurds who have no desire to break away. That was the message
of the July 22nd election, says Sehmus Akbas, a Kurdish businessman in
Diyarbakir. He is thinking of the big gains made by the Justice and
Development (AK) party in Kurdish areas, at the expense of the pro-Kurdish
Democratic People's Party (DTP). Such is the appeal of AK's mix of
liberalism and Islamic piety that it might even wrest Diyarbakir, the
Kurds' unofficial capital, from the DTP in local elections next March"
   
           
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10064699

In sum, self determination for the Kurds is the subject non grata in
Turkey even the genuine Leftists are shy away from. The most
well-intentioned expressions are restricted with the presentation of the
Kurdish question as a by-product of capitalism and unassuring appeal to
overthrow the capitalist states for absolute resolution. Personally, I
prefer to stay aphetic concerning a separate national state option, which
is a part of renunciation to identify myself with the national identity
which is stamped with diversity of political manipulations and deceptions.
So, this is not an off-limits area for me hedged with the nightmares of
the others. To reiterate one of the old interpretations of demons in
dreams that, people who have a tendency to abuse others have overwhelming
fears that outbreak as demons just to ease the burden of guilty
conscience. The Kemalist nightmare about separatist demons must be
diagnosed in the context that a demon occasionally represents the payoff
to sustain one’s own deeds. 


Mehmet Çagatay
http://weblogmca.blogspot.com/

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