PROBLEM OF ETHNIC ORIGIN ON THE POLITICAL AGENDA IN TURKEY
Ruben Melkonyan
"Noravank" Foundation
05 March 2009
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 w
as 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=2 0its 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 0Aknown 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
com es 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-know n 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.