Memphis in May Honors Oppression
Zaneti - By Goran Sadjadi
Turkey is an unusual country in that throughout all its internal problems arising from unjust governmental policies and a brutal military, it is still able to manage a fairly moderate image in the eyes of much of the world public. The country sought to further improve the status of that image when it began a new aggressive tourism campaign a few years ago that seems to be now bearing some fruit in the United States. The Turkish Ministry of Tourism increased its promotional budget to $140 million this year announcing it a result of success in their campaign. This increase is not the only measure of success that Turkey can rely on. Recently, the organizers of the Memphis in May International Festival in the United States seemed to take notice of Turkey’s self-glorification and have decided to help in promotion by honoring the Turkish State in their annual event.
Memphis in May, a month long International Festival, is held each year in Memphis, Tennessee and is attended by people all over the world. And every year, the organizers honor a country, which becomes the center of focus for their event. This year, 2008, that country is Turkey.
The decision by the Memphis in May organizers to honor Turkey especially at such an unusual time might be astonishing to anyone who has the slightest clue about what has been going on in Turkey. Advocates of human rights might even go as far as to describe such an “honoring” as not only sad, but also abhorrent. Turkey has a long history of gross human rights violations but 2007 and 2008 have carried some of the worst in most recent years.
Certainly, some of Turkey’s own citizens would be the first to object to such a glorification as that being made by that of the organizers of Memphis in May. For the Kurdish citizens, Turkey is a country that is far from honorable. Kurds have long struggled to obtain their most basic social, cultural, political and economical rights within the Turkish State. In Turkey, Kurds have not even been recognized as an official minority. Until just recently, public use of the Kurdish language was banned and it still is banned from being used in public institutions. And similar to Saddam Hussein, the Turkish military destroyed over 4,000 Kurdish villages, killing many and displacing up to 3 million people, in a deliberate campaign of what many have described as ethnocide.
While today, Turkish cities have been compared to Western Europe as the tourism advertisements seem so proud to display, the Kurdish region is the most impoverished in the country with unemployment rates reaching up to 70-80% in the largest cities. Perhaps what is most disturbing is how nothing seems to be getting better for the Kurdish minority and a solution seems impossible to reach with the plenty obstacles that the Turkish government keeps producing for Kurdish rights activists. Legitimate Kurdish political parties have frequently been banned, and imprisonments, torture and “disappearances” have been common for Kurds who have spoken out against the Turkish State’s injustices.
The Turkish State has implemented the same policy with regards to Kurds for decades and 2008 is no different. In fact, it may be one of the worst years when it comes to human rights. A decades-long armed conflict between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish State that has claimed the lives of thousands on both sides has been one of the greatest internal problems for Turkey. The Turkish military has taken a very aggressive approach to the issue over the decades by responding with campaigns that have targeted not only the rebels, but sadly and more often, Kurdish civilians in the region.
Just this year, as it has frequently made its way across the news ticker (making it hard to believe the Memphis in May organizers could have missed it), the Turkish military has been bombing the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Pointing to rebel bases high in mountains that create a natural border for Turkey and Iraq, the Turkish military has begun campaign of aggression against the region. Although Turkey claims to only target rebels, video and local reporting has shown that Kurdish civilians have been frequent targets, and in many cases, the only targets. Since December, the Turkish military has bombed many villages, bridges and other infrastructure, killed countless civilians, and has even launched ground invasions leading to more civilian casualties despite no recent provocations by rebels. Furthermore, the Turkish government has so far rejected all peaceful attempts negotiated by rebels through the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq even when American military officials suggested it as the only solution Turkey should be seeking.
Turkey ended 2007 with brutal policies and began 2008 with worse:
1. Just last month, Kurds in Turkey took to the streets to celebrate the ancient Kurdish New Year holiday. In many cities, Turkey banned the holiday and police attacked people who tried to celebrate it; some were killed. Turkish police were caught on footage beating women during the celebration, and in one incident, even breaking the arm of an innocent Kurdish child. Many Kurds were arrested and the Turkish government did not bother correcting the situation or taking action against the offenders.
2. At the start of the year that organizers of Memphis in May wish to honor Turkey, several Kurdish politicians have been charged with prison sentences for practicing free speech. In one incident, 53 Kurdish mayors were charged for writing a letter to the Danish PM urging him not to shut down a Kurdish TV station based in Denmark that Turkey adamantly opposes.
3. In another incident, the Kurdish Nobel-peace prize nominee, Leyla Zana, who served nearly a decade in prison for speaking Kurdish in Turkish parliament has recently been ordered to serve another 2 years in prison by the courts for her speeches.
4. Three children of a Kurdish choir group are being charged by Turkish prosecutors the same month of Memphis in May with 5 to 15 years in prison for singing Kurdish folk songs at a world music festival in California.
5. Turkey is planning the construction of a dam in the Kurdish region that will flood entire Kurdish cities leaving more of the population displaced with no government compensation plans in place.
With all the facts at hand, people with a sense of moral conscience would be astonished by the decisions of the organizers of the Memphis in May to honor Turkey at any point in time while it continues such brutal policies, let alone honoring Turkey at a time when such atrocities are so obvious. And when the reports are so readily accessible, the organizers have no excuse.
Perhaps more disturbing are the politicians who should be more informed on the issues but are often more unconscionable.
This week while organizers of Memphis in May get ready to launch their event and honor Turkey, Armenians were observing the 93rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in which 1.5 million became victims of a campaign led by the Young Turk government. For many Americans, this issue very briefly became a focus in the media when the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs approved a resolution declaring the mass killings of the Armenian people during World War I as genocide. The issue seemed to quickly fade back into the darkness after a most ridiculous decision by the Bush Administration to denounce the democratic process that took place in the Committee on Foreign Affairs on the basis of preserving relations with a foreign government, Turkey.
Perhaps, the decision so far not to proceed further with the resolution after the denunciation could be considered one of the clearest cases that illustrate the faults in the democracy of the United States. Officials in Turkey made it a point to state that the bill would jeopardize its relations with the United States, and did so at a time when it was threatening an invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan. Using such threats as they have done so in the past, Turkey has again effectively taken control of U.S. policy out of the hands of democracy and into their own.
In addition to the obvious problems for democracy, the denial itself poses far worse consequences contributing to the introduction of new genocides. No person who has studied the Nazi era can forget when Hitler cited the Armenian Genocide using it as a reason for which he believed he could away with exterminating the Jews. And certainly, no person can quite dismiss the fact that by accepting the denial as a reality, it can only encourage Turkey to carry out more atrocities like those presently being committed against the Kurds.
However, despite all the various moral implications, American officials are still debating about whether they want to call something from almost a century ago what it actually was. One congressman who apparently could not make up his mind was Steve Cohen, a Representative from the good old city of the May festival: Memphis, Tennessee. He was one of many representatives lobbied by the Turkish government to reject any resolution to recognize the genocide. Apparently, Turkey’s denial tactics seemed to have worked on Cohen, who visited Ankara last year and has become a most ardent supporter of strengthening U.S. ties with Turkey.
Cohen almost seems to agree that the mass killings were genocide, although he never admits it. Instead, he arrogantly referred to the genocide as “whatever” and even more arrogantly called Turkey a “democracy” and the “strongest [U.S.] ally”. Apparently, Cohen may be misinformed on all three aforementioned quotes as the first is utterly insensitive and the second two are pure lies. Sustaining a U.S. relationship with Turkey may be more burdensome than beneficial by the account of any analyst who carefully studies the history of this alliance. The more likely reason for Cohen’s stance may be that he is simply serving his own special interests in trying to make something special happen in his district this year with a meeting he plans to have with the Turkish officials that visit to boost Turkish-U.S. ties; this is in addition to the fact that Tennessee exported $256 million dollars in goods to Turkey in 2005 alone.
Whatever his reasons, and those of the Memphis in May organizers, Lady Liberty has not only been gagged by opponents of the democratic process to recognize genocide, but she has also been blinded from the reality that exists in Turkey today. For believers of the principles of human rights, it is imperative that Cohen and the organizers' contribution to injustice should not go unheard. (You can email the Memphis in May organizers at mim@memphisinmay.org. You can also email Cohen at this link.) Memphis in May this year should be forgotten as a festival that once tried to bring people together and create cultural awareness of foreign lands as they now begin honoring oppressive states at some of their worst points in history. Instead, 2008 should be remembered as the year when Memphis decided in May to honor the worst practices of mankind; a year in which the world closes its eyes and carelessly honors oppression.
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