Turkishness As A Territorial Identity

Apparently we will deal with the tragedy called "New Turkey" for some time. I believe Etyen Mahçupyan has penned six columns on identity and Turkishness as a territorial identity. He suggests roughly the following: “The non-Muslim minorities now have an option to become constituent compatriots of the New Turkey, which transcends the artificial Turkish national identity. Yet the opportunity for becoming equal citizens by getting rid of national identities imported from the West should be duly appreciated.” It sounds promising but how accurate is it?

Let us recall that the bloodiest case of nation-building in the former Ottoman territory was the invention of the Turkish nation. Minorities were not minorities back then; they were living in their homelands. As Sunni Islam was the unique potential cement in the new nation, they were excluded from it. The Kurds were not subjected to the same treatment because they were Sunni. A parting line was running through the Muslim majority. As for the goal of secular Young Turk revolutionaries, it consisted of destroying the ancient regime, and those who were not fitting in the definition of “new” were doomed to destruction, exactly like today.
The Young Turks' government gave an order of destruction, and Circassian, Kurdish, Turkish and other Muslims keenly executed them. Who else was to execute orders from İstanbul back then anyhow? Some imams justified the murder of non-Muslims because they were infidels; of course, there were also righteous among them, but that wasn't enough to stop the mass murder. Those who tried to survive by denying their identity paid allegiance to Islam rather than citizenship.
Non-Muslims were always eager to become equal citizens of the Ottoman Empire. Their dream has never materialized. When constitutional monarchy offered equality to all citizens the Muslim majority started to protest. That ended up with pogroms and ethnic cleansing. The “bulk of the job” was done then and the republicans “took care of the residue.” Today, there is no other Muslim country as homogenous as Turkey in the region, including Iran.
The harm is huge. To confront it and reckon with it we need nation-wide memorization. Some Kurds started a sincere confrontation, but with the exception of a few individuals and the Hizmet movement, the majority of Turkish Sunnis show no sign of such confrontation.
Non-Muslims are no longer strong enough to request equal citizenship. They are really in the minority. Yet the role Muslims have to this end is essential. The faster Muslims and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) realize that the Young Turk/Kemalist ideology delegitimized non-Muslims as well as non-Turk and non-Sunni groups, the faster they will be able to take a lead role to expose truths, address past injustices and ensure further democratization. The AKP opened that door and then shut it.
Today, non-Sunni and non-Turk peoples' demands for equal citizenship are taken into consideration by nobody. On the contrary, they are still subjected to discrimination so that they would not feel like they belong to Turkey. It is enough to read the fallacious racist and denialist accounts about non-Muslims in school textbooks to understand the scope of present-day discrimination. Politicians always give the religious definition of citizenship when they talk about national unity with Circassians, Kurds, Laz and Turks. There is fast-growing hate speech against non-Muslims. And there are hostile groups arguing that non-Muslim minorities should behave, ready to redress them.
Alas, a Muslim who cannot confront this country's bloody past and is not ready to feel sorry for his/her non-Muslim fellow citizens is not capable of becoming a democrat. Without democracy, citizens with excluded and denied identities adopt defensive attitudes. Is this not the main reason why Kurds, who are not seen as equal citizens, seek autonomy to govern themselves?
Hrant Dink, the slain Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, would have been 60 last Monday. He was a genuine compatriot; he was assassinated in the so-called New Turkey; the instigators of his murder have not been caught and prosecuted yet.

CENGİZ AKTAR (Cihan/Today's Zaman)