• son 1-2 haftada yasananlar malum. ben de yurtdisinda yasayan bir turk olarak kendimi ilk kez bu kadar caresiz hissettim, cunku oyle bir propaganda savasi varki anlatamiyorum derdimi. acikcasi bir turk olarak kendi tezimi anlatmak da karsi tarafi defansa itiyor, ve kisisel olarak da engage etmek istemiyorum, o yuzden anonim olarak ingilizce bir yazi hazirlamaya karar verdim. ben direk arkadaslarima bu post’u paylasacagim, siz de kendi yorumlarinizi ekleyip al ahanda bak bir de sunu oku diyebilirsiniz. olabildigince her seyi bilgi ve belgeye dayandirmaya calisacagim, katilmadiginiz noktalari paylasirken not edebilirsiniz. sevgiler.

    --

    for the first time in my time in u.s., i felt like a trump supporter. not because i have republican tendencies, but because i thought all news were fake, literally. what made me think this is the latest developments in syria and how u.s. media displayed these events. i am turkish, so i have a biased view, but i want to write this in a bid to show that there is more than what you see on twitter or in mainstream media. i only ask that you guys read this, and then do your own research. i have no intention to convince anyone, i just want you to be aware of another perspective in all these events, and perhaps then in you conversation with others, you can just say “you know what, i also heard this, not sure if this is true but check this out”.

    --why turkey “invaded” northern syria?--

    for many of you, it seems pretty simple. turkey just invaded syria because either it hates kurds, or it tries to do a land grab. both of these are overly simplistic views that are presented by all kinds of ignorant reporters. before getting into this, i shall give you a background on kurds and turkey.

    --does turkey or turks hate kurds?--

    i myself do not, and many in turkey does not. as a side note, i voted for hdp, kurdish minority party in a bid to support their democratic fight in turkey. for those who do not know, this is equal to being a traitor for many in turkey.

    i, as all other turks, should accept the persecution and suppression applied to kurds for 40 years. this has happened, where turkish state even denied existence of kurds.

    however, erdogan, who we all hate has actually started a peace process with a kurdish militant group, a terrorist organization on many countries’ eyes, pkk. these talks failed, either because a part of pkk killed two police officers in diyarbakir for revenge, or because allegedly fake pkk members controlled by turkish state killed two police officers to kill the peace process. we don’t know what’s the truth.

    frankly, kurds are still being persecuted, especially those who align with hdp (kurdish political party), but this is a bit complex. i think all kurds who do not give an explicit support to pkk are free to do whatever they want in turkey. we had kurdish presidents; we have kurdish billionaires who dominate construction sector. the problem is how hdp is under influence of pkk.

    now imagine this, u.s. is giving a fight with ısıs, and there is a political party, an ıslamic party let’s say, and that party doesn’t condemn isis. in fact, when ısıs kills u.s. soldiers, imagine that this party doesn’t say anything, and when isis members die, this political party goes to their funerals. and now you will understand why there is persecution against hdp, because that's what they do when turkish soldiers die.

    i actually voted for them, because ı hoped hdp would end its connections with pkk, or that pkk would lose power and hdp would become the only voice of kurdish people. they couldn’t do that, and unfortunately many white turks like me felt stupid.

    i still think only way out for kurds, a path where they reach more freedom, is via political means, but as long as pkk stays, they will fail to do that because how can we turks support a political party which is connected with an organization that simultaneously kills your citizens? otherwise, i know many left-wing turkish people who sympathize with kurdish needs for more freedom. if you ask me, ı would want diyarbakir to be a regional state like those in u.s., where kurdish food and culture is promoted, and the only fight between turks and kurds are in soccer games between diyarbakir and ıstanbul teams.

    --pkk's fight with turkish republic--

    pkk is a marxist-leninist terrorist organization. they attacked eruh encampment in eastern turkey in 1984, starting a long period of terrorist attacks that still continues today. their goal is to create an independent kurdish state.

    pkk, in its own view, has a legitimate goal. there are kurdish people who are not free, so it should free them. no different than ira or eta actually.

    the problem i see with pkk is they now have their own political mechanism over kurdish people. those who have good kurdish friends will know that you cannot run away from pkk. they will find you even if you are doing business in ıstanbul, they will come and ask for “contributions” to the cause. ıf not, they will make pressure to your relatives in the region, or in rare cases, they can even kill you.

    pkk is also a major trader of all kinds of drugs. they probably control an economy of billions of dollars. you can find more info here: washington ınstitute

    note that pkk has its own moral code, they argue!, and that they do not kill civilians. or when they do kill civilians, they actually apologize or put the blame on fake pkk members who are controlled by turkish government. regardless of their claims, thousands of civilians died because of pkk fire, teachers, students, government officials and so forth. this is just a fact, and i do not believe that anyone can claim they have "morality" when their whole thesis depends on killing others for achieving their goals. in fact, this is just definition of being a terrorist.

    in terms of numbers, to this date, roughly 6,000 turkish military personnel, 30 thousand pkk terrorists, 5600 civilians lost their life. there are varying sources but i trust 140 journos in this dataset: fight with pkk figures

    overall, 40 thousand people died, more left injured. so, i provide this in a bid to show you that turkey, including both kurds and turks, have had enough pain from this conflict over the years.

    --who is ypg?--

    it is people’s protection units. it is basically an offshoot of pkk, but we need proof for that since this is the turkish argument. please see below:

    1. u.s. general commenting on ypg rebranding due to turkish arguments and that u.s. is supporting an enemy of turkey: u.s. general on rebranding to sdf

    2. commander in chief of sdf (rebranded ypg), mazlum kobani. who is this person?
    a. his code name is sahin cilo
    b. he is a member of pkk since 1990 and was working in its syria operations when pkk’s main base was in syria.
    c. in 1996, he transferred to hakkari (part of turkey) as pkk’s so called “regional commander”
    d. he is famous with an attack which killed 17 conscripts in south eastern turkey
    e. he is on most-wanted list of ınterpol since 2011. guardian note on ypg leader

    so now, i ask you this, do you think this guy is not connected with pkk? i leave the answer to you.

    --kurds in syria and ypg--

    i think this is where i am most appalled. guys, it is known how many kurds are and where in syria. check these maps from multiple resources please:

    https://eksiup.com/p/aj278556p7bu
    https://eksiup.com/p/me278557c6n7
    https://eksiup.com/p/in278558g2d9

    kurds have fragmented groups of people in northern syria, but check now current area that is occupied by ypg:

    https://eksiup.com/p/j4278561k4fq

    so, tell me, if we are concerned about kurds being displaced, are we going to support ypg commanding areas populated by other ethnicities? because that’s what’s happening right now. the reality is, ypg is the one who is doing a land grab here, expanding into areas with non-kurdish population.

    --why turkey is angry?--

    so now let’s the put the facts together

    1. turkey is fighting with pkk for 40 years
    2. in doing so, thousands of people died
    3. pkk is using border camps in northern ıraq to mount attacks in turkey (see below)
    https://eksiup.com/p/4n278562htn7
    4. now, turkey’s syrian border is occupied by an organization called sdf, which was rebranded from ypg, whose leader has been a long-standing pkk member.
    5. northern syria was used as a base by pkk when esad’s father was in rule, and pkk mounted attacks from there until turkey was about to start a war over this.
    6. so now i ask you this, what will happen in this border if ypg – sdf – pkk stays? please guess.

    or let me put it this way, imagine u.s. has been fighting the cartel in its south eastern border, in north east of mexico.

    this cartel and u.s. have been fighting for 40 years. and now, this cartel had gained territory on north western mexico, and it will obviously use those new lands to mount new attacks, start new drug routes and cause even more problems to u.s.

    so now my question comes, would u.s. just sit and wait? let its enemy who it has been fighting for 40 years expand further in its border, so that it causes more threats, kills more u.s. soldiers and civilians?

    or think about this, what if turkey supported the leader of this cartel, not to attack u.s., of course, but because turkey had issues with this other cartel, and needed ground troops against them and thus supported this long time u.s. enemy. to the extent that leader of this u.s. enemy cartel was giving pictures with turkish army officers. oh btw, this leader has also killed 17 u.s. soldiers 20 years ago in the border area, and responsible for killing of hundreds of other civilians and u.s. military personnel. please tell me, how would you feel towards turkey in light of these? because that’s how turkish people feel towards u.s. right now.

    these are what worries turkey. that simple. and although many hate erdogan, people supported this military incursion because they know that if not, u.s. will leave, russia will leave and one day these ypg fighters will just use that border to kill turkish military personnel and civilians. the proposed buffer zone will prevent ypg mounting attacks to turkish people from syria. that’s the only goal.

    --we should criticize erdogan and turkey too--

    i am not going to provide a single perspective here. i live in u.s. and i see other arguments as well, and i want to criticize my country and erdogan as well.

    i hate erdogan, in fact ı hate him as much as cab drivers in turkey. he is destroying the secular turkey i know of. he is compromising the independency of judiciary. and he has this neo-ottoman ambitions, which brought turkey into syria swamp. erdogan was one of the first ones to turn against esad and he supported opposition in syria and some of those were radical ıslamists. i think he is responsible for the pain and suffering syrian people experience to great extent, because of his ambitions.

    erdogan also didn’t take precautions to stop isis initially. this is widespread news in western media now, and i think mostly true. however, it also makes me sad that people think turkey has given explicit support to isis. to the contrary, we probably lost more lives to isis, through bombings and conflicts on the border, than europe and u.s. combined. kurdish people living in turkey even more so because ısıs targeted them specifically, hence i feel hopeless when people claim that turkey supports ısıs, when turkish citizens and military men are killed by isis. erdogan, being an islamist (though a softer one compared to what this adjective indicates in other islam countries), didn’t want to touch isis initially but turkey still has secular genes that eventually responded. i hope people understand this reality as well.

    on top of these, i do not deny human rights issues in turkey. sadly, we do not have rule of law, our president has a good command on judiciary, and you cannot trust to judges if your case is in conflict with erdogan’s goals. people who got persecuted post-coup in 2016 are still in jails, or they cannot get a job. some commit a suicide. one of them, who was fired from his government post had to find a new job, so he joined the army. and he died by pkk attacks just recently. he was fired from government because he was supposedly a traitor who supported the coup, and now he died fighting for the same government against pkk. his case was still open when he died.

    i can count thousands of incidences of injustice in turkey. but turkey is not erdogan. i say this thousands of times and things will eventually change.

    and in this latest event in syria, it is easy to criticize turkey because we have thousands of issues that should be criticized. but as a turkish who is of course biased in his view, i argue that we had our own reasons as well, and these were never mentioned. i saw news arguing that:

    -turkey is invading syria for a land grab – no that’s not true because erdogan explicitly said he is ok with esad coming in and taking those lands.

    -turkey was doing a genocide – i think this only undermines the meaning of what genocide means, that’s all i will say on this.

    -isis prisoners runaway – there was one isis prison in regions turkey attacked, and that was empty when turkish special ops reached there. i saw others arguing that this prison was emptied a long time ago anyways.

    these are things that i knew for a fact was wrong but was pushed on u.s. media. and of course i understand you, because if you think turkey is the evil, and there is evidence that easily supports this since we are ruled by erdogan, it is so easy to think that turkey is the bad and ypg is the good in this scenario. but it’s not that simple. and ı hope you are aware of turkish citizens who died because of ypg, probably using u.s. equipment left to them to fight ısıs. all that equipment will sooner or later will be used against turkey, sadly.

    anyways, i hope this at least shows why i felt frustrated, felt like nobody understood our point of view. hope this at least shows you a different perspective than what was displayed on the media.

    finally, all these comments do not mean that i approve execution of a kurdish women politician by syrian militias supported by turkish army, nor any other actions that hurt civilians. those should be all over the news so that turkey right now, and another country in the future avoid such atrocities.

    edit: bazi arkadaslarin tavsiyelerine gore editliyorum. tesekkurler.
  • yukarıda bir yazar arkadaşın dediği gibi, konu türkiye’nin pkk ile savaşı değil, pkk nın ülkeye musallat edilmesidir.
hesabın var mı? giriş yap