23 September 2009 / RADİKAL ORAL ÇALIŞLAR,
Turkish nationalism is a kind of state nationalism that crushes. As it is the nationalism of a ruling people, its real strength lies directly in the nationalism itself.
As for Kurdish nationalism, a sort of nationalism which is a reaction of protest over an identity that has been denied, it cannot be judged by the same criteria with which we judge Turkish nationalism. There is, after all, a great difference in the content of the nationalism of the Kurds, who say: “I want to learn my own mother tongue. The state needs to support this demand of mine,” and the nationalism of the Turks, who say: “What is all this about Kurdish? Let them learn Turkish. If they learn Kurdish, the country will be divided.” And it is not very difficult to perceive this difference, between a kind of nationalism that uses the politics of denial and destruction and the kind of nationalism that resists and opposes. Still though, we cannot arrive at the conclusion that what this means is that “some nationalism is good, and other types are bad.” Nationalism is an ideology that excludes some peoples and nations and that carries this exclusion to the level that people begin to see others as enemies; for this reason, then, nationalism cannot be included in any world view that embraces peace, serenity, modern values and human rights.
