From the editor. The “Kurdish question” is an acute social conflict that erupted in the mid-1980s in Turkey and the Middle East as a whole. The classic sides of the confrontation are the Turkish government and the armed formations of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a people of 40 million people who have been fighting for more than a century for the creation of an independent Kurdish state. Our comrades from the Turkish Communist Party (TKP) decided to tell in detail about what is happening in their program article; first of all, the communists draw the readers’ attention to the class nature of the conflict.
A small portion of Turkey’s population is immensely wealthy, while millions of people struggle with poverty and unemployment.
Those who are “fortunate enough” to be in the minority are the political elite, top management, large landowners and the rich, parasitizing on rent. As wage earners and poor people work, this segment gets even richer, accumulating more and more profits.
There are millions of Kurdish citizens among the poor created by this unjust system of exploitation in Turkey. Most Kurds are poor – however, like citizens of other nationalities.
But there are also Kurds in this country who exploit others. Kurdish factory bosses, large landowners, usurers, contractors are part of that very “lucky” minority of Turkish citizens.
The interests of the Kurdish exploiters and the interests of other exploiters coincide. They want to maintain an unjust order, they seek new profits and use every opportunity to become even richer.
And the interests of the exploited, the poor and the unemployed Kurds coincide with the interests of the other poor and unemployed: this order, which is the source and cause of inequality, must change.
The Kurdish question can only be properly discussed in the light of this fact, and only in this way can a way be found to its solution.
The main problem in Turkey is the existence of “bosses” on the one hand and workers on the other; the capitalist class is on one side of the barricades, the workers are on the other; the rich one, the poor the other.
This is also a central problem throughout the world. The fundamental principle of all types of tyranny, injustice, coups, wars, corruption and environmental destruction is capital, which sees nothing but getting more and more profit.
The Kurdish question needs to be analyzed from a class point of view. The claim that the exploitative Kurds and the exploited Kurds have common interests is a big lie. Common interests are shared by workers, unemployed and poor people of all backgrounds.
The Kurdish question is a question of equality.
The Kurdish question is also a question of freedom. A concept that ignores their own language, identity and even the existence of the Kurds, or imposes on them their disappearance, dissolution and subordination to another identity, cannot be recognized as legitimate.
The thesis that a nation or people is superior to others and deserves certain privileges is a lie that is continually cultivated in order to mask and maintain inequality in the world, to make the poor hate and even strangle each other for the benefit of the capitalists.
Nationalism, which played a progressive and liberating role in the past periods of human history, for a long time became a weapon in the hands of all exploiters without exception.
You cannot prefer Kurdish or Turkish nationalism to another. There is not a single region left in the world where the nation as a whole could be liberated without distinguishing between the exploiter and the exploited. This is true whether we are talking about Catalonia, Palestine, Corsica, Ireland or Turkey.
Nationalism breeds more nationalism. For example, Greek nationalism and Turkish nationalism feed off each other. The same is fully applicable to Turkish and Kurdish nationalism.
Although they speak different languages and have different origins, the interests of all the oppressed are common. Thus, when the Palestinian poor and the Jewish factory worker in Israel join forces, the dominance of imperialism, Zionism and the hypocritical Palestinian rulers who benefit from the “Palestinian problem” begins to lose ground.
The Kurdish question cannot be resolved when the exploiting Kurds are on the same side with other exploiters or negotiate to increase their share.
The ruling elite of Turkey needs the existence of problems dividing the population in order to prevent workers from uniting for a joint struggle. Pitting the oppressed against each other in the name of preserving the existing order, unfortunately, has always worked until now. The discrimination that Kurds face due to differences in languages, identities and resources not only divides workers, but also ensures that Kurds facing oppression remain cheaper labor.
Similar processes are taking place in relation to labor migrants. The hostility towards them primarily benefits employers who hire immigrant workers who are afraid to assert their rights and are practically enslaved.
The fact that the Kurdish question was placed within the framework of the identity debate also benefited the bosses the most, and, moreover, the very posing of the Kurdish question in this context turned out to be an excellent opportunity for exploiters of Kurdish origin.
Kurdish bosses managed to get rich a lot on the “Kurdish issue”. However, for millions of Kurds, life today means nothing more than poverty and unemployment.
This cannot continue.
There is no freedom without bread.
All workers living in Turkey, the whole society should represent a party in the discussion of the Kurdish issue. There is no problem that our workers – regardless of origin – are not able to solve with a common will, fighting in a united formation.
The assertion that the Kurdish issue can be resolved by sitting at the same table with the masters of the exploiting system has no basis at all. Those who are hostile to labor, science, art, women, the Republic and the environment cannot give anything to the Kurdish people.
The border does not lie between the Turks and the Kurds, but between the exploiters and the exploited.
This is the basis on which people can unite. The common enemy is imperialism, international monopolies, “internal” monopolies and “bosses”, that is, the political elite.
The imposed mindset that ignores the Kurdish people, oppresses them and forces them to deny their own existence, has largely determined the fact that some Kurds in this country have come to rely on powerful world powers. We should all be ashamed that we were unable to resolutely confront this way of thinking and the unjust order in general.
The way to correct this shame is to come together against the exploiters in defense of our common interests.
We are not in the same boat.
Imperialism is on the opposite side. The capital class is on the opposite side. The religious establishment and reactionaries of all sorts are on the opposite side.
Turkey will gain brotherhood, unity, equality and freedom by defeating the opposing side.
There will be no “Kurdish question” in socialist Turkey, Kurdish workers and workers of all origins – with their creative energy – will collectively establish a social order in which no one exploits anyone.
Communist Party of Turkey
Central Committee
Source: Russian Communist Workers Party