10 Things Not To Say To Kurdish People
Meeting a Kurd is an interesting and confusing experience in a world where almost everyone has a country they can call their own, and looks at others in terms of what country they call their own.
1.“Are you from Turkey, Iraq, Iran or Syria?”
Kurds interpret this as “But where are you really from?”
The pressure put on Kurds to consider themselves Turks, Arabs or Persians is astronomical. The governments of all four of these countries have policies of assimilation for ethnic minorities living under their jurisdictions. These policies are ineffective because Kurds consider themselves to be from Kurdistan rather than the country whose jurisdiction they live under. The correct answer to this question is “None of the above!”
Defining a Kurd by what jurisdiction they’re under is reducing them to a set of legal documents, suggesting legal documents are the only determinant of national identity. It is suggesting that their oppressing governments, who bond over hating Kurds and whose constitutions don’t even admit that Kurds exist, know more about a Kurd’s national identity than they do.
2. “How can you be Kurdish if you’re not Muslim? Aren’t all Kurds Muslim?”
Kurds interpret this as “If you’re not Muslim, you’re not a real Kurd.”
All Kurds have suffered under Islamic expansionism. The Ottomans (Ottomen? Ottomxn, if you’re going for the woke spelling?) engaged in brutal campaigns of forced and coerced conversion. Non-Muslim Kurds continue to suffer from the modern-day Islamic expansionism of the governments they live under.
It’s a fact that Kurds who are Muslim are slightly more privileged than Kurds who aren’t. Privilege doesn’t make them bad people, but it needs to be checked. If non-Muslim Kurds face double oppression for their race and religion, Muslim Kurds are only being oppressed for their race because their religion is the same as that of their oppressors. Islam isn’t a race but religious identity can be used to manoeuvre attention away from a Kurd’s racial identity and the repercussions they worry will come from it.
3. “Whose side are you on then?”
Kurds interpret this as: “You’re just as bad as your oppressors.”
The language of “sides” implies both the Turkish regime and Kurds are equally powerful and capable of one-upping each other as if they were sports teams. Where there is a concept of “sides”, there is a concept of “both sides are just as bad” which gives the Turkish regime a free pass to commit whatever atrocities it has the power to.
One “side” is mercilessly oppressing the other “side” who are somewhat unable to take back control. The more attempts Kurds make to defend themselves, the more they are punished, which only gives them cause to fight back harder. I call it the vicious circle of repress, resist, repeat. Many non-Kurds refer to this vicious circle as “conflict” too, which isn’t entirely accurate either because of how much of a power imbalance there is. It’s nothing like a football match. It’s everything like a fight between a Great Dane and a Chihuahua. In that case, we all know who has the upper hand. Talking about the predicament of most Kurds as one of “sides”, is denying that the upper hand exists at all.
4. “But the Turkish Government isn’t that bad!”
Kurds interpret this as: “Your oppression doesn’t count.”
If you think the Turkish Government “isn’t that bad”, it’s either out of ignorance or because you’ve never experienced the policies, laws and judicial system that make Kurds think badly of it. If all you know about the Turkish state is that they invest a lot in tourism and partially subsidised an elective surgery you had, maybe it “isn’t that bad” in your experience but it is in ours. Calling Turkey a democracy because it has elections is like calling Coca-Cola a health drink because its main ingredient is water.
Telling Kurds this is telling them you think that their civic duty to resist oppression is a “lifestyle choice”, that their resentment of their oppressors is unreasonable, and by extension that Kurds as a people are irrational, and therefore incompetent in political leadership. Our disdain for the Turkish Government is completely rational when they have entire policies dedicated to hurting and killing us.
5. “Turks and Kurds are siblings.”
Kurds interpret this as: “You must accept your oppression as you would accept a disagreement with your sibling.”
Chances are you have siblings of your own. You don’t see eye to eye on everything, you’ve argued, maybe thrown hands once or twice. What you haven’t done is intrude upon their personal sense of national identity, cut off their water supply, cut off their electricity supply, spread disease to them, refuse to treat the disease you spread to them, poison them with expired medicine, imprison them, sexually assault them, execute them or airstrike them. Because that’s not what siblings do. The relationship between the Turkish elite and Kurds is more like the owner of a mansion antagonising his neighbour who lives in a shack.
Individuals of both groups can and do behave towards one another in a friendly manner. As much as a “funk Turks” attitude has been popularised, I think Turks who don’t fan the flames of their ruling elite are a generous, hospitable and affectionate bunch. It’s the government that turns decent people into hateful zombies. But thinking of us as siblings implies that Kurds should behave towards the Turkish government and its supporters in a friendly manner even if this isn’t reciprocated, and accept how it oppresses them as they would accept the ups and downs of family life.
6. “I don’t have a problem with Kurds; I have a problem with terrorists.”
Kurds interpret this as: “You are only worthy of support if you relinquish your Kurdish identity.”
The Turkish Government in particular is notorious for using the threat of “terrorism” as an excuse to instigate ever more draconian measures on Kurds. Most of the time, these measures have nothing to do with national security whatsoever. School rules that make Kurdish pupils put coins in a jar for speaking Kurdish aren’t directed at our fighters; they’re directed at our children. Refusal to invest in the healthcare system of our region isn’t directed at our strongest and most powerful, it’s directed at our elderly, pregnant, disabled and chronically ill. Invasions of our villages aren’t directed at people who don’t live there because they’ve gone to the mountains, they’re directed at civilian residents.
This is the natural culmination of “one of the good ones” rhetoric. “Good Kurds” being the ones who accept their lot as second-class citizens and don’t keep bothering their Turkish overlords with pesky demands for this thing called equality. Those who put their national identity and human rights first become “bad Kurds” and “terrorists”. To their oppressors, Kurds are only “good” when they aren’t Kurds.
Supporting Kurds means supporting all Kurds. Which means supporting Kurds who have a strong cultural identity, on an equal level with Kurds whose cultural identity is weaker or non-existent. Almost every Kurd has been called a “terrorist” or had their Kurdish identity linked to terrorism. I did a Twitter Poll of 20 Kurds and the result was 90 percent. Only supporting Kurds who haven’t been accused of terrorism means you’re supporting very few Kurds.
7. “I saw a Turkish TV show about Kurds once.”
Kurds interpret this as: “What’s on TV says all I need to know about your ethnic group.”
Ah yes, those shows that Kurds don’t even have to watch to know they hate. Where every Kurdish woman is a damsel in distress and every Kurdish man is a misogynistic oaf. But they aren’t made by Kurdish crews, they often don’t cast Kurdish actors…no, they are state-sponsored propaganda designed to make Kurdophobia accessible to the average person.
No one said obnoxious Kurdish men and helpless Kurdish women don’t exist. There are more than enough of both. We’re human, specifically an undereducated, tribally structured Middle Eastern population. The problem isn’t that they exist though; the problem is that these shows portray them as the only way for Kurds to be. That all Kurds are “like that” and that the many millions of forward-thinking Kurds are “one of the good ones” or “not like other Kurds”.
Even Turkish TV shows that aren’t explicitly “about Kurds” rely on stereotypes to write their token Kurdish characters — as gangsters, drug dealers, domestic abusers and hairy, hypersexual construction workers, They have the same effect, only less magnified, of shifting most people’s perceptions of Kurds towards the negative. It’s insulting to Kurds to compare them to one-dimensional characters written for the express purpose of fuelling racism. It’s lazy writing to whip up a whole series without lifting a finger in character development, but stereotypes sell. They confirm people’s existing biases, making them feel smug, rather than confronting them and making them feel uncomfortable. Kurdish people aren’t an as-seen-on-TV product. If you want to better understand the dynamics of our tribes and villages, watch something by Yilmaz Guney or Gani Ruzgar Savata.
8. “You don’t need to politicise everything!”
Kurds interpret this as: “I don’t want to hear about your struggles.”
First of all, diaspora Kurds politicise things because they can. They have freedom of expression in The West that they didn’t have in their homelands, and most first-generation Kurdish immigrants were political refugees. So why shouldn’t they be making the most of the right to freely voice their political opinions? Does it make you uncomfortable, is that it?
Secondly, Kurds need to politicise the Kurdish struggle because it is simultaneously one of the most pressing human rights issues in the modern world, and one of the least known and understood. A nation can’t progress and prosper without allies. We want and need allies. We hope that each time we mention the political status of Kurds, that someone will be compelled to learn more.
9. “If you’re Kurdish, how come you speak Turkish, Arabic or Persian?”
Kurds interpret this as: “You think you’re so Kurdish but you act just like your oppressor.”
Kurds don’t want these to be their main languages. Bilingualism is useful, yes, but Kurds were forced to take these as their primary languages under assimilation policies and punished by teachers in schools and the judicial system alike for not doing so. Asking this is a reminder to Kurds of their intergenerational trauma. If a Kurd’s grandparents and parents were punished for speaking Kurdish, it’s quite logical for that Kurd to associate speaking it with traumatic experiences.
Many Kurds don’t actually know how to speak their own language. This gives them feelings of inadequacy, incompetence and being “less of a Kurd”. Which is a horrible feeling.
10. “I support Kurdish independence, but…”
Kurds interpret this as: “You don’t deserve independence.”
When someone says “I’m not racist but”, they typically follow through with something racist. This is no different — it might sound like a harmless opinion on international relations but we see it as a harmful opinion on us. The only barometer of whether Kurdish independence is a good idea is whether Kurds will be successful in running a country. There are Kurds who study economics, politics and diplomacy, all of which are necessary areas of knowledge for political leaders. As more Kurds finish their education, apply for higher education and leave behind tribalistic mindsets, they’ll get better at leadership.
Adding a “but” to your support for Kurdish independence is pulling a “love the sinner, hate the sin” on Kurds. Most of the time, when people say this, it’s because they dislike when Kurds are Kurds, so they consider our quest for statehood to be separate from us as people and justify their hatred of Kurds by claiming our statelessness isn’t what we “really” are, when it’s quite a large part of who we are. Assimilation policies aren’t directed at the concept of independence; they’re directed at us. The Turkish government’s paid trolls don’t send hate mail to the idea that we might be better off with our own government; the death threats and graphic pictures of martyrs go to us. The Kurdophobia complex isn’t disagreeing with an idea, it’s targeting a group of people.
