It is often quoted from Marx on how “A nation cannot become free and at the same time continue to oppress other.”

Nothing rings truer than this quote in present day Turkey these days.

The contradictions carried over from the days of the birth of the republic force their presence no matter how much the ruling elites wish they never existed. The birth mark of the modern republic of Turkey is ever present in each aspect of everyday life, in every corner of the society. Like a person having a hammer in his hand, and sees all problems in life as a nail, republic of Turkey deals with all its problems by military, more oppression, fascist aggression, lies and more lies. The contradictions present in its inception.

Assuming they can “ban” their way out of anything that bothers them, the proposed solution to rampant inflation by a representative is instructive to display the mindset of Turkish rulers. With a straight face, the representative had asked innocently in the National Assembly, “If this inflation is such a menace, why don’t we pass a law banning inflation?”

Acting out on a parallel mindset, Turkish republic was molded to deal with its structural problem of human rights, inequality, anti-democratic nature, and capitulation to whichever imperialist boss is in fashion by banning any criticism and banning the subject matter altogether.

These bans created a list of taboos that nobody was allowed to mention, never mind discussing. Most prominently the list of taboos started with the Armenian genocide, the Kurdish issue and discussion of Mustapha Kemal accepted as the builder of the modern republic.

As historian Taner Akcam mentions in his forward to his book on Armenian Genocide, these taboos are now all are being dismantled. The new generations not bound to state dogma and the “official truth” as the previous ones and rightfully do not swallow the official lies of the state and are demanding to know what happened to the Armenian citizens when the Armenians quite magically “disappeared” suddenly by the millions, or again to the disappearance of the Kurds, or of Kurdistan that Mustapha Kemal kowtowed to in the years leading up to the so-called “war of independence”.

The illegality of even mentioning the taboo subjects was first breached by the Kurds when they simply refused to be invisible any more. It is not easy to make the 20% of your population disappear just because you want them to go away. Unlike other minorities of Turkey who were forced to give up their national identities and assimilate, Kurdish resistance has survived through massacres, raids, “scorched earth” tactics borrowed from the US’s Vietnam War, forced migrations, denial of anything Kurdish and even changing the names of villages, towns and names Kurds could give to their own children, to say nothing of banning the Kurdish language altogether. The Kurdish resilience was proved in the 1990’s when the Turkish State terror took more than 40,000 Kurdish and Turkish lives to prevent Kurds from speaking their mother tongues.

The creation of modern Turkey was based on racism, nationalism and xenophobia. The idea was to create an all Muslim country and carry on the legacy of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. This new formation was supposed not to have the “headaches” of having diverse people such as non-Muslims. Genocide took care of the Armenians. Forced exchange took care of the Greeks. Kurds were given false promises to act on behalf of the Turkish majority until Turkey obtained its independence. After that, they would find out the force of “Turkish power” and would be forced to assimilate.

Things did not turn out the way racist, nationalist ruling ideology wished.

Kurds asserting their identities, scholarly studies exposing the Armenian genocide, and studies exposing the broken promises of Mustapha Kemal, the taboos no longer have any chance to live.

Gezi Park resistance as a demand for freedom and democracy
In May of 2013 the people of Istanbul collectively started a resistance against the government’s decision to root out an entire popular park in central Istanbul and build a shopping mall. However, this resistance morphed into a much bigger display of displeasure against all policies of the government. Having had enough of political Islam being forced down their throats, being sick of brazen corruption at a level never seen before, fascist police oppression, destruction of education, dismantling of all pretense of rule of law, jailing of journalists, filling university administration and faculty with party officials. The people took over the park to prevent its destruction. People for the first time in recent decades formed collectives in their park with free food, drinks, health care, library to show that cooperation is better than competition to mold our lives. Gezi Park became a model of a humane society people dreamed of.

One very surprising result which nobody thought beforehand was the freedom of women in the resistance during the months people held the park against brutal and lethal police attacks. Staying, living, eating, drinking and sleeping in a hardly lit park among thousands of strangers nearly all the women who participated was pleasantly surprised that they were never, not even once harassed. This, in the midst of a very macho, male dominated society that does not look favorably towards women who are not at home before sunset. Many women openly expressed that for the first time in their lives they felt secure and like among friends and family in a crowd of strangers at night. Solidarity of the people, and the spirit of collective demands against a common enemy of oppression brought the best of the people out.

Brutal police attacks against the resistors were confronted by people living in the neighborhoods as well as the resistors. Tons of tear gas was poured onto the faces of thousands of people over the months of fighting against the Turkish state. The spirit of Gezi became a cry for democracy, freedom, equality, and a better life than what capitalism could ever offer.

One of the leaders in this struggle was the elected Kurdish representative from the Grand Turkish Assembly who put his life on line to save the trees and lay in front of a bulldozer. His action was not only for the trees. He dared death in the hands of racist police to demonstrate what a struggle for democracy is all about. But this did not stop the nationalists who wanted to split the movement on a racist, nationalist line. They blamed the Kurds for “not being in the struggle for democracy and freedom,” playing on the racism of Turks to split the Gezi resistance. Even the most telling photograph of a Kurdish man carrying the banned flag of the Kurdish resistance helping a woman carrying the nationalist symbol of Turkey, the Turkish flag, escape the water cannons of the Turkish police wasn’t enough to convince the racists that the Kurds were in struggle with them in the streets.

The contradictions rooted at the creation of the republic surfaced yet again.

It takes a lot of guts, lots of responsibility, and lots of consistency to make your demands of freedom to stick and be credible. Especially when there is another nation that lives as second or third class citizens in your country and you are not prepared to demand the same freedoms and equality for them. Especially when Kurdish party is under attack daily, especially when this nation you chose to ignore, denied their identity, denied their history, denied their existence also wants democracy, freedom and equality, just like you do. Even when they join you in the struggle you deny their cooperation. Even when they hold your hand and protect you from the fascist violence while you are carrying a flag symbolizing their oppression. Gezi stood for equality. However real equality demand is most pronounced for the Kurdish minority in Turkey today. If the demand for equality, dignity, democracy is not brought up for the second class citizens who are even denied their own language, lynched daily, denied all rights, then those demands will not be taken seriously.

Today, the shoe is on the other foot.

The same Turkish state, the same Turkish police with addition of Turkish army, and the jihadist ISIL terrorists have joined forces to attack anyone who even looks like a Kurd.

Turkish military and official snipers are taking shots at ambulances trying to get to the wounded.

Kurdish towns and entire regions have been declared “military zones” by the Turkish state. Even the National Assembly representatives are not allowed to visit their own districts while the Turkish army pounds civilians with artillery.

Turkish police does not allow even the sick, hungry, thirsty people stranded in their homes in the Kurdish cities after 7 days of curfew! A mother aged 53 was shot by the Turkish police because she sat in an isolated street in front of her door. Two women were shot by the Turkish officials while sleeping on their roof. A 10 year old child was murdered by the police. Entire towns are under artillery attack. People who even “look like Kurds” are beaten mercilessly, stripped and forced to kiss the Turkish flag I the “free” Turkish zones in the west.

Now is the time for those who raised the “Gezi Spirit” to stand up. Now is the time to stand behind the ideals of freedom, equality, democracy that took new meanings at Gezi. Now is the time for every human being, Turkish, Arab, Kurdish, Persian, American, Greek, British, German to stand up against the massacres of the Turkish fascist state.

If the Turks will not be able to cast away their racist upbringing and nationalist brainwashing, they will never see another Gezi resistance. These days are the real test for “Chapuljus”, a name picked up by Gezi demonstrators to prove they meant what they demanded. If Turks fail to stand side by side with the Kurdish minority, if Turks fail to show their real humanity today, not only will tomorrow be too late, but they will waste away whatever credibility and hope that was gained by that proud, righteous uprising of Gezi Park.

The enemy is the same for both people, Turks and the Kurds. It is the racist Turkish state and its rulers. It is the Turkish capitalism that is tied to world imperialism. If Turks shun their natural ally, the Kurds, in the struggle for freedom, justice, equality and democracy, they may also lose their own country that they are so keen to protect. However, this cannot be achieved with racism or nationalism.

“A nation cannot become free and at the same time continue to oppress other.”