Ahmad Altan

What if Mustaf Kamal #Ataturk# had been born in the Iraqi city, Mosul, not in the Greek city, Thessaloniki, and following the successful conclusion of liberation war, in which the Kurds and the Turks participated in, the republic in whose formation he played a leading role, was not entitled ‘’Turkey’’, but ‘’Kurdya’’, and the Parliament granted him the title ‘’Atakurd’’ .
What if the slogan Blessed who says I am a Kurd was prominently dominant throughout the outskirts of Istanbul, and we were called “ Kurds”, citizens of ‘’Kurdya’’.
What if the assert on that there were no Turks in Kurdya continues, and those who believe themselves as Turks, were claimed to be in fact Ocean Kurds.
What if it was asserted that the Kurds had a history dating back ‘’Seven thousand years’’, that the Kurds were the genuine and true owners of Anatolia, that the Mongols, the Huns and the Etruscans were the ancestors of the Kurds, and the heroism of the Kurds generals in the Ottoman armed forces, were taught in schools.
What if we were forbidden from giving our children Turkish names, such as Ghengiz, Tuman, Attila and Osman, and we were forced to assume Kurdish names like Berfin, Newroz and Tiruj.
What if broadcasting in Turkish was outlawed and all broadcasts were in Kurdish, and we had to write novels, stories and poems only in Kurdish. As well as, compelled to listen to Kurdish music and print all newspapers in Kurdish only.
What if Kurdish was the only adopted language in schools while using Turkish to teach any subject was an illegal act.
What if we were arrested and imprisoned, without interrogation, the more we say, ‘’We are Turks; We have a distinct history and language’’.
What if, in the aftermath of the coup d'état of September 12,1980, those of us living in the west of the country were arrested, imprisoned, tortured and buried in mud to the neck, in high pressure water that would disable or sabotage part of our organ systems while rabid dogs were used to maul our legs.
What if our homes were raided on the grounds that we were aiding the ‘’Turkish terrorists’’. And our houses were demolished, without allowing us to take our belongings from them, and we were forced to leave to cities like Hakkari and Diyarbakir, compelled to live in tents.
Would we, Turks, be content to live in a situation like this? Would we have accepted sermons like “Look, as citizens of Kurdya, you are all Kurds, why do you insist that you are Turks; You know that any of you, if he wants, can become the Prime Minister of Kurdya,” to proof justice and equality?
Or would we have insisted on recognizing our identity, language and history as “equal” citizens?
In Turkey today, there are Turk and Kurd citizens. The history has walked along the ‘’ Turkish’’ path. We have insisted that the Kurds must accept unjust demands that we, Turks, would not have accepted. Explosive situation, as a result, emerged, beginning with the country's confrontation with terrorism and embroiling in a civil war.
Whenever the citizens who believe that the bloodshed can be stopped through democratic means with the recognition of the Kurdish identity express their views, they are confronted by the authorities and their supporters with disparaging questions, ‘’What is democracy? What is Kurdish identity?’’
To us, Turkish democracy is to accept the Kurd's demands in the present Republic of Turkey, as legitimate demands, as we would have claimed if we, Turks, were citizens of the ‘’Republic of Kurdya’’.
Is the bloodshed justified in denying the people whom we accept to be equal to the same rights and liberties that we would demand for ourselves?
We are here to say, ‘’No, it is not justified.’’ We want democracy! .

This article is outdated in time, yet more valid than ever. It dates back to 1995, written by Ahmet Altan, a Turkish journalist and writer, who is still detained together with his brother, Professor, Muhammad Altan, along thousands in the wake of the July 2016 “coup” on charges of conspiring with the putschist.
Mr. Altan was fired from his work for this article, published in the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, in April 1995. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison and fined 12000 USD for inciting people to mutual hostility through discrimination against races and religions.
In this article, similar to all his works, Ahmed Altan presents a simple, and at the same time profound understanding of humanity, apart from reprehensible terminology and futile slogans.
For him, humanity is to: ‘’ Think for a moment and imagine yourself in the position of the oppressed; And feel the pain! ‘’
The owners of this humanistic philosophy are many. Most of them suffer from injustice in the prisons, and expressing their voice is a duty of those with free opinion, especially those who have experienced the bitterness of injustice and detention.[1]