Are we denying the existence of the kurdish people?

[bg_turk]

I found an interesting article on the kurds.
http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=170868

I am glad to see such opinoins. Only if you are a minority you can really understand what this writer really argues. I live in Bulgaria, and I have argued countless times that this does not make me a bulgaria, because being a bulgarian means to be a member of a very specific ethnic group, which is orthodox christian, speaks bulgarian as a mother tongue, etc... Well, I am a muslim, and I first learnt how to speak turkish, so I am turkish, or a bulgarian citizen of turkish origin. For some people it is really hard to understand this simple concept, and they say that if I am not a bulgarian then why do I live in Bulgaria, why dont I just move to turkey etc.
I can see kurds in Turkey are in a very similar situation, and turkish nationalism is really sickening to me. It is the same as seeing the bulgarian nationalists but this time speaking turkish. No difference at all...

Here is my translation:
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There was a time when we denied the existence of the Kurdish people. We used to say they were people that lived in the mountains, that they were Turkic people whose name derived from the kart-kurt sounds they made as they walked on the snow. (As if the other Turks walked differently on the snow and the sound was different maybe …)

Anyway, such ridiculous allegations are no longer used. The existence of the Kurdish people is no longer questioned, and this situation is in fact considered as an “improvement”. I am not sure if the acknowledgement of the existence of the Kurds is actually an improvement, but maybe I can help you make a judgment on that by highlighting the words of CHP leader Deniz Baykal.

Baykal: “The Turkish Republic citizenship is a legal identity. You must accept the Turkish identity. You must not be ashamed nor afraid of being part of the Turkish nation. Belonging to the Turkish Nation is not the rape of anybody’s identity, you must know this“

Now picture yourself as a kurd in Semdinli. A few days ago the Prime Minister comes to your town and says ” We will be all united under the upper identity of the Turkish Republic respecting the sub-identities of people. We are citizens of the Turkish republic, nobody should be uneasy about it “. And if the next day the opposition leader responds to these words with the above statement, what do you understand from all of this?

Yes, the Constitution says that anybody who is a citizen of the Turkish republic is a Turk, but exactly as Baykal put it this is just “legal” and on paper. Because being a Turk also implies being a member of a specific ethnic group, and those Turkish citizens that are not a member of that ethnic group, may not be too happy of calling themselves Turkish.

The important thing is to be loyal to the Turkish Republic, to be loyal to its flag, integrity and language.

…

For 80 years we have been denying the existence of the Kurdish people and the situation we are in as a result of this is for everybody to see. This cannot be continued. If we love this country we must not continue this.

[Khan]

It certainly is a problem which needs to be addressed. It worries Turkish elites to give Kurds more rights due to their sheer number, but i feel for Turkey to move to its next phase it must solve this problem. The problem is Turkey is heavily formed around a Turkish identity, and the however many millions of Kurds there are go directly against this. I am all for giving them more rights.

[brother]

I have several kurdish famalies as neighbours where i live and i asked them this question many times before and i have always got the same answer from them we are turkish kurds like you are turkish cypriot and when i ask them if they want a seperate country they answer me quite passionately that they do not want THEIR turkish republic split up and they believe we are stronger together.
This is the opinion of 8 different famalies.