A community living in entirely feudal conditions cannot of course be classed as a nation. But in today’s world where does such feudalism exist? Capitalism quietly entered the life of oppressed Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, uniting the markets there to a certain degree, achieving common economic life and opening the way to the formation of nations. There are today in very limited areas of certain regions of the world tribal communities that have not become nations, but these are so few as to not merit a mention.
To summarize:
It is abundantly clear to all who have not been affected by ferocious Turkish chauvinism that in Turkey the Kurds constitute a nation.[9] Kurdish workers, poor and medium peasants, semi-proletarians, urban petit bourgeoisie, the entire Kurdish bourgeoisie and landlords are included in the scope of the Kurdish nation. National oppression is not only implemented against the Kurdish people, but the entire Kurdish nation, except for a handful of large feudal landlords and a few big bourgeoisie who have entirely coalesced with the Turkish ruling classes. The Kurdish workers, peasants, urban petit bourgeoisie and small landlords all suffer from national oppression.
The real target of national oppression is the bourgeoisie of the oppressed, dependent and subject nation, for the capitalists and landlords want to own the wealth and markets of the country without rivals. They wish to retain the privilege of founding a state. They want to ensure “linguistic unity,” which is absolutely necessary for the market by banning the other languages. The bourgeoisie and landlords belonging to the oppressed nation are a significant obstacle to these ambitions, for they wish to possess their own market, control it as they wish and exploit its material wealth and the labor of the people.
These are the strong economic factors that have the bourgeoisie and landlords of the two nations at each other’s throats for this reason the bourgeoisie and landlords of the ruling nation engage in ceaseless national oppression, which targets the bourgeoisie and landlords of the oppressed nation.
Today, the fascist martial law authorities have filled Diyarbakir Prison with democratic Kurdish intellectuals and youth who are the spokesmen of the Kurdish bourgeoisie and landlords. Today, small landlords and a section of Kurdish religious figures are in dungeons, or are being sought to be packed into dungeons.
As for the handful of large landlords, their flatterers and the few large bourgeois, they have for a long time been in alliance with the Turkish ruling classes. All manner of privilege is open to them, as it is to the Turkish ruling classes. The army, gendarme and police are also at their service. Kemal Burkay[10] put it like this:
The feudal lords have abandoned their old claims to sovereignty; they have given up their obstinate insistence on being the sole ruler of certain small kingdoms. Instead, they have established cooperation with the bourgeoisie. In the economic and political spheres, landlords, religious leaders, even sheikhs, are involved in commerce; they work their land with tractors, and they also have the lion’s share of bank credit. They are also becoming local councilors, mayors, MPs and ministers. Political parties are at their command. Now, there is not a Sheikh Said[11] pursuing the cause of the “Emirate of Kurdistan,” but there are “assistant professor sheikhs” who undertake roles such as group spokesman in parliament… Now, there is no Seyit Riza[12] ruling the mountains of Dersim, but there is his grandson who receives significant amounts in commission on the transportation of chrome ore from the same mountains to İskenderun, from there to Italy and then to America. And the eastern feudal remnants now get on very well with the bureaucracy. Since then, they have become accustomed to ties and felt hats.
The points made by Kemal Burkay are correct in regards to the large landlords and a few large bourgeois and the sycophants, but are absolutely not correct in regards to all the “feudal remnants” and the entire Kurdish bourgeoisie, as he wishes to indicate. The small landlords and a very large proportion of the Kurdish bourgeoisie suffer the national oppression of the Turkish ruling classes. They also suffer persecution by the large Kurdish feudal leaders. A handful of large landlords get significant tribute from small landlords through coercion and persecution. The reason small landlords and the Kurdish bourgeoisie feel anger towards the large feudal landlords and their hangers on comes down to these two reasons. The reaction displayed by Kemal Burkay is also due to this. Kemal Burkay mentions a homogenous “Eastern people,” aside from the “feudal remnants” integrated with the “Turkish bourgeoisie,” while expertly disguising the fact that it includes the Kurdish bourgeoisie and small landlords. (I mean the entire people apart from backward elements such as landlords, religious figures and collaborationist bourgeoisie.) In this way, the contradiction between the Kurdish proletariat, semi-proletariat, poor and middle peasantry and the Kurdish bourgeoisie and small landlords is ignored. The class objectives of the Kurdish bourgeoisie and small landlords are shown as if they are the same as those of the proletarian elements and the poor peasantry.
9
This article was written in June 1972 at a time when the fascism of the March 12 Martial Law was at its violent height. Martial law had been officially declared in Diyarbakır and Siirt, but in reality it was implemented in the entire Kurdish region. The Martial Law headquarters in this region was in Diyarbakir.
10
Kemal Burkay was a Kurdish politburo member of the TIP. He published several theoretical articles studying the economic situation and history of the Kurdish nation. In 1974, together with other cadres of TIP, he led a split to form an independent Kurdish party called the Kurdistan Socialist Party.
11
Sheikh Said was the leader of the first Kurdish rebellion in the history of the Republic of Turkey in 1925. Most of its fighters were part of a clandestine Kurdish organization called the “Azadi.” The propaganda surrounding this rebellion was deeply religious (Sheikh Said calling it a “jihad to protect Islam”), but it goals were fundamentally nationalist, i.e., to establish a free Emirate of Kurdistan and protect Kurds from forced assimilation. He was captured and hanged following the defeat of his rebellion.
12
Seyit Riza was the leader of the 1937-1938 Dersim Rebellion. The rebellion took place in the mountains of Dersim, and was crushed using artillery and aerial bombing with an estimated 80,000 people massacred. This massacre is considered the first genocide of the Republic of Turkey. Like Sheikh Said, he was captured and hanged.