Sardar Aziz - Rudaw.net: The Van earthquake killed hundreds and injured many more. It not only demolished buildings, but also significantly impacted the nature of the relationship between the Kurds and the Turkish state, the government, its military and security institutions, the Turkish people and the media.
While the post-earthquake response reflected a crisis on many levels, it may also provide -- if there is the will for it -- an opportunity for a new beginning.
First of all, the government was slow and stubborn. Initially, it rejected offers of international assistance to show its own strength when most other states are struggling to cope even under normal conditions. As a result, the number of casualties increased and made the situation worse.
One can assume that this was inevitable. But at the same time, it is fair to ask: Did Turkey try to conceal the affected areas from the outside world? Was the government willing to sacrifice the people of the region (because they are Kurds) only in order to show its bravado?
This government’s position will change the image of the state in the public’s memory and will mark a shift in people's political positions.
Let's examine the role of the institutions. In this case, the military is the institution that is worth scrutinizing more than any other. The military has a heavy presence in the region and is trained for emergencies. But the military did not react as quickly as it was expected to, leave alone its rescue operations. They even failed to provide adequate assistance.
In the middle of the carnage, they were trying to arrest some prisoners who escaped the destroyed prison building -- a move that showed a carelessness about people's feelings.
The Turkish media complained about the response to the quake. In the left-wing newspaper Radikal, Cüneyt Özdemir identified bureaucracy “as one of the main reasons for the chaos and lack of coordination in the aftermath of the earthquakes.”
He wondered how to best tame the monster called “bureaucracy.”
In the newspaper Milliyet, Sedat Ergin wrote about the role of local administration in preventing similar tragedies. He suggested that municipalities should be provided with the authority and equipment to carry out inspections properly.
The aforementioned examples show the media in Turkey do not dare to criticize certain institutions and most of them are biased toward the military or a political party. This leaves the media coverage of the catastrophe inadequate at best.
Despite its tragic consequences, the earthquake is a moment to shake up many rusty beliefs, attitudes and outdated images that cloud any realistic and human understanding of the Kurdish-Turkish relationship with Turkey. Will this mark a new beginning?
In 1775, when an earthquake shook Lisbon, the catastrophe struck on a Catholic holiday and destroyed nearly every important church. For 18th century theology and philosophy, this manifestation of the anger of God was difficult to explain.
Similarly, the Van earthquake shook the region 85 years after the Turkish Republic and unearthed the near-century long mistreatment and marginalization of the Kurds in the region.
The Lisbon earthquake resulted in a rupture with Catholic explanation of the world and paved the way for more scientific understanding. After the earthquake doctrines such 'the best of all possible worlds', sound outdated. Eventually, the Lisbon earthquake paved the way for the European Enlightenment.
The Kurdish-Turkish relationship in Turkey requires an urgent enlightenment, a new mode of thinking, imagining and relating to each other.
This can only be done by turning the earthquake into a political event. Certainly the phrase “political event” implies a breach with the traditional political process and institutions.
A contemporary political theory allows us to grasp this sense of novelty in terms of the significant effect an incident has upon a political discourse. The earthquake should shake the minds and the understanding of those who dealt with it on many levels.
* Sardar Aziz has a PhD in Middle Eastern studies from University College Cork, Ireland. He has taught orientalism at School of Asian Studies, University College Cork.
