Gulan 4th June 2007: The need for Kurdology

The text in Kurdish.

I have done my PhD thesis in sociology about the effects of the war for civil population in last decade in Southeast Turkey. I think this kind of research is also Kurdology through usually the term is understood to mean research about Kurdish culture and language.

Many weeks I wanted to write in Gulan about Kurdology. It develops now rapidly. There are new researchers who are interested about the Kurdish issue and students making their PhD thesis about the Kurds. And even more ones planning it. There is almost a flow of new books about the Kurds. The situation is really different than it was ten years ago. There are Kurdish universities in Hewler and Sulaymania making contacts to universities around the world. In European countries there is a new generation of Kurdish youth who want to make research their own ethnic group. And also Europeans - like me - have became interested in this issue.

Now most information about the Kurds is collected by intelligence services, not by universities. There is great need for good research about the Kurds, the Turks and their historical relationship. Turks need it as much as Kurds. Because now it seems that Turks are making important decisions based on totally wrong information. It is dangerous for them. They wow that they want to start a war against the Kurds without understanding what is there in the mountains waiting for them. Why I did not write earlier about Kurdology? Because every week something important happened in Ankara which I wanted to comment. Even this week I would have many things to say about the recent speeches of General Büyükanit. But it has to wait now.
This week I want to say that I believe that Kurdology has great future. Kurdologs, researchers in Kurdology are creating a new science. Like Kurdish activists are creating something new in their own field in culture, mass media, politics and what ever thing they work with. The future generations will base their systems in practises which are created now.

Academic research is often a little bit distant when it analyses an armed conflict. For me, even when I want to describe a situation deeply, it is difficult to take a distant attitude. When it is question of life and death and survival of a nation and its language it is more important to campaign for the right things than to describe their failure in an academically correct way.

In Turkey there is no academic research about the Kurds done from the Kurdish perspective. The issue is studied only from the Kemalist perspective. But there are many Kurdish organisations surveying the problems. I believe in the future when there will be peace their activities are a good basis for correct research about the Kurds.

Kurdish activities flourish from a situation which is changing all the time. Kurds are very creative. I feel that I am privileged when I can follow the development of the Kurdish national movement from a near distance. Of course I know that Kurds themselves just wish to live a normal life, it is not your choice to be part in such a horrible situation. I tell one example. Last week Gulan's internet page was attacked by a hacker who replaced Gulan's articles by picture of Kemal Atatürk. I am sure this was very frustrating for the staff of Gulan but I started to laugh when I saw the hacker's creature. I felt that I want to work even more harder for the Kurdish issue. Making research about traditional issues is not like this. I am sure in the future the experiences in Kurdology will benefit also research in other fields.