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ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES “THE IDEOLOGY OF STONES”: THE EMPOWERMENT OF KURDISH CHILDREN AS POLITICAL ACTORS IN TURKEY M.A. Thesis by Mesut ONATLI Department : Humanities and Social Sciences Programme : Political Studies JUNE 2011 ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES “THE IDEOLOGY OF STONES”: THE EMPOWERMENT OF KURDISH CHILDREN AS POLITICAL ACTORS IN TURKEY M.A. Thesis by Mesut ONATLI 419081015 Date of submission : 6 May 2011 Date of Defence Examination: 9 June 2011 Supervisor (Chairman) : Assist. Prof. Dr. Markus DRESSLER(ITU) Members of the Examining Prof. Dr. Mesut YEĞEN (ŞEHİR) Committee: Assist. Prof. Dr. Alp Yücel KAYA (ITU) JUNE 2011 İSTANBUL TEKNİK ÜNİVERSİTESİ SOSYAL BİLİMLER ENSTİTÜSÜ “TAŞLARIN İDEOLOJİSİ”: KÜRT ÇOCUKLARININ TÜRKİYE’DE POLİTİK BİR AKTÖR OLARAK GÜÇLENMESİ YÜKSEK LİSANS TEZİ Mesut ONATLI 419081015 Tezin Enstitüye Verildiği Tarih : 6 Mayıs 2011 Tezin Savunulduğu Tarih: 9 Haziran 2011 Tez Danışmanı : Yard. Doç. Dr. Markus DRESSLER (İTÜ) Diğer Jüri Üyeleri : Prof. Dr. Mesut YEĞEN (ŞEHİR) Yard. Doç. Dr. Alp Yücel KAYA (İTÜ) HAZİRAN 2011 FOREWORD I would like to thank my supervisor Markus DRESSLER for giving me his valuable advices and supports during my research. I would also like to thank my friend Osman ARA who helped me to reach children, shared his ideas, took photos for my research, and became my driver during my field research. I would also like to thank my friend Mutlu ANLAYICI for his help to reach children for my research. Moreover, I thank Hamit MALTAŞ who helped me to reach children and let me to do my interviews in his café and Mahmut ÇİLE for his helping to reach children. I also thank my brother Cüneyt ONATLI for giving me the keys of both his house and his car so that I can work easily in the city during my field research. Lastly, I thank children of Batman who shared their stories with me. June 2011 Mesut ONATLI iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... iv SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. v ÖZET..................................................................................................................... vi 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 2. METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................. 8 3. A SHORT HISTORY OF KURDISH QUESTION13 4. CITY OF BATMAN ......................................................................................... 20 4.1 History, Landscape, Geography, and Population ...................................... 20 4.2 Economy ...................................................................................................... 21 4.3 Social Structure ........................................................................................... 23 4.4 Development of Kurdish Movement in the City ......................................... 25 4.4 Street Fights between PKK and Hizbullah ................................................. 25 5. CHILDHOOD ................................................................................................... 28 5.1 Sociology of Childhood ................................................................................ 28 5.2 Sociology of Kurdish Children .................................................................... 31 6. STONE THROWING ACTS ........................................................................... 37 6.1 The role of narrations of their families ....................................................... 42 6.1.1 Narrations about the village life ........................................................... 42 6.1.2 Narrations about “Time of Hizbullah” ................................................ 45 6.2 The role of state or powers related to state ................................................. 46 6.3 The role of education in schools: Turkist Education affects Kurdish children in reverse ........................................................................ 52 6.4 The role of Media ........................................................................................ 57 6.4.1 The role of Turkish Media ................................................................... 57 6.4.2 The role of Kurdish Media ................................................................... 60 7. THE EMPOWERMENT OF CHILDREN ...................................................... 63 7.1 “The Ideology of Stones” ............................................................................. 63 7.2 Semi-Autonomous Children Groups as Political Actors ............................ 70 7.3 The Policies of State Powers and Kurdish Movement about these children ............................................................................................... 74 8. A SHORT ANALYSIS ON TWO STUDIES ABOUT STONE THROWING CHILDREN ............................................................................... 84 9. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 96 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... 96 CURRICULUM VITA........................................................................................ 103 iii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 4.1 : A view from Batman ........................................................................... 21 Figure 6.1 : A photograph from street acts in Adana in 2010 .................................. 41 Figure 6.2 : A photograph from street acts in Batman in 2010 ................................ 42 iv “THE IDEOLOGY OF STONES”: THE EMPOWERMENT OF KURDISH CHILDREN AS POLITICAL ACTORS IN TURKEY SUMMARY In this thesis, I examine the issue of stone throwing Kurdish children in Turkey. My argument is based on the interviews that I made with children in the city of Batman. The experienced violence in Kurdish area in the past is reached to the children by the narrations of their family members and other elders. I argue that today, these narrations connect with continuing violence; the reverse effect of Turkist Education at schools on children; the discriminatory language of Turkish media; and the propagandist language of Kurdish media and creates a new memory for children. Both that effect and the sociological structure of childhood in the Kurdish area, form a new form of “childhood”. Those children, with their experiences, see themselves not as “child” but as “youth”. Thus, they get a feeling like “I can do it” and they start to “do it” (act) in streets with their own initiative against the wrongs what they see. These acts, step by step make them as a political actor in cities. These children were affected by what state powers did, state’s “denying Kurds” discourse, the Kurdish Movement, and their families and now they affect these powers as an actor. Moreover, I argue that they are semi-autonomous groups, have no direct relations with Kurdish Movement actors such as PKK or BDP but they do stone throwing acts autonomously on behalf of Kurdish Movement. These acts, as a child said, form an ideology, the ideology of stones. And this ideology makes these children as a new active political opposing group in the streets and creates a new period in Kurdish Question, and thus affects the whole politics in Turkey. v “TAŞLARIN İDEOLOJİSİ”: TÜRKİYE’DE KÜRT ÇOCUKLARININ POLİTİK BİR AKTÖR OLARAK GÜÇLENMESİ ÖZET Bu tezde Türkiye’de taş atan Kürt çocukları meselesini inceliyorum. Tezim, Batman şehrinde çocuklarla yaptığım görüşmelere dayanmaktadır. Kürt bölgesinde özellikle geçmişte yaşanılan şiddet, çocuklara aile üyelerinin ve diğer büyüklerin anlatılarıyla ulaşıyor. Bu anlatıların, bugün devam etmekte olan şiddet; okullardaki Türkçü eğitimin çocuklarda yarattığı ters etki; Türk medyasının ayrımcı dili; ve Kürt medyasının propagandacı dili ile birleşerek çocuklarda yeni bir bellek oluşumuna neden olduğunu tartışıyorum. Hem bu etki hem de Kürt bölgesindeki çocukluğun sosyal yapısı yeni bir “çocukluk”algısı yaratıyor. Bu çocuklar yaşadıklarından hareketle, kendilerini “çocuk” değil “genç” olarak görüyorlar. Böylece, kendilerinde “yapabilirim” duygusu gelişiyor ve bu duyguyla yanlış gördüklerine karşı sokaklarda kendi inisiyatifleriyle “yapmaya” (eylemde bulunmaya) başlıyorlar. Bu eylemlilikleri ise onları şehirlerde adım adım politik bir aktör haline getiriyor. Bu çocuklar, devlet güçlerinin yaptıklarından, devletin “Kürtleri inkar” söyleminden, Kürt Hareketinden ve ailelerinden etkilenip şimdi bir aktör olarak bu güçleri etkiliyorlar. Ayrıca bu çocukların PKK veya BDP gibi Kürt Hareketinin aktörleriyle direk ilişkisinin olmadığını fakat eylemlerini Kürt Hareketi adına yapan yarı-otonom gruplar olduklarını söylüyorum. Bu eylemler, bir çocuğun söylediği gibi bir ideoloji oluşturuyor, taşların ideolojisini. Ve bu ideoloji, bu çocukları sokakta, yeni aktif politik muhalif bir grup haline getirip Kürt Sorunu ekseninde yeni bir süreci başlatıyor ve böylece Türkiye’de bütün siyaseti etkiliyor. vi 1. INTRODUCTION Stone throwing Kurdish children issue creates a new process in Kurdish Question in Turkey. In Kurdish cities and in cities where Kurds were migrated especially in 1990s, Kurdish movement developed. After 2000, especially starting with 26 March- 03 April 2006 acts, Kurdish Children Street acts became everyday acts, which