4. Invigorating religiousness

Despite all the pressure of the PKK the main reason why it was not able to establish a sovereign territory in the Southeast region of our country in so many years is the devoutness of our Kurdish people. Bringing up a faithful generation will be one of the most intense strikes over the PKK.

One of the most important characteristics of our Southeast region in which our brothers with Kurdish, Zaza and Arab origins mostly live is that their people are very religious. Those lands have been kneaded with the warmth, beauty and beautiful morality of Islam; strengthened with deep love and affection to God and have remained standing on those foundations. Our Kurdish brothers cannot think of being removed from religion and cannot live away from religion. Therefore, despite all the pressures they face, they have stood up against the threats of the treacherous PKK all the way and behaved resolutely to preserve the integrity of our homeland with the strength of their faith, despite all the oppressions carried out in the past by the deep state. In fact, the religiousness that rules the region is the primary reason for the failure of the PKK in attaining sovereignty in our Southeast region for all these decades.

In order to be able to overthrow the feudal system under the rule of tribes living in the region, a different and highly erroneous approach was adopted in the past. And an understanding, which suggested that these regions would be freed from the feudal order if they remain distant from religion, was developed. Therefore the youngsters of the region were given an educational style with largely leftist tendencies that generally remain aloof from religion. By doing so, a sort of affected culture in which leftist discourses prevail was developed. The decrease in the rate of religiousness among Kurdish youngsters is one of the tragic results brought about by this method. Some of the new generation Kurdish youth were brought up according to this mindset and as a result of this erroneous education they've been given, they were left in the middle of the "irreligiousness-Kurdish ethnocentrism-PKK" axis. These young people are enraged by events that took place in the past even though they are well aware of the fact that the solution is not to be found in the PKK. Yet because the common understanding of religiosity that bound the Kurdish communities to our state for years has been interrupted, they tended involuntarily towards the PKK.

In the following pages of this book, the subject of education will be explained more comprehensively. However here we need to focus on the education policy developed aiming at the youngsters in this situation. The existence of tribes that symbolize strong family ties is very nice and these tribes are the ornaments of our Southeast region. Overcoming the harm caused by the feudal system, one that compelled many youngsters in these tribes to go to the mountains, is not going to be possible by keeping the youth distant from religion but by providing them with an education based on the true values of Islam. Eliminating superstitious beliefs that have been falsely attached to religion, such as regarding women as second-class citizens, would not be possible with socialist approaches. Socialism will soon bring about communism and the practice of terror within the PKK mindset, and while societies were expecting equality, they would soon fall into the trouble of anarchy, injustice, poverty, fear, and lovelessness. It is impossible for us to allow such a structure develop in front of our eyes in the Southeast.

Beautiful scenery from the Great Mosque in Diyarbakir. Top left: An amazingly beautiful Kurdish child.

Superstitions ingrained in society can only be abolished by completely understanding the real Islam as described in the Qur'an. To be able to succeed doing this, an education system that explains the concepts of the superiority of women, democracy, justice, and peace with the verses of the Qur'an should be developed in the Southeast. The facts that true Islam encourages values such as art, music, science and describes the most perfect form of democracy, denounces ethnocentric or racist attitudes and holds women in high esteem, the like of which they've never experienced in any other society, should be demonstrated. The youth who are given this education will be able to build an order based on respect and the Qur'an by keeping their own ties with their tribes and families and also upholding their faith with strength. Establishing this will be very easy for our new generation Kurdish youth so long as our state organizes the form of education in this sense.

An education system emphasizing the concepts of superiority of women, democracy, justice, arts, science, and peace based on the verses of the Qur’an is needed in the Southeast of Turkey. It is important to introduce the true Islam as described in the Qur’an in upbringing the Kurdish youth.

Such an education would be a major blow to the PKK while ruling out the inequalities that push some of the youngsters in the Southeastern Turkey towards the PKK. With the education they will be given, religious youth would not only be equipped to counter the distorted ideology of the PKK but they would also never turn towards the PKK. Such an ideological background, as we will see the details soon, would be sufficient to render the PKK completely ineffective in such a way that they would not be able to hurt our people any more.