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Abstract
Although there has been some relaxation in attitudes towards Kurdish ethnicity in Turkey, established discourses still tend to either make Kurds invisible by emphasising the homogeneity of the Turkish nation, or denigrate them by (re)producing negative stereotypes about Kurds. On the other hand, Kurds in Turkey have access to very different perspectives on Kurdishness via the satellite television channels which can be received in Turkey, the best known being Roj TV. It is argued that humorous Kurdish sketches produced and sold on VCDs and put onto video sharing sites such as YouTube have emerged as a reaction to the often negative other-identifications in the Turkish mainstream. These sketches have their roots in Kurdish and Anatolian folklore and are arguably more successful than the media produced in the European diaspora in producing a discourse of ethnic belonging. The portrayal of a timeless, rural Kurdish world in the sketches has found resonance among Kurds from very varied backgrounds.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank participants in the workshop “Marginality, Nationalism and Citizenship” at the EASA conference 2008 for comments which have improved this paper. I also thank Chris Houston and the anonymous reviewer for their suggestions. All remaining faults are of course my own.
Notes
1. Zaza is usually considered by linguists to be a dialect of Kurdish, but Zaza speakers themselves may or may not consider themselves as Kurds (Bruinessen “Diversity and Division” 29–30).
2. A study by CitationBikmen and Sunar among Turkish first-year university students found widely held negative stereotypes about Armenian, Greek, Kurdish and Gypsy citizens of Turkey. They also cited earlier studies which concurred with their findings.
3. The millet were the groups based on religious affiliation into which the population of the Ottoman Empire was divided.
4. Although Kemalism officially stood – and stands – for laicism, a reformed Islamic identity was – and still is – inherent in the system.
5. Since the absolute ban on Kurdish in the media has been softened, Kurdish characters are sometimes identified by using initial snippets of Kurdish, with Turkish subtitles provided. The characters thereafter speak in Turkish. Otherwise, clues in dress or accent serve to show that a character is Kurdish.
6. These two series conveniently ignore the fact that drug smuggling in Turkey is not possible without the involvement of the army, police and village guards (Karagöz; “Ilahiyatçi”; “Sebekemiz”).
7. Hassanpour's remarks refer to the earlier MED TV, but are equally applicable to Roj TV.
8. In Northern Iraq, Allison found a decline in singing and story-telling after the arrival of TV and the destruction of villages (33–34).
9. Examples are Muhsin Kizilkaya's Kayip Dîwan, in which he writes down and translates into Turkish three oral works well known among the dengbêj (bards) in Hakkari, and the extraordinary effort of Selim CitationTemo, who has compiled a 1,500 page anthology of Kurdish poetry with Turkish translations. Mehmed Uzun, now deceased, lived in exile in Sweden and wrote modern novels in Kurdish.
10. I would like to thank Ömer Sahin of the Teatra Bakur (Northern Theatre) in Istanbul for a helpful discussion on Kurdish popular culture and theatre.
11. I would like to thank Ursula Katipoglu Soltermann for drawing my attention to this similarity.
12. The reference is to a Kalashnikoff.
13. The last sentence (in Turkish “Ne mutlu Türküm diyene”) is a quote attributed to Atatürk and is ubiquitous on statues, in school books, etc.
14. I thank Ömer Sahin for this observation.