Turkey’s problems with it Kurdish population have been around since the 1940s. Despite the fact there is a broad-based consensus among the countries different factions for the need, a solution for these problems could not be found, or implemented. Over the decades the problem turned into an armed conflict orchestrated by separatists and 30 thousand lives have been lost to the heinous attacks. The Gulen Movement’s supporters brought about a different approach that was inclusive and social based. Kurds in Turkey had lost their hope that the state could embrace them and put an end to decades of negligence. The movement’s supporters founded the first private Kurdish language tv station once they were allowed; there is a tremendous interest from the country’s Kurds that shows how the Gulen Movement can act as the cement of the Turkish society.
Ihsan yilmaz recently visited the said TV station and shared his observations with his readers.
Last week, I visited a local Kurdish-language TV station that is based in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, Dunya TV.
Dunya is a Turkish word with an Arabic origin that means the world. It is run by Gulen movement participants. It is the only private Kurdish-language TV station that is mostly funded by Turks. Even though it was only established less than a year ago, I was told that, according to survey data, 20 percent of Kurds who watch TV also watch Dunya TV as well as others. It performs better than the state-sponsored TRT 5, the symbolic importance of which cannot be denied, showing that the state has jettisoned its policy of denial that a language called Kurdish exists. I think Dunya TV's existence could serve a few beneficial results as far as peaceful co-existence in the country is concerned.
It first of all shows that not only the state but Turkish civil society institutions also recognize in practice that the Kurdish language exists and that Kurds are part of this country with in their own linguistic and ethnic identity, not necessarily as an assimilated and “Turkified” population. It also shows that Turks are ready to put their money where their mouth is and invest in an area that will not generate income in even the medium term. What is more, it is obvious that they are running this state for the purpose of peaceful co-existence rather than commercial expectations. Similar to the state's Kurdish TV station's symbolic importance, this will have an influence on the hearts and minds of many Kurds who are not true believers of “Kurdism.” We must also not forget that this Dunya TV has been complemented by the movement's educational and humanitarian efforts in the region. It also refutes the claims that the Gulen movement is a nationalist movement.
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