BY YALCIN PEKSEN
AKSAM- The recent wrangling over ‘Turkish or from Turkey’ shows that it’s difficult to have a meaningful discussion about meaningless concepts. We supposedly started talking in order to head off a conflict about ‘minorities.’ But we couldn’t, and so ended up with a debate over whether we are ‘Turkish or from Turkey.’ Could such a discussion really result in agreement on one of the concepts? If this were possible, then we would already solved the problem of the chicken or the egg by now. All this is related to our desire for a solution. There’s another matter which should be beyond debate: We have to accept that there are minorities and a concept of minority rights. There are minorities in Turkey, as in many other countries. The existence of minority rights is also clear. Even if we seem not to know them, the entire rest of the world does. A solution will be easier if we accept this. We just have to look at how European Union countries have solved their problems concerning minorities and follow their examples. For example those who identify themselves as ‘not Turkish’ would be able to choose their own identity.
If the aim is to leave the problem unresolved, then one can say that everyone must accept a Turkish identity. Furthermore, one can start a debate over being Turkish or from Turkey and create new problems.
We could also look at this from another angle. There are about 3 million Turks living in Germany. Some have German citizenship, some have Turkish citizenship, and some have both. German citizens of Turkish origin can identify themselves as German, or Turkish, or German-Turkish. They have their rights, which are unproblematic. If the German government wanted to let the problem lie, then it would ask all Turks in Germany to identify themselves as German, which would create a problem. Everyone would try to solve the problem, but new unsolved ones would only mount.