Nationalism | Teen Ink

Nationalism

December 30, 2014
By Whatcem SILVER, İstanbul, Other
Whatcem SILVER, İstanbul, Other
8 articles 0 photos 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Life is short, birds are flying.&quot;<br /> -Cemal S&uuml;reya


The first day on my 7th grade, when I first came to Istanbul, I met this boy in my English class. We were introducing ourselves and since I was the new one, I became the center of attention. I told the class where I came from, a small city from the east of Turkey; I didn’t know much English so my pronunciation was very poor. Everyone in that class started to laugh and I smiled too, guess I didn’t understand what kind of “ha-ha” was that. Then this boy wiped out the smile on my face with one single word. “Kurd!”. Everyone in that class laughed again, yet this time with a different “ha-ha”.

In these days, many people don’t want to accept the existence of Kurds nonetheless they use the nation’s name a swear word. I wanted to learn how they got this power and I saw it was nationalism. I saw how leaders slaughtered thousands of Kurd-Alevi civils for their country’s unity and safety: Dersim genocide, I saw how Turkish government banned the Kurdish language and Customs, and I saw how the government covered the massacre they did with the flag of nationalism. The sad part is that we can’t see how it is been used to shed blood of our own folks. We can’t see how our government waves the flag of nationalism to avoid us see the bloody-sky. We can’t see; under the name of nationalism, leaders exploit folks for their ulterior motives.



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This article has 3 comments.


on Jan. 21 2015 at 12:43 pm
ansem_unlimited PLATINUM, Frederick, Maryland
33 articles 0 photos 140 comments

Favorite Quote:
Thou may think of me as desired, to idolize or villanize me whichever you may choose. but gaze upon me and thou sall not see the husk of a man! for all my sins and all my bliss, i am anything but hollow <br /> -Ansem_Unlimited

I guess, but In my own way I see something.... "magical" in someone so nationalistic that they would die for their country. people who buy their right to their banner with their own blood so we need not shed our own.

Whatcem SILVER said...
on Jan. 16 2015 at 6:58 am
Whatcem SILVER, İstanbul, Other
8 articles 0 photos 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Life is short, birds are flying.&quot;<br /> -Cemal S&uuml;reya

Well,it depends on the point of view. I agree that loving your coutry is a beautiful thing, but nationalism and being nationalist doesn't mean that. The definiton of the word is to be proud of your country because you were born it and it is better than others. I think that is pretty discriminative. Especially in Turkey, most of the people use the word to insult Kurds. But as I said, it depends on your point of view, so I respect that.

on Jan. 15 2015 at 12:14 pm
ansem_unlimited PLATINUM, Frederick, Maryland
33 articles 0 photos 140 comments

Favorite Quote:
Thou may think of me as desired, to idolize or villanize me whichever you may choose. but gaze upon me and thou sall not see the husk of a man! for all my sins and all my bliss, i am anything but hollow <br /> -Ansem_Unlimited

in my opinion, nationalism as an ideal is a beautiful thing. pride in one's country is an upstanding trait. but it's those who manipulate the nationalistic who are at fault... NOT the nationalist