Turkey welcomes Peace Day 20 days early

Turkey welcomes Peace Day 20 days early

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News


Sept. 21 marks the United Nations’ “International Peace Day” – unless one happens to be a citizen of Turkey or northern Cyprus, which will be issuing the special call for peace at home and the world on Wednesday, Sept. 1 instead.

“We mark the international peace day on Sept. 1. I did not know that the global date was Sept. 21,” said Taner Kocakbis, an activist for the “Art Initiative for Peace,” which was launched last year in parallel to the Justice and Development Party, or AKP’s, “initiative” to solve the Kurdish problem.

The history of the Sept. 1 date goes back to the aftermath of World War II, as the German peace movement and labor unions launched activities to mark the Sept. 1, 1939, invasion of Poland by Nazi armies.

As the day was heavily influenced by the political left in many countries, including Turkey, the United Nations General Assembly “intervened” and declared in 1981 an “International Day of Peace” on the third Tuesday of every September. In 2001, the day was changed internationally from the third Tuesday to Sept. 21.

Kardeş Türküler, a modern folk band that attends activities every Sept. 1, was also unaware of the discrepancy between the Turkish and global dates. Fehmiye Çelik, a vocalist of the internationally renowned music outfit, said it was not of crucial importance to say “Long Live Peace” 20 days earlier or later.

“More than 30,000 people in our country have died because of the Kurdish problem,” Çelik told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “We still have a long way to go in respecting different identities, cultures, sexual orientations and beliefs. The world is also not all that different, there is widespread discrimination. What is important is to mark the peace day in a constructive way.”

The continuation of the Sept. 1 date in Turkey reflects the heavy influence of the socialist left on the country, especially during the 1960s and 1970s. Ragıp Zarakolu, a human rights activist that is among the founders of the Human Rights Association, said Sept. 1 is basically “celebrated by the left” in Turkey, a tradition that was also reflected in political life in northern Cyprus.

More recently, Sept. 1 has been a day that has become synonymous with efforts to peacefully solve the Kurdish problem, as pro-Kurdish political groups take to the streets, calling for an end to military operations in the Southeast.

“[Still,] it is not logical for Turkey to continue celebrating Sept. 1 as Peace Day,” Zarakolu told the Daily News. “Plus, we are not able to find solutions to [the country’s] problems by marking our peace day 20 days earlier. The Kurdish problem has not yet been solved and intellectuals are still being taken to courts. For whom is this peace?”