Academic threatened in Turkey after celebrating Kurdish revolution

Karwan Faidhi Dri

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish academic has recieved a warning from his university in Turkey after making an online post celebrating a revolution of Kurds against the Iraqi government in the sixties.

"Congratulation to all Kurds for the [anniversary of] Aylul Revolution. Long live Kurdistan," said Hifzullah Kutum in a tweet on September 14. The next day, he was the subject of an investigation launched by his employer.

Kutum is a research assistant specializing in finance at the state-owned Firat University in Elazig, Turkey. His tweet about the Aylul uprising, which was carried out on September 11, 1961 by Iraqi Kurds against a newly-established republic in Baghdad, has garnered backlash from the university and Turkish nationalists. The uprising was led by Mustafa Barzani, founder of Kurdistan Region’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and father of party leader Masoud Barzani. The KDP-dominated Kurdistan Region enjoys good economic relations with Turkey. 

According to the official assignment document obtained by Rudaw English, Kenan Peker, deputy dean of Economics and Administrative Faculty, assigned a faculty member, Izzet Tasar, to launch an investigation about the tweet and submit his report within 30 days. Kutum has shared the same post on his Instagram account as well. 

Another document shows that Tasar invited Kutum to give his defense the next day. According to his defense document, seen by Rudaw English, Kutum told them that he is influenced by Barzani and other Kurdish leaders. His tweet was accompanied by a famous photograph of Barzani riding a horse, with the Kurdistan flag in the background. Kutum said the Kurdish flag is recognized by Ankara.

The university decided on October 12 to issue a warning to Kutum in relation to his case, meaning the repetition of the act may cause his expulsion. 

“What I shared falls under my freedom of expression,” Kutum told Rudaw’s Abdulselam Akinci on Sunday. “It was not a crime. There is not even a criminal side of the case to require administrative discipline.”

He claimed that he has been threatened by Turkish nationalists for the celebration. 

“They have said they will beat me and intimidate me,” he told Rudaw, adding that he will not give up expressing slogans related to his ethnicity. 

This is not the first time use of the word “Kurdistan” creates controversy in Turkey. In 2017, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Osman Baydemir was suspended from parliament for referring to Kurdistan in session. 

Kurds consider Kurdish-populated areas in southeast Turkey, northern Iraq (Kurdistan Region), western Iran and northeast Syria (Rojava) to be part of Greater Kurdistan, which they say was divided up by Western powers a century ago when they established new borders in the Middle East. 

Turkish police detained a Kurdish tradesman on Friday after he referred to his city as part of “Kurdistan” during an argument with a nationalist politician. 

Cemil Taskesen told Meral Aksener, leader of Turkey’s far-right Good Party (IYI) party, that the southeastern Turkish city of Siirt, is part of Kurdistan. While Kurds applauded him, authorities briefly arrested him on Friday. He was accused of campaigning for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group struggling for the increased political and cultural rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara has designated it as a terrorist organization. Taskesen’s case remains open.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the usage of the word “Kurdistan” in September 2013 while he was prime minister, during the early months of a historic but short-lasting peace process between Ankara and the PKK.

Erdogan told journalists that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, had used the word Kurdistan around a century ago. 

“Is hero Mustafa Kemal a separatist for using this word?” he asked. “These are facts in our history. If we take the matter all the way to the Ottoman Empire, it is already very clear there.”