You're right, of course. If I seemed to suggest so...

2008-05-02T03:05:00.000-05:00

You're right, of course. If I seemed to suggest some sort of optimism, then I didn't do a very good job. I'm not optimistic at all about the Kurdish war in Turkey's east. To me this is tragedy in its purest, most ancient sense. Part of the problem may have been my choice of "grandeur" to go with "Sophoclean" when I discussed the boy's mother. "Sophoclean intensity and anguish" would have been a better choice. And no, going to the mountains is, I feel, a horrible choice for any of these young people to have to make. But make it they do, and many of them go in spite of having been educated. It's a "screw it, I'm going to Spain to fight the fascists" kind of choice.

As for education, there probably isn't a country on earth where it is more highly valued among the common folk than in present-day Turkey. Believe me, these people know how important education is for their children. And if you look at the leadership of the DTP (the "pro-Kurdish" party in Parliament), you see a lot of very strong, educated women. Yes, the brutality against women continues, but they are fighting back and organizing. See a list of Turkish women's organizations here:
http://www.distel.ca/womlist/countries/turkey.html

I know that I walk a fine line in these commentaries, and that by attempting to treat these people sympathetically I run the risk of seeming to glorify war and death. But I continue to feel, as experts like Aliza Marcus and Martin van Bruinessen have advocated, that no peace is going to endure in this area until the men who run the Turkish state are persuaded to sit down and negotiate. The former Centcom Commander Admiral James Fallon said exactly the same thing. And that isn't going to happen until we get an Administration that cares more about decency and fairness than about making more arms sales. Even if that miracle happens, it would still be a tough grind.

I have trouble reading this story with the kind of...

2008-05-01T03:58:00.000-05:00

I have trouble reading this story with the kind of optimism you seem to suggest towards the end. I'm disgusted by the practice of honor killings (and these forced suicides are one of the lowest things I've heard of yet) and I would like nothing better than to believe that "going to the mountains" was something like a solution.

But I've never seen much of a correlation, over the long term, between female participation in military actions and the improvement of the status of women. Even female activism, by itself, seems powerless.

Change comes with education, especially education of women. That's why the Taliban are so viciously against it. That's why anyone with power in a patriarchal society tends to resist it. We need education. Lots of it. Soon.

Comments on Progressive Historians: History For Our Future: "intihar etti"

You're right, of course. If I seemed to suggest so...

I have trouble reading this story with the kind of...