We Turks have one simple argument to justify bigotry, racism, hypocrisy, illogic and irrationality. It's called the "The Realities of Turkey" argument.
Let's give an example:
Let's say you argue that Kurdish citizens of Turkey should be able to freely learn, speak, read and be educated in their own mother tongue (alongside the official language of Turkish of course), because citizens of Turkish origin already have that right so it only seems natural that everybody should have that right. It would seem illogical to answer "No. People whose mother tongue is Turkish should be able to learn, speak, read and be educated in their mother tongue, but people whose mother tongue is not Turkish shouldn't." Illogical, irrational, hypocritical, right? Wrong! Because all we have to do here is whip out this little gem and proclaim unabashedly: "Normally you'd be right, but you have to consider The Realities of Turkey. In Turkey the official language is Turkish, and even though we all come from different backgrounds, we all speak and learn Turkish, therefore everyone should only learn Turkish..." etc. etc. And there it is. The "The Realities of Turkey" argument basically states that things are the way they are because they are the way they are so we shouldn't change anything because that's just how it is and it suits us fine, so there.
Often the answer to that question will include another question like "Then should everybody be able to speak and learn and be educated in their own language if they want to? Should Circassians, Arabs, Albanians, Bosnians, Georgians be able to speak and learn their own language freely?" The answer you would think would be "Of course, Turks speak and learn their own language so then so should others no matter what their ethnicity because it's the most basic inalienable human right to proudly preserve, learn, speak and flourish in your mother tongue." But your answer would actually be wrong once we flip out this little bad boy: "The Realities of Turkey"! In the "The Realities of Turkey" version of the answer to this argument you get to be able to say with a straight face "Normally you'd be correct, but you have to consider The Realities of Turkey." Those realities are of course that Turkey is for the Turks and everyone else can go fuck themselves. If you don't believe me then check out the motto of the country's leading newspaper, Hurriyet, the one "enlightened" Turks read: "Turkey belongs to the Turks".
You might counter all that nonsense with the argument: "Ok, Turkish is and will remain the official language, just as English is the official language of the U.S. or Spanish that of Spain. But why can't people learn other languages and use them freely as well? People can go to Hebrew schools and learn Spanish in the U.S., people can speak Basque or Catalan in Spain, and even use it in local government. So why not in Turkey?" Here you get a standard The Realities of Turkey response that mystically declares "The indivisible unity of the state", as if speaking your own language would disunite the country, as if the banning of Kurdish for eight decades hasn't led to greater disunity in the country than would have occurred if we'd respected people's right to use it, allowed it to be taught, and protected it as if it were a fundamental duty to protect the inalienable cultural and human rights of our citizens regardless of ethnicity. But the The Realities of Turkey argument isn't interested in the fact that there is a 30-year war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, or that the loyalties of the majority of our citizens in the southeast of the country are, to all intents and purposes, lost. What matters is that what has been engrained into our brains since childhood, all that nationalist dogma with flags and maps, remains intact. That our world view doesn't change. That what we know to be true stays true. The people can die, starve, be massacred, driven from their homes and villages, denied their rights, be treated like dirt and vermin, and their own children can be sent to fight and die in a senseless war for nothing. But the nation must remain "united". If you do actually maintain the above point of view, you will be dismissed as having been "educated abroad and thus ignorant of The Realities of Turkey", as if you have to have had a foreign education to be able to maintain a logically tenable argument! (which, actually, maybe you do)
The Realities of Turkey argument always comes with these kinds of memorized cliches that have been dogmatically hardwired into Turks' brains since childhood. It almost always includes some reference to the Turkish War of Liberation from 1919 to 1922 against the occupying powers after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI. The one who flips out the The Realities of Turkey argument usually mentions how all of us, regardless of ethnicity, fought and died [sic] to free the country and create the Republic of Turkey. You would think that this would logically segue into an argument for the cultural rights of those other than Turks if they fought and died side by side with Turks to create Turkey. But no, those aren't The Realities of Turkey. They fought and died to create a state that didn't recognize their existence or their rights if they happened to be unfortunate enough to not be Turkish, which is just fine. Shedding your blood for the motherland is fine, just don't expect any respect or recognition in return unless you agreed to renounce your ethnic and cultural identity. Those are The Realities of Turkey. That's why you will always be confronted by the "Every citizen of Turkey is equal, regardless of ethnic background, even presidents and prime ministers have been Kurds!" defense at some point, without it even occurring to the utterer of that absurd position that people are only equal regardless of background as long as they accept they are Turks in the foreground. That little point somehow always slips through.
Another favorite argument repeated by the defenders of The Realities of Turkey is the belief that the Kurds just need to develop economically, that it's all an economic problem, and once they're as wealthy as us all their desire to be Kurds and speak their language or seek autonomy will magically disappear! The arrogance of this view aside, it's the illogic of it that is particularly troublesome. After all, Catalans are plenty prosperous, as are Basques, or the Catholics of Northern Ireland, and yet they are no less adamant on their cultural rights, and all harbor strong local independence movements. But the The Realities of Turkey argument states that Kurds are uneducated and poor and are thus vulnerable enough to be duped into defending their cultural and linguistic rights by foreign powers, although they would never espouse such ludicrous beliefs if they were healthy and sane. After all, the The Realities of Turkey argument always assumes that people don't really want to speak their own language but are tricked by foreigners into believing they should. It argues that they are puppets at the hands of foreign powers who instigate and provoke in these people a false sense of pride in their mother tongue and ethno-cultural identity, and who--without that foreign provocation and meddling that takes advantage of their lack of education and poverty--would be happy to just renounce it all and be good humble little servants who have no interest in being anything other than what the Turkish establishment wants them to be.
Provocation is a key word here. In Turkey when a person or a group of people stand up for something you yourself are against, you immediately claim without any hesitation whatsoever that they must have been "provoked" into thinking and acting that way. The use of the word provocation assumes that people who think otherwise to you cannot possibly be justified in those thoughts, but only espouse them because they are actually weak of mind, deluded, ignorant (of The Realities of Turkey), poor, and thus mindless and helpless pawns in some other greater sinister enemy power's hands--a power that, surprise surprise, wants to destroy everything you cherish, love, and hold sacred.
And so everyone's provoked, except you of course. Your thoughts are sacred, true, and completely the product of your own free will. If you are a pro-establishmentarian secularist, then the Islamists and Kurds are being provoked, misled and brainwashed; if you're an Islamist then the secularists are being provoked and misled and brainwashed; and if you're a Kurdish nationalist, the secularists and the military are being provoked and misled and brainwashed. But the interesting fact here is that every side believes that the others are being provoked and misled and brainwashed by Western powers, namely the U.S., Britain and France. And so what lies at the root of the The Realities of Turkey argument is really a deep inferiority complex vis-a-vis the West, which is supposedly constantly trying to stymie and scupper Turkey. It assumes that the only reason why the West is so far advanced is because they've always tried to keep us down by turning us against each other, and that if those sinister weasels wouldn't meddle at all, we'd be right up there with the best of them. If only those no good rascals didn't somehow make Kurds think they should be proud of being Kurds, everything would be fine! If only they didn't support the Islamists against the military and the secular establishment, the Islamists would just sit back and accept things the way they were! Or from an Islamist point of view, if only the West withdrew their support for the secularists and the military, everyone would go back to their natural Islamic roots, cover their heads, pray to God, and believe in angels and prophets and jinns and heaven and hell the way they're supposed to.
And there you have it, the illogical, irrational Realities of Turkey. We're talking about educated and often not unintelligent people upholding very stupid and logically untenable arguments. For example, point out how under the regime of Todor Zhivkov in Bulgaria in the late-'80s the Turks were forced to use Bulgarian names, how Turkish was banned from being taught in schools, and how Turks were put through a policy of forcible Bulgarianization, and the average Turk will call "Genocide!" (as indeed our government at the time did). But then mention that Turkey for 80 years applied exactly the same policies to the Kurds and other nationalities, and things are magically different! "But Turkey is Turkish", they will say! Why? Because you have to consider... The Realities of Turkey! That means that reason takes a back seat, hypocrisy is considered the least of our worries, and the only thing that matters anymore is what we want the truth to be, regardless of whether it's tenable, moral, ethical, logical or realistic, and regardless of whether it continues to cause death, misery, injustice, oppression and hate.
* In Turkish: "Türkiye'nin gerçekleri"
