‘Town of the First Bullet’ Ayvalık reveals bitter ethnic rift



"I participated in the demonstration to condemn terror. But it did not change the situation. People are not shopping at my store," says İ.A., a small market owner of Kurdish origin in the beautiful Aegean coastal town of Ayvalık.



The Turkish-Kurdish ethnic rift in Turkey is reflected even in the beautiful coastal town of Ayvalık. There have been many incidents revealing the frictions between Kurds and Turks in the town
He says that this exclusion is not new. His market's windows were broken once last year, too. "Even if I forget something entirely valueless outside, they take it. They have this idea that whatever we take from this Kurd, it is fine," he says. Then he shows some products in his shop, "you see, this is 30 lira in the big markets, here it is just 15 lira. Even the fixed-priced items like Coke are cheaper here, but no one buys," he explains with concern in his blue eyes.

He has lived in the area for more then 15 years. His business was fine at the beginning he says. But later the situation changed. "It is not only because of the recent events," he says, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) latest terrorist attacks.

On Oct. 21 there were clashes in Dağlıca between Turkish soldiers and PKK terrorists. Thirteen soldiers were killed in the fighting. After this incident there were demonstrations against PKK terrorism all over Turkey. There were demonstrations in Ayvalık and surrounding villages. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt urged the Turkish people to control themselves while displaying their feelings in these demonstrations. But there were violent incidents in several places. There were attacks on Kurdish-owned business and on Kurdish homes. In some locations the offices of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) were vandalized. The DTP presents itself as the party of Kurdish citizens and its officials refuse to condemn the PKK as a terrorist organization despite criticism from the other parties. Nevertheless, according to İ.A. these events are not the real reason for the decline in business at his store.

“Last year, there was a security operation. Several people were arrested for usury. Some of them were Kurdish. Since then the local people here have boycotted Kurds. Anyway, this is a small place and everybody knows each other,” he adds.

A local politician and a local journalist agree, saying that in Ayvalık and the surrounding areas the ethnic origins of a criminal can harm his fellows, too. They say that the history of Ayvalık is another factor that contributes to frictions in the town.

Ayvalık was once a very lively town. In the 19th century there were foreign trade consulates here because of the region’s exports, mainly olive products and silk. During Ottoman times, there were Greeks and Turks were living together peacefully. However, after the Greek population participated in an uprising against the Ottoman state, they were expelled. After World War I, when Greek forces occupied the region, “the first bullet for resistance” was fired in Ayvalık. There are several monuments to commemorate this event in the town. The rehabilitation center for the families of veterans and martyrs from the Turkish army, mainly the victims of the current conflict in southeastern Anatolia, is named the First Bullet Rehabilitation Center. Recently a group of women from the town applied to the military enrolment office in Ayvalık and asked for permission to fight against terror. After the Turkish War of Independence some of the populations exchanged between Greece and Turkey settled in Ayvalık. For most of them it was the first stop on their way to their new country.

Today Ayvalık despite its best efforts still cannot reach its full potential for exporting olive products. Its extremely beautiful landscape and the sea are appeal mainly to domestic tourism; there are many summer houses in the vicinity. There is trade between Ayvalık and Greece’s island of Lesbos. But in the wintertime there is not that much to do in the town.

A teacher who has lived in Ayvalık for more than 30 years says that the town was not like this in previous years. She says: “Many unemployed people came to town. The atmosphere changed. Those people created problems. For example, even a broken refrigerator of mine was stolen from in front of my house.”

One of the developing sectors in Ayvalık is construction. The work attracts Kurdish workers who have migrated to the town. One of them does not even want to meet for an interview in the town center but, instead, outside of town. He says: “I have been here to earn my bread for eight years. Look at me, it is obvious that I am a Kurd. I cannot change my features. But they are sort of forcing us to take part in this friction. They are coming to our cafés. They swear about ‘the Kurds.’ Recently in one café, just because we were speaking in Kurdish, we were told we were disturbing others.”

The houses left by the Greek population are mostly preserved as they were when the Greeks left. Sabahattin Eniştekin, originally from Muş, has lived in Ayvalık for 26 years. He renovated one of the old Greek houses to sell it. But he says it has been attacked several times, its windows broken, its doors ripped off the hinges.

“It is jealousy. They are not doing anything to make money. When we do, they don’t like it,” he explains. Eniştekin is also the founder of the branch of the People’s Democracy Party (HADEP), which was the predecessor of the DTP.

“They are talking about the flag. We won this flag together. The others came later, they came to what was ready,” he says. He means that Turks and Kurds fought together in the War of Independence. The DTP wants constitutional recognition of Kurds as a founding element of the republic. When Eniştekin says “the others” he means the immigrants who came with the population exchange after the war.

Eniştekin says that once there was a street fight between him and some others after the house he was renovating by him was attacked. “An ammunition clip was left at the scene. The police thought that I was responsible. But I don’t have any criminal record,” he says.

Nevertheless, he still thinks that the general population of Ayvalık is not hostile to the Kurds: “We have to thank to them because they remain calm despite the provocations. Only a few people are doing these things.” But he adds that the provocations are increasing. “I know a Kurdish woman who was assaulted verbally because of her ethnic origins. She did not tell her husband about it. If she does, there could be a serious problem,” he explains.

He is not the only one who was linked with DTP or its predecessor parties and was attacked. The Karaduman family, originally from Ağrı, has lived in a town in Ayvalık since 1989. They feel disturbed by the atmosphere here. Their house in Küçükköy was attacked twice. One night while they were sleeping their windows were broken. On another night their home was attacked with a Molotov cocktail. Salih Karaduman, who works in construction, says that his daughter feels the psychological effects at school. She is always asking when they will leave the village. He says that her peers have been teasing her.

“The villagers are saying that we made a house here and we must stay. We decided to leave. But even for the small price we are asking for our house we cannot find any buyers,” they claim.

According to them there is an imam in the same village who is also from Ağrı. He is not involved with politics at all but his house was stoned, too.

A local politician says that Küçükköy’s residents are primarily of Bosnian origin. The politician says that the attacks on houses are not because of Kurdish-Turkish tensions but because the other inhabitants of the village don’t want anyone else there.

Once they caught one of the attackers, beat him up and delivered him to the police, the Karaduman family says. They explain that the police did not take any action, “We lost our trust in the state authorities.”

The Karaduman family says that the villagers are asking them to hang a Turkish flag. “They hang flags even on their barns, is it that cheap?” they ask.

They did not hang a flag on their house. But café owner Ali Ay from Mardin, who has lived in Ayvalık for 15 years, says that the Kurds of Ayvalık don’t have any problem hanging flags. “Every morning I walk to the kiosk to buy a newspaper. All the shops that hang flags are owned by Kurds. What is happing is economic jealousy,” he claims in his café. A Turkish flag hangs in the window.

Another Kurdish-owned restaurant is being boycotted by the local people. At this restaurant there are two big Turkish flags and pictures depicting the War of Independence. Because of its location, this restaurant is very popular -- especially with tourists -- in the summer. The owner does not want to talk about the implicit boycott. When he is asked about it, he says: “Whoever said this to you, I am sure was joking. I am from here. I married a woman from Ayvalık.” But everyone knows that his patio chairs were thrown into the sea couple of years ago.

The head of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) Ayvalık branch, Ali Osman Yazıcı, says that there really isn’t any Kurdish-Turkish conflict in the town. “There are some neighborhoods that are mixed, populated by Kurds and Turks living together, and there is no problem at all. But sometimes personal problems look like something else,” he claims.

A local journalist agrees with him. “In the summertime, everybody is doing their jobs. But in winter, there isn’t that much to do. Here there is also a tendency to exaggerate events a little. A small thing can be suddenly sound very big. There is no friction in Ayvalık, but sometimes just a little tense atmosphere,” he says.

But on the other hand, this tension can be turn into street fights. A couple of years ago, there was a street fight between Kurds and Turks on Ayvalık’s Cunda Island. Actually, what happened there varies according to who is telling the story. Everybody tells a different version. Some claim that it was the fault of the Kurds, that they exceeded the limits and disturbed the peaceful atmosphere of the island. Some argue that the Kurds were attacked without reason. Others claim that the inhabitants of the island don’t want any strangers there. Whatever the reason, most of the shops owned by Kurds in the island were closed. A man from Mardin who has lived in Ayvalık since 1988 had a greengrocery on the island, and it was amongst the stores that are now shut down.

“We were making good money. I felt myself belonging there. Shall I hide my origins? Then who can trust me? I don’t have any personal conflict with anyone. Where should I go? Isn’t this Turkey? Am I not a Turkish citizen?” he asks. He also does not hide his disappointment about his former customers. “We had good relations based on respect. But when I asked to leave, they did not support me. Now I am selling in the local market and some people don’t buy from me because I am a Kurd,” he says.

During the anti-terror demonstrations the DTP office in Ayvalık was burned down. The first official report says that the fire erupted because of an electrical problem in the building. The DTP Ayvalık branch head, Mehmet Toprak, says that they don’t believe it.

“We were there for a few years. There was no electric problem until now but it suddenly happens on that day? It will be very difficult to find a new place. No one will rent their building to us. The only way will be to buy one.” He adds: “But our headquarters is asking us to calm down, and we are. For the Kurds of Ayvalık, despite the provocations of a handful of people, our patience has not been stretched to the limit, yet,” he says.



11.11.2007

AYŞE KARABAT AYVALIK
Source:
http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=2402

I remember reading the same article in Turkish.
Such a shame and a huge embarresment for every Turkish citizen.
Thanks for sharing Kaddersokak.