Turkey applies dirtiest form of colonialism in occupied Afrin canton

MUSTAFA ALLOU

In general, imperialism is based on empowering a group at the expense of the vulnerable groups, all of which ultimately paves the way for a group of a single-color control a multi-national and multi-belief society, to achieve this goal, the imperialist countries do not only use force but the cultural conquest that provide them with long-term power.

Many researchers in the field of colonialism and forms assert that cultural colonialism is the most dangerous, deadliest and sustainable one, because it is done through soft power and causes inactivity towards this type of colonialism, because they remain in a position it can be called an intellectual coma, and there is no reaction to it.

Cultural colonialism is based on imposing a culture of the dominant power on society. In many prominent examples of colonialism, it is clearly evident that the colonial power is aimed primarily at the language of the colonized society.

For example, Latin America is devoid of the mother tongue, and the majority of its countries speak Spanish or Portuguese, because these countries remained under Spanish occupation for long periods, but even after the demise of the colonialism, the Spanish remained as the most prominent examples of cultural colonialism.

The same applies to countries in North Africa that still speak French and other African countries that speak English, such as Nigeria, as well as in India.

Parallel to language, colonialism works either to change the religion or to exploit them religiously in the event that the religion of the colonial state coincide.

There is a saying in this context, talking about European colonialism and indicating that the Church works side by side of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This introduction was to shed some light on colonialism and its most dangerous forms.

Moving to occupied Afrin, the Turkish practices for 3 consecutive years embodied an imperialist ideology based primarily on cultural colonialism.

The Kurdish is the first element that Turkey is fighting, in addition to the prohibition of the official Kurdish in Afrin canton, after- in addition to Arabic - the official language in the curricula in Afrin, as Turkey began shortly after the occupation of Afrin on the 18th of March 2018 to impose the Turkification on the occupied province.

Videos of Afrin children in schools, waving Turkish flags, went viral on social media, after the Turkish language was imposed on them in about 60 schools of the occupied canton.

Leader Ocalan defines language as “the main element in the field of culture in its narrow sense. Therefore, language can be defined in its narrow sense as culture, for language itself means the societal legacy of mentality, morals, aesthetics, emotions and ideas acquired by a society, which is the existence of the identity and the moment that is perceived and expressed. With regard to meaning and emotion, and a society that expresses itself, it indicates that it has a powerful argument for life ... "

In light of this, it can be shed light on the reality of the Turkish state's goals of imposing its language on society at the expense of denying its mother tongue.

The goal is clear, it is to control the mentality of society, and if mentality is defined in short as the internal direction of the human being, then controlling it means controlling the human being, which is a clear goal of the Turkish occupation.

In parallel with targeting the language, Turkey aims to exploit the community religiously in Afrin, which before the occupation included a mixture of Sunni Kurds, Alawites and Yazidis, in addition to Christians, especially Armenians, as well as Sunni Arabs, but with the beginning of the occupation, about 300,000 Kurds of various religious beliefs were displaced and about 400 thousand mercenaries, a large part of them are Turkmen loyal to Turkey, and their families are in the occupied province.

And just as European colonialism was going alongside the campaigns of proselytizing, so Turkish colonialism is not separated by preachers who do not promote Islam, but rather to the ideas of the Turkish Justice and Development Party, and this is not officially done except that many imams and clerics do so in homes.

Through this, Turkey seeks to impart a religious character to its occupation, and it also wants to display its occupation as a legitimate and religiously blessed act, not to mention trying to impose obedience to the occupation state, the Sultan and Caliph Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Through this, Turkey seeks to impart a religious character to its occupation, and it also wants to display its occupation as a legitimate and religiously blessed act, not to mention trying to impose obedience to the occupying state, the Sultan and Caliph Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Recently, news came from Afrin that Turkey had opened the Anadolu Cultural Center in the province, and this comes as a continuation of previous measures, and brightly confirms that the Turkish goal is to perpetuate its occupation of the province, even in the event of a military withdrawal of the Turkish occupation army from Afrin and the rest of the occupied territories in northern Syria, it will leave behind a society melted in the crucible of Turkification.

ANHA