Western Cultural Imperialism and Protestant Missionary Activities: The Case of the Kurds of Türkiye

Year 2024, Volume: 26 Issue: 3, 1212 - 1228, 27.09.2024

Recep Gulmez

https://doi.org/10.32709/akusosbil.1208274

Abstract

Protestantism has opposed the conservative paradigm since its first emergence, aiming to change the status quo. With the rise of nation-states, Protestantism, supporting minorities in their separatist actions within the scope of democracy and human rights, plays a remarkable role in the spread of cultural imperialism. Since the Ottoman period in Turkey, the conversion of minorities and local people has been considered a separatist act. The Protestant sect/Christianity began to spread in the Middle East, especially in the early 19th century, through missionaries. The Protestant missionaries, who made their influence felt throughout the region, attracted the attention of the Ottoman state to the point of provoking a reaction. In the early 21st century, especially in the Middle East, especially in the geography where Kurds live densely, Protestant missionaries have been conducting cultural imperialism in the region by targeting minorities. The Zirve publishing house incident and the recent relations of Pastor Brunson with the Kurds and the PKK terrorist organization support our argument. The missionaries, called the vanguard forces of imperialism, envision the Kurds converting to Christianity and thus turning them into groups subjugated by imperialism. The fact that Kurds are Muslims and a constituent element in Turkey constitutes an obstacle to separatist movements. Therefore, in order for them to obtain minority status, they must first be given the status of other official non-Muslims and have minority rights (education in mother tongue, having their own schools and foundations, etc.). In this exploratory study, which is methodologically based on a historical sociological approach, it is claimed that cultural imperialism supports Protestant missionary activities to control minorities and that Kurds are Christianized. The Christianization of the Kurds prepares the ground for the formation of separatist activities in the region and supports the divide-and-rule policy.

Keywords

Protestanlık, misyonerlik, kültürel emperyalizm, kürtler

Batı Kültürel Emperyalizm ve Protestan Misyonerlik Faaliyetleri: Türkiye Kürtleri Örneği

Abstract

Protestanlık, ilk ortaya çıktığı günden itibaren muhafazakâr paradigmaya karşı çıkarak statükocu yapının değişmesini hedeflemektedir. Ulus-devletlerin yükselmesi ile birlikte azınlıklara ayrılıkçı eylemlerinde demokrasi ve insan hakları kapsamında destek veren Protestanlık kültürel emperyalizmin yayılmasında dikkat çekici rol oynamaktadır. Türkiye’de Osmanlı devleti döneminden itibaren azınlıkların ve yerel halkın din değiştirmesi ayrılıkçı bir hareket olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Protestan mezhebi/Hristiyanlık Orta-Doğu coğrafyasında bilhassa 19. yüzyıl başlarında misyonerler vasıtasıyla yayılmaya başlamıştır. Tüm bölgede etkisini hissettiren Protestan misyonerler Osmanlı devletinin tepki verecek kadar ilgisini çekmiştir. 21. yüzyıl başlarında başta Orta-Doğu olmak üzere bilhassa Kürtlerin yoğun yaşadığı coğrafyada Protestan misyonerler azınlıklara yönelerek bölgede kültürel emperyalizmi hedefleyen çalışmalar yürütmektedirler. Zirve yayınevi olayı ile yakın zamanda Rahip Brunson’ın Kürtler ve PKK terör örgütü ile ilişkileri tezimi destekler niteliktedir. Emperyalizmin öncü kuvvetleri olarak adlandırılabilecek misyonerler Kürtlerin Hristiyanlığa geçmesini ve böylece emperyalizmin boyunduruk altına aldığı gruplara dönüşmelerini öngörmektedirler. Kürtlerin Müslüman oluşu ve Türkiye’de kurucu unsur olmaları ayrılıkçı hareketlerin önünde bir engel teşkil etmektedir. Bu nedenle, öncelikle azınlık statüsü elde etmeleri için diğer resmi gayri-Müslim statüsüne geçmeleri ve azınlık haklarına (anadilde eğitim, kendi okul ve vakıfların olması vb) sahip olmaları gerekir. Yöntemsel açıdan tarihsel sosyolojik yaklaşımla ele aldığımız bu keşifsel çalışmamızda kültürel emperyalizmin azınlıkları kontrol altına almak üzere Protestan misyonerlik faaliyetlerini desteklediği ve Kürtlerin Hristiyanlaştırıldığı iddia edilmektedir. Kürtlerin Hristiyanlaştırılması bölgede ayrılıkçı faaliyetlerin oluşmasına zemine hazırlamakta ve böl-yönet politikasını desteklemektedir

Keywords

Protestanlık, misyonerlik, kültürel emperyalizm, kürtler

References

• Abrams, P. (1982). Historical sociology. Open Books.
• Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A. (2018). Ulusların düşüşü: güç, zenginlik ve yoksulluğun kökenleri (F. R. Velioğlu, Trans.). Doğan Kitap. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=mOW8ngEACAAJ
• Afghānī, J. A. D. (1983). An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal ad-Din" al-Afghani" (Vol. 10). University of California Press.
• Ahmad, F. (1991). Politics and Islam in modern Turkey. Middle Eastern Studies, 27(1), 3-21.
• Ahmad, I. (2011). Democracy and Islam. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 37(4), 459-470. https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453711400996
• Al-Fatawi, O. (2018). Democracy in Islam study in human rights law. Journal of Law and Political Sciences, 17(2), 9-60. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000461083100001
• Al-Fatlawi, S. H. (2016). Islam's Attitude towards Democracy Comparative Study in International Human Rights Law. Journal of Politics and Law, 9(1), 73-87. https://doi.org/10.5539/jpl.v9n1p73
• Alptekin, M. Y. (2017). Ortadoğu’da Oryantalist Kışkırtma ve Kürtler. Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 7(14), 375-399.
• Barton, G. (2011). Democracy in Islam, Routledge Studies in Political Islam. Australian Journal of Political Science, 46(2), 361-363. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000291460300014
• Benhenda, M. (2011). Liberal democracy and political Islam: The search for common ground. Politics Philosophy & Economics, 10(1), 88-115. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470594x10368248
• Binder, G. (1999). Cultural relativism and cultural imperialism in human rights law. Buffalo Human Rights Law Review, 5(1), 211-221.
• Bishop, A. J. (1990). Western Mathematics - the Secret Weapon of Cultural Imperialism. Race & Class, 32(2), 51-65. https://doi.org/10.1177/030639689003200204
• Blincoe, R. (2019). Ethnic realities and the church : lessons from Kurdistan : a historical study of missionary work, 1668-1990. William Carey Press.
• Browers, M. (2015). Democratic Theory and the Question of Islam. Democratic Theory-an Interdisciplinary Journal, 2(2), 79-87. https://doi.org/10.3167/dt.2015.020207
• Burgess, M. (1988, Sep). Political Catholicism, European unity and the rise of Christian Democracy.Bloomsbury Academic Collections [Making the new europe: European unity and the second world war]. 2nd Conference on Making the New Europe? - The Problem of European Unity and the Second World War, Univ Hull, Hull, ENGLAND.
• Capotorti, F. (1979). Study on the Rights of Persons Belonging to Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. Un Document: E/CN.4/Sub.2/384/Rev.1. New York. United Nations
• Carr, E. H. (2018). Tarih Nedir? (M. G. Gürtürk, Trans.; 22 ed.). İletişim Yayınları.
• Carothers, T. (2002). The end of the transition paradigm. Journal of Democracy, 13(1), 5-21. doi:DOI 10.1353/jod.2002.0003,
• Conroy-Krutz, E. (2015). Christian imperialism : converting the world in the early American republic. Cornell University Press.
• Cook, B. J., & Stathis, M. (2012). Democracy and Islam: promises and perils for the Arab Spring protests. Journal of Global Responsibility, 3(2), 175-186. https://doi.org/10.1108/20412561211260485
• Dalyan, M. G. (2017). The Studies of Missionarıes’ Kurdish Bible and Its Effetcs on Kurdish Nationalism. Route Educational and Social Science Journal 4(7), 43-51.
• Demirel, D. (2013). Max Weber'in Sosyoloji Kuramı. Electronic Turkish Studies, 8(12), 361-369.
• Dunch, R. (2002). Beyond cultural imperialism: Cultural theory, Christian missions, and global modernity. History and Theory, 41(3), 301-325. https://doi.org/Doi 10.1111/1468-2303.00208
• Eisenstadt, S.N. (2000). Multiple Modernities. Daedalus, 129(1). www.jstor.org/stable/20027613
• Gleason, P. (1987). Pluralism, democracy, and catholicism in the era of world-war-II. Review of Politics, 49(2), 208-230. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0034670500033799
• Goonatilake, S. (2019). Cultural Imperialism: A Short History, Future, and a Postscript from the Present. In H. Bernd & S. Russell (Eds.), Cultural Imperialism: Essays on the Political Economy of Cultural Domination (pp. 33-51). University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/doi:10.3138/9781442602090-009
• Gouda, M., & Hanafy, S. (2021). Islamic Constitutions and Democracy. Political Research Quarterly, Article 1065912921991241. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912921991241
• Guttmann, A. (1994). Games and Empires. Modern Sports and Cultural Imperialism. Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/doi:10.7312/gutt91262
• Hale, W., & Ozbudun, E. (2010). Islam, democracy and the Turkish experience Introduction. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000273738800001
• Hanusch, M. (2013). Islam and democracy: a response. Public Choice, 154(3-4), 315-321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-012-0025-y
• Horner, N. A. (1980). Christianity in North Africa Today. Occasional Bulletin of Missionary Research, 4(2), 83-88. https://doi.org/10.1177/239693938000400208
• Huntington, S. P. (2011). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order (Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.). Simon & Schuster.
• Hutchison, W. R. (1987). Errand to the world : American Protestant thought and foreign missions. University of Chicago Press.
• Ingram, D. (2014). How Secular Should Democracy Be? A Cross-Disciplinary Study of Catholicism and Islam in Promoting Public Reason. Politics Religion & Ideology, 15(3), 380-400. https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2014.948594
• İplikçi, A. (2017). Kolonyalizm ve Emperyalizm Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme. Atatürk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 21(4), 1527-1540.
• Kaliber, A., & Whiting, M. (2023). Engaging minorities under emergency: Turkish modular emergency and the Kurdish case revisited. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2023.2170725
• Kakizaki, M. (2014). Democracy, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey. Contemporary Islam-Dynamics of Muslim Life, 8(1), 91-94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-012-0222-y
• Karataş, Y. Y. (2014). Demokratik barışçı çözüm ve Kürt sorunu. Evrensel Basım Yayın.
• Keha, M. (2014). Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Mİsyonerlik Ve Erzurum’daki Faaliyetleri. EKEV Akademi, 18(58), 73-96.
• Kemal, N. (2014). Renan Müdafaanamesi: Günümüz Türkçesi, Yeni Türk Harfli Metin, Osmanlı Harfli Metin (Der.Nurullah Çetin). Akçağ Yayınları
• Khalaf, S. (2012). Protestant Missionaries in the Levant: Ungodly Puritans, 1820-1860 Routledge. https://doi.org/. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203104439
• Kieser, H.-L. (2005). Iskalanmış barış: Doğu Vilayetleri'nde misyonerlik, etnik kimlik ve devlet 1839-1938 (A. Dirim, Trans.). İletişim Yayınları. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=U3YKAQAAMAAJ
• Kieser, H.-L. (2001). Muslim Heterodoxy and Protestant Utopia. The Interactions between Alevis and Missionaries in Ottoman Anatolia. Die Welt Des Islams, 41(1), 89–111. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1571378
• Kocabaşoğlu, U. (2000). Anadolu'daki Amerika: Kendi belgeleriyle 19. Yüzyılda Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'ndaki Amerikan misyoner okulları. İmge Kitabevi. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=SMCZnQAACAAJ
• Leezenberg, M. (2021). Religion in Kurdistan. In H. Bozarslan, C. Gunes, & V. Yadirgi (Eds.), The Cambridge History of the Kurds (pp. 477-505). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108623711.020
• Lord, C. (2018). Religious Politics in Turkey: From the Birth of the Republic to the AKP (Cambridge Middle East Studies). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108638906
• Mac Ginty, R., vd. (2007). No War, No Peace: Northern Ireland after the Agreement. Political Psychology, 28(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00548.x
• McAnany, E. G., & Wilkinson, K. T. (1992). From Cultural Imperialists to Takeover Victims - Questions on Hollywood Buyouts from the Critical Tradition. Communication Research, 19(6), 724-748. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365092019006004
• McDowall, D. (2005). A modern history of the Kurds. I.B. Taurus. London
• Morrissey, C. (2019). Protestant nationalists in Ireland, 1900-1923. Cambridge University Press.
• Nye, J. S. (1990). Soft Power. Foreign Policy, 80, 153–171. https://doi.org/10.2307/1148580
• Obo, U. B., vd. (2017). Religion as imperialism: A critique of africa's experience. International Journal in Management & Social Science, 5(4), 74-85.
• Ozoglu, H. (2012). Kurdish notables and the Ottoman state: evolving identities, competing loyalties, and shifting boundaries. State University of New York Press
• Özbudun, E. (2020). AKP at the crossroads: Erdoğan's majoritarian drift. In E. Ozbudun (Ed.) The AKP Since Gezi Park (ss. 14-26). Routledge.
• Özbudun, E. (2014). "AKP at the Crossroads: Erdogan's Majoritarian Drift." South European Society and Politics 19(2): 155-167.
• Özdalga, E. (2020). Bir Tasavvur ve Ustalık Olarak Tarihsel Sosyoloji. In E. Özdalga (Ed.), Tarihsel Sosyoloji (3 ed., pp. 9-68). Doğu Batı.
• Özer, A. I. A. (2023). President Erdogan?s Discourse on the Kurdish Issue br. Mgimo Review of International Relations, 16(1), 201-218. https://doi.org/10.24833/2071-8160-2023-1-88-201-218
• Parsons, T. (1966). Societies; Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives. Prentice-Hall. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=LBM-AAAAIAAJ
• Pascual, D. S. R. (2018). Is an approximation of Islam to democracy possible? Cadernos De Dereito Actual(9), 489-496. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000436552800026
• Pepinsky, T. (2013). The institutional turn in comparative authoritarianism. British Journal of Political Science, 631-653.
• Perreau-Saussine, E. (2012). Catholicism and Democracy: An Essay in the History of Political Thought. Princeton University Press. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000305424600008
• Petras, J. (1993). Cultural Imperialism in the Late 20th-Century. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 23(2), 139-148. https://doi.org/Doi 10.1080/00472339380000091
• Porter, A. (1997). ‘Cultural imperialism’ and protestant missionary enterprise, 1780–1914. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 25(3), 367-391. https://doi.org/10.1080/03086539708583005
• Priego, A. (2009). Is Islam Compatible with Democracy? The Case of Central Asia. Revista Unisci(21), 232-247. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000421375200014
• Pyenson, L. (1985). Cultural imperialism and exact sciences : German expansion overseas, 1900-1930. P. Lang.
• Renan, E. (2019). L'Islam et la science: Questions et Réponses.Ultralettres: Paris.
• Rosenboim, O. (2017). Catholicism, Pluralism, and Global Democracy. Princeton University Press. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000429213600008
• Roskin, M. G., vd. (2016). Political science : an introduction. Pearson Education Limited. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=cWBljwEACAAJ
• Ryrie, A., & Trim, D. J. B. (2022). Four Axes of Mission: Conversion and the Purposes of Mission in Protestant History. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0080440122000020
• Rzepka, M. (2009). Protestants among Kurds and some problems of translations of the Bible into Kurdish in the 19ᵗʰ century. Orientalia Christiana Cracoviensia, 1, 87-94.
• Rzepka, M. (2018). Translation, power and domination: The postcolonial explorations of the Bible in the Kurdish context. In J. Bocheńska (Ed.), Rediscovering Kurdistan’s Cultures and Identities (pp. 187-212). Springer.
• Said, E. W. (1994). Culture and imperialism (1st Vintage Books ed.). Vintage Books.
• Sardarnia, K., & Bahrampour, Y. (2017). Islam and Democracy: A Critical Reappraisal of Adaptation and Contrast Theories. Journal of Politics and Law, 10(3), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.5539/jpl.v10n3p1
• Schoppa, R. K. (2019). Revolution and its past : identities and change in modern Chinese history (Fourth edition. ed.). Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
• Schuck, M., & Crowley, B. J. (2016). Democracy, Culture, Catholicism: Voices from Four Continents. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000375607600030
• Schuck, M. J. (2016). Democracy, culture, catholicism introduction. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000375607600001
• Searle, C. (1984). Naipaulacity: a form of cultural imperialism. Race & Class, 26(2), 45-62. https://doi.org/10.1177/030639688402600204
• Shillington, K. (2018). History of Africa (4th ed.). Red Globe Press.
• Shils, E. (1995). Some of the modern roots of liberal democracy. International Journal on World Peace, 12(3), 3-37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20752038
• Stott, J., & Wright, C. J. H. (2015). Christian Mission in the Modern World. InterVarsity Press. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=-TAqCwAAQBAJ
• Streikus, A. (2016). Democracy and Catholicism in Twentieth-Century Lithuania. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000375607600003
• Sular, M. E. (2020). Zerdüştîlik ve Yezidilik Bağlamında Kürtlerin İnançlarının Kökeni Problemi e-Şarkiyat İlmi Araştırmalar Dergisi, 12(4), 1458-1475.
• Sullivan, J. (1988). ETA and Basque nationalism : the fight for Euskadi, 1890-1986. Routledge.
• Tareen, S. K. (2014). Islam, democracy, and the limits of secular conceptuality. Journal of Law and Religion, 29(1), 206-222. https://doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2013.17
• Tiryakian, E. (2012). Civilization. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
• Tomlinson, J. (1991). Cultural Imperialism: A Critical Introduction. Continuum Publication. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=3WCgnIQGxBcC
• Tomlinson, J. (2012). Cultural Imperialism. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470670590.wbeog129
• Turan, İ. & Akçay, E. Y. (2021). Cultural Position of Kurds in Turkey in the Context of Multiculturalism . Barış Araştırmaları ve Çatışma Çözümleri Dergisi , 9(1) , 43-77 . Retrieved from https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/yalovabaccd/issue/59388/808746
• Türk, İ. C. (2021). Misyonerlik ve Osmanlı Eğitim Sistemindeki Yeri. Düşünce Dünyasında Türkiz, 12(60), 83-114.
• Unal, A. (2022). Self-Identification of Indigeneity within Turkey's Kurdish Political Movement. Middle East Critique, 31(3), 263-284. https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2022.2092669
• Vilmar, F. (2019). Analyzing and Resisting Linguistic Imperialism. In H. Bernd & S. Russell (Eds.), Cultural Imperialism: Essays on the Political Economy of Cultural Domination (pp. 222-232). University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/doi:10.3138/9781442602090-023
• Voll, J. O. (2007). Islam and Democracy: Is Modernization a Barrier? Religion Compass, 1(1), 170-178. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2006.00017.x
• Weber, M. (2013). Protestan Ahlaki ve Kapitalizmin Ruhu. Oda Yayinlari. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=iHUZvgAACAAJ
• White, J. (2013). Rethinking Islam and Liberal Democracy. Contemporary Islam-Dynamics of Muslim Life, 7(2), 251-254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-011-0174-7
• Wigell, M. (2008). Mapping 'Hybrid Regimes': Regime Types and Concepts in Comparative Politics. Democratization, 15(2), 230-250. doi:10.1080/13510340701846319
• Wood, F. G. (1991). The arrogance of faith : Christianity and race in America from the colonial era to the twentieth century. Northeastern University Press.
• Woodberry, R. D. (2012). The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy. American Political Science Review, 106(2), 244-274. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055412000093
• Yayla, A. (2021). Siyaset Bilimi. Adres Yayınları.Ankara.
• Zubovich, G. (2018). American Protestants and the Era of Anti-racist Human Rights. Journal of the History of Ideas, 79(3), 427-443. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhi.2018.0026
• Zurlo, G. A., vd. (2021). World Christianity and Mission 2021: Questions about the Future. International Bulletin of Mission Research, 45(1), 15-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/2396939320966220