The fears of Turkey on the referendum in northern Iraq

The historic referendum that will take place in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region is what Turkey has been denying for decades. Now that the decision is at the door, Turkish officials are halfheartedly making angry statements about a possible independent Kurdish state. But while the Turkish Armed Forces are carrying out an exercise on the border, Turkey's top soldier Gen. Hulusi Akar is in New York with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, cutting ribbons and inaugurating buildings. So really, it is hardly convincing if Turkey is serious about its cross-border ambitions.

The crux of the matter should have dawned on people last week when Hatun Tuğluk, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Deputy Chairwoman Aysel Tuğluk's mother, passed away. Aysel Tuğluk, who has been in jail for some time got special permission to attend her mother's funeral in Ankara. But a group of mob disrupted the service, threatened the other HDP members, and claimed that the place was not an "Armenian cemetery" and that they would not let her be buried there. Osman Baydemir, the spokesman of the HDP, claimed that the mob had brought tractors to take the corpse out. The incident terrified everyone including Justice and Development Party (AK Party) members, the president's spokesman, etc. Usual condemnations came one after the other, and the issue died when three members of the mob got arrested and jailed.

The problem starts right there. In many Turks' minds, Kurds are a part of this nation but different from them, so they should not be equal. Prof. Tanju Tosun from Ege University defined the psyche as "Willingly Distancing" in an interview with Birgün Daily. The late Hatun Tuğluk's funeral is the most extreme example of this, but even in well- educated circles, in the middle-class...