When a child throws a stone
When a child throws a stone
A young Laz woman from Hopa district of Artvin, Müge Tuzcuoðlu, who devolved the whole income of the book 'I am a Stone' to the ‘children project’ of the ‘Ivy Association’ says; “I think to understand why a child throws a stone passes through understanding the problems of a child living in Kurdistan today. My being here, looking at the children and understanding that stone is also the effort I give to understand myself.”
Müge Tuzcuoðlu is a young journalist and author born in 1983. Ankara University Language, History and Geography Faculty Antropology Department graduate Tuzcuoðlu is one of the administrators of the Ivy Association in Diyarbakýr. Having worked for the pro-Kurdish newspaper Evrensel between 2002 and 2007, Tuzcuoðlu considers that period as the turning point of her life apart from another milestone in her life; the murder of Uður Kaymaz which made her leave the university, her profession and Ankara. “It wasn’t enough for me to make news about him, which made me buy a ticket to Diyarbakýr. I have been living in Diyarbakýr for three years”, says Tuzcuoðlu.
We made an interview with Müge Tuzcuoðlu about her book “I am a stone”.
* Why stone throwing children and Diyarbakýr? Which story enabled you reach the fruits of this history?
Diyarbakýr is a special place. Begin with; it continuously hosted the human life as well as being the center of social relations and trade for five thousand years. It protected this feature in the economic sense until 1970s and we see that Diyarbakýr is still the first place to look in terms of social relations.
I believe that it would be wrong to distinguish today from hundreds-thousands of years and looking at today by isolating it from the history. I believe that understanding Diyarbakýr is of great importance today for the geographies of Turkey, Kurdistan and the Middle East. Diyarbakýr still stands on this history and this is the way it exists.
At the same time, Diyarbakýr is perhaps the most political city in geographical areas that I have just mentioned. The politicized standing consists of knowledge and experience spreading to all areas of life and it creates a special type of person. All these features in fact lays a heavy burden on Diyarbakýr.
As to children, as I mentioned in the book also, they constituted my most special times within these three years. Children are very distinct, they approach the event in an unsparing and unprejudiced way.
As of today, children are the end of the historical process we have mentioned. In other words, they constitute the segment where this knowledge comes into sight. The mobility of this segment and their rebel against some things pass through understanding this broad history in general and the recent process creating this dynamism in particular.
This recent process is the process of a 30-year war. The heavy burden on Diyarbakýr is carried by women, men and children in different ways. Their roles have changed in the wake of 30 years. The family profile is changing in Kurdistan and particularly in Diyarbakýr where forced migration and urbanizations are in question. Family was one of the major subjects put into words by the children on the book because children can’t take part in the family with their children world in both the former and new profiles.
When a child can’t play a part in his family, he unfortunately can’t play a part in his neighborhood, school, city or country either. In addition, the child is exposed to pressures. He speaks Kurdish within the family but he faces a different language in school. In his neighborhood, he is pushed into "criminal offense" such as drugs and theft. He isn’t provided with any areas of activities such as education, sport or entertainment. Apart from not being able to play a part in his country with either his identity or existence, he is suppressed and killed every day. So, what will this child do?
In such a jam, he will make way for taking a breath which I myself wanted to inspire and understand. To understand the children who throw stones and those on the other side who lean to other ways such as theft in this jam passes happens through seeing them in their neighborhood, school, city and country. I believe that the stone and the hands extended to that stone are of great importance in terms of understanding the problems of the children living in Kurdistan.
*Your book consists of stories of “children that can see no future”. What kind of a future could these children create in your opinion? Do you think that the “springs” of these children are still alive?
I met very beautiful children and very nice people. I am very hopeful children since a very beautiful future could be created with such beautiful, intelligent and clear people. They give great efforts to rectify the mistakes they see in their lives. They don’t want to make the mistakes made by their families and the people around them. They are really very talented and intelligent but the circumstances…
Their circumstances lead to a matter of “seeing no future”. Here, it is really uncertain what will happen tomorrow. Their peers die at mountains, on streets, set their bodies on fire and are put in prisons. Nothing is more usual than an uncertain future in such a situation.
What makes them a “child” is the spring in themselves. This childhood is what makes them pure and hopeful. I think we all need this spring and this childhood.
*There are two sides in your book and there is a great gap between these two sides. What would you like to say about the children’s reaction that “they need to live what we lived to understand us”?
Experiencing is something different! Even if I listen to thousands of stories about village evacuations, I still won’t know the smell of a burnt down village. Or, I have never touched the coldness of a dead body. I don’t recognize that concreteness. I didn’t see the faces that children tell nor did I live such a poverty.
With my feelings and mind, I can just see the consequences and effects of this concreteness. That is what I tried to do achieve with this book; to make people feel and see them. Such things were lived in Diyarbakýr, Batman and Mardin while we were living in Ankara, Istanbul, Aydýn or Trabzon. We will no doubt never be able to bring those years back or see them but what we can do is to feel, understand and think over this situation. What are these cities doing, feeling and demanding today?
The people’s insult and hate against Kurds in the western part of the country is a feeling more than a thought. These feelings no doubt base on not knowing as a person fears and stays away from the thing he/she doesn’t know. I believe that thought will advance as well if we humanly recognize, understand and feel each other.
*Do you think that the western part of Turkey knows about what these children live?
Absolutely not. I therefore especially chose to interview with children as this is the way to enable us overcome our prejudices and understand the war here. As I told in the book also, the human life is something much more than numbers. After reading the book, a friend of mine something like this: "Yes, you're right; what is in the objective appearance of war with regard to the “inner wars” it created in subjective worlds!” This is what I wanted to tell because the dynamism which ensures change and creates movement lies in these “inner wars”. That’s why I care much about children and want them to be understood.
What we can see from the west is only the numeral sides of the events; the number of the evacuated villages and the people killed… Seeing numbers doesn’t mean seeing the “inside in such an intense psychological warfare.
However, I believe that peace and change could be created as long as these are seen. Beyond accepting the evacuation of thousands of villages, in order to bring peace and change, we need to understand what a family felt while leaving their village and seeing their houses burnt down. Or to make an apology afterwards… This is what will relieve Kurds. A moment when mothers from both side cry together or a park where children with two different languages play… This is the peace I perceive. The acceptance, apology and peace among peoples will not be demolished.
FOR SUPPORT
** Account number for those who want to support the children's Project of the Ivy Association;
Ýþ Bankasý, Central Branch
EURO No.0706602
IBAN. TR 21 0006 4000 0028 3000 7066 02
Müge Tuzcuoðlu is a young journalist and author born in 1983. Ankara University Language, History and Geography Faculty Antropology Department graduate Tuzcuoðlu is one of the administrators of the Ivy Association in Diyarbakýr. Having worked for the pro-Kurdish newspaper Evrensel between 2002 and 2007, Tuzcuoðlu considers that period as the turning point of her life apart from another milestone in her life; the murder of Uður Kaymaz which made her leave the university, her profession and Ankara. “It wasn’t enough for me to make news about him, which made me buy a ticket to Diyarbakýr. I have been living in Diyarbakýr for three years”, says Tuzcuoðlu.
We made an interview with Müge Tuzcuoðlu about her book “I am a stone”.
* Why stone throwing children and Diyarbakýr? Which story enabled you reach the fruits of this history?
Diyarbakýr is a special place. Begin with; it continuously hosted the human life as well as being the center of social relations and trade for five thousand years. It protected this feature in the economic sense until 1970s and we see that Diyarbakýr is still the first place to look in terms of social relations.
I believe that it would be wrong to distinguish today from hundreds-thousands of years and looking at today by isolating it from the history. I believe that understanding Diyarbakýr is of great importance today for the geographies of Turkey, Kurdistan and the Middle East. Diyarbakýr still stands on this history and this is the way it exists.
At the same time, Diyarbakýr is perhaps the most political city in geographical areas that I have just mentioned. The politicized standing consists of knowledge and experience spreading to all areas of life and it creates a special type of person. All these features in fact lays a heavy burden on Diyarbakýr.
As to children, as I mentioned in the book also, they constituted my most special times within these three years. Children are very distinct, they approach the event in an unsparing and unprejudiced way.
As of today, children are the end of the historical process we have mentioned. In other words, they constitute the segment where this knowledge comes into sight. The mobility of this segment and their rebel against some things pass through understanding this broad history in general and the recent process creating this dynamism in particular.
This recent process is the process of a 30-year war. The heavy burden on Diyarbakýr is carried by women, men and children in different ways. Their roles have changed in the wake of 30 years. The family profile is changing in Kurdistan and particularly in Diyarbakýr where forced migration and urbanizations are in question. Family was one of the major subjects put into words by the children on the book because children can’t take part in the family with their children world in both the former and new profiles.
When a child can’t play a part in his family, he unfortunately can’t play a part in his neighborhood, school, city or country either. In addition, the child is exposed to pressures. He speaks Kurdish within the family but he faces a different language in school. In his neighborhood, he is pushed into "criminal offense" such as drugs and theft. He isn’t provided with any areas of activities such as education, sport or entertainment. Apart from not being able to play a part in his country with either his identity or existence, he is suppressed and killed every day. So, what will this child do?
In such a jam, he will make way for taking a breath which I myself wanted to inspire and understand. To understand the children who throw stones and those on the other side who lean to other ways such as theft in this jam passes happens through seeing them in their neighborhood, school, city and country. I believe that the stone and the hands extended to that stone are of great importance in terms of understanding the problems of the children living in Kurdistan.
*Your book consists of stories of “children that can see no future”. What kind of a future could these children create in your opinion? Do you think that the “springs” of these children are still alive?
I met very beautiful children and very nice people. I am very hopeful children since a very beautiful future could be created with such beautiful, intelligent and clear people. They give great efforts to rectify the mistakes they see in their lives. They don’t want to make the mistakes made by their families and the people around them. They are really very talented and intelligent but the circumstances…
Their circumstances lead to a matter of “seeing no future”. Here, it is really uncertain what will happen tomorrow. Their peers die at mountains, on streets, set their bodies on fire and are put in prisons. Nothing is more usual than an uncertain future in such a situation.
What makes them a “child” is the spring in themselves. This childhood is what makes them pure and hopeful. I think we all need this spring and this childhood.
*There are two sides in your book and there is a great gap between these two sides. What would you like to say about the children’s reaction that “they need to live what we lived to understand us”?
Experiencing is something different! Even if I listen to thousands of stories about village evacuations, I still won’t know the smell of a burnt down village. Or, I have never touched the coldness of a dead body. I don’t recognize that concreteness. I didn’t see the faces that children tell nor did I live such a poverty.
With my feelings and mind, I can just see the consequences and effects of this concreteness. That is what I tried to do achieve with this book; to make people feel and see them. Such things were lived in Diyarbakýr, Batman and Mardin while we were living in Ankara, Istanbul, Aydýn or Trabzon. We will no doubt never be able to bring those years back or see them but what we can do is to feel, understand and think over this situation. What are these cities doing, feeling and demanding today?
The people’s insult and hate against Kurds in the western part of the country is a feeling more than a thought. These feelings no doubt base on not knowing as a person fears and stays away from the thing he/she doesn’t know. I believe that thought will advance as well if we humanly recognize, understand and feel each other.
*Do you think that the western part of Turkey knows about what these children live?
Absolutely not. I therefore especially chose to interview with children as this is the way to enable us overcome our prejudices and understand the war here. As I told in the book also, the human life is something much more than numbers. After reading the book, a friend of mine something like this: "Yes, you're right; what is in the objective appearance of war with regard to the “inner wars” it created in subjective worlds!” This is what I wanted to tell because the dynamism which ensures change and creates movement lies in these “inner wars”. That’s why I care much about children and want them to be understood.
What we can see from the west is only the numeral sides of the events; the number of the evacuated villages and the people killed… Seeing numbers doesn’t mean seeing the “inside in such an intense psychological warfare.
However, I believe that peace and change could be created as long as these are seen. Beyond accepting the evacuation of thousands of villages, in order to bring peace and change, we need to understand what a family felt while leaving their village and seeing their houses burnt down. Or to make an apology afterwards… This is what will relieve Kurds. A moment when mothers from both side cry together or a park where children with two different languages play… This is the peace I perceive. The acceptance, apology and peace among peoples will not be demolished.
FOR SUPPORT
** Account number for those who want to support the children's Project of the Ivy Association;
Ýþ Bankasý, Central Branch
EURO No.0706602
IBAN. TR 21 0006 4000 0028 3000 7066 02
