Rojava represents a model of peace, freedom, and equality in the lands that the Kurdish people have inhabited for thousands of years. This model carries hope for coexistence and democratic values not only for Kurds but for all the peoples of the region. From its very inception, the reality of Rojava has been relentlessly targeted by the Turkish state's propaganda machine. Continuing a sort of historical reflex, the Turkish state has transformed its hostility toward the Kurds into a political strategy against the reality of Rojava, employing a narrative of "matter of survival" to justify every form of smear campaign and defamation.

The Turkish state's propaganda machine targets Rojava in order to undermine, deny, and vilify the Kurdish struggle to protect their identity and very existence. Realities are distorted, and all means to criminalize a people’s freedom struggle are deemed acceptable. The social and political achievements of the Kurds are presented as a threat through the media, politics, and international diplomacy, perpetuating a propaganda campaign rooted in historical animosity. This effort to discredit the Kurds' demand for identity and cultural values on national and international platforms underscores the depth and systematic nature of the hostility faced by the Kurds throughout history.

Since its foundation, the Turkish state has systematically ignored the Kurds and suppressed their demands for rights through the strategic use of societal influence tools. The unchanging defamation policies dating back to the 1925s extend across a broad spectrum from the media to literature, religious rhetoric to manipulations in cultural relations.

A propaganda process rooted in massacres

The Turkish state established media under its official discourse, always portraying the Kurds as a "backward" and "uncivilized" people. Writers and intellectuals of the time spent their energy producing propaganda to vilify the Kurds through literature, newspapers, and magazines. Two core policies were never abandoned during this period: first, defaming the Kurds; and second, creating internal divisions among the Kurds to foster enmity and destruction.

When the Kurds’ struggle for rights turned into open conflict in 1925, the state began to see the results of these policies. The process of annihilating the Kurds was initiated alongside the propaganda machine. Internal contradictions were created among the Kurds, and publications emerged claiming that Kurds were not a people and even questioning their existence. But if Kurds were not a people, why was the state investing so much of its energy, economy, and international relations in this matter? While the people suffered in poverty, why was the state dedicating its resources to proving the absence of a people it claimed did not exist?

This article delves into the 100 year-long uninterrupted Kurdish resistance, examining how the Turkish state's propaganda machine has been weaponized to invert the truth and manipulate society.

Truth’s resistance against propaganda under the shadow of weapons

After 1925, a repressive era began in many parts of Kurdistan where saying "I am Kurdish" was forbidden. Unlike the Ottoman period, the Turkish state gained the capacity to station extensive military forces in Kurdistan. This military threat soon turned into mass massacres. The state mobilized all its resources to annihilate or assimilate a defenseless population. It is interesting that while claiming Kurds were Turks, the state simultaneously launched campaigns promoting the use of the Turkish language, even awarding prizes to those who learned Turkish. The same media outlets organizing Turkish language contests also published relentless propaganda denying the very existence of the Kurds and their ability to form a societal identity. The construction of Turkish identity was shaped by the denial of Kurdish existence, and this denial was enforced on the ground. All Kurds resisting assimilation were systematically targeted for elimination.

From 1925 to the 1930s and into 1938, as military dominance bolstered confidence, religious rhetoric became a significant part of the state’s propaganda. Mosques and religious practices were reshaped to align with this policy. Kurdish people were pressured to accept the leadership role of the Turks in religion. The massacres, forced migrations, executions, and destruction of settlements during this period were ignored and instead presented as part of the defamation of the Kurds. The media, intellectuals, and other propaganda elements functioned as ideological tools of the state, deepening societal marginalization of the Kurdish people.

Religious propaganda and Kurdish annihilation

Religion became one of the primary tools of this propaganda process. Propaganda shaped through religious rhetoric targeting Sunni Kurds deepened faith-based divisions among the Kurds and was ruthlessly used to legitimize the massacres of Kurdish Alevis. However, before this stage, the suppression of the Kurds' second-largest uprising, the Ağrı Resistance, was deemed necessary.

During this period, the propaganda machine operated at full speed, breaking all moral boundaries. Novels, magazines, newspapers, and literary works were turned into tools of propaganda. The propagandist figures we see today on television screens were replaced by these communication mediums at the time. All these elements were activated as auxiliary instruments in the war aimed at suppressing the Kurdish people's struggle for existence and erasing the collective memory of society.

First the truth was killed

Why would a state persistently attempt to deny the existence of a people? The answer is simple: this strategy aims to provide legitimacy for their annihilation. What is sacrificed to propaganda is the truth itself. The Ağrı uprising serves as a significant example of how propaganda operates. Examining the writings of Cumhuriyet newspaper correspondent Mahmut Esat Karakut from that period sheds light on how this process was constructed. Karakut's novel, “Dağda Bekleyen Kız” (The Girl Waiting in the Mountains), was a work explicitly designed to systematically degrade the Kurds.

The media was used to construct such perceptions, just as it is today. The state distorted the truth and manipulated public memory to control society. Through these propaganda apparatuses, Kurds were portrayed not as a people but as a barbaric group unworthy of even living. In this way, the goal was to erase the historical rights and cultural heritage of the Kurds.

However, this propaganda was full of contradictions. Was the truth the Kurdish people, the indigenous inhabitants of the region for thousands of years with a rich culture and civilization? Or was it the brutal face of the state, which slaughtered thousands of women, children, the elderly, and civilians in places like Zilan Valley, even resorting to bayoneting pregnant women? The answer to this question reveals the state's manipulative tactics and how it distorted the truth. By denying the existence of a people and obscuring the truth of their culture and presence, the state sought to legitimize its oppression. Yet, as always, the truth lies beyond propaganda.

Tens of thousands of innocent civilians were massacred with bayonets, poisonous gas, and artillery fire, with these atrocities spun as victories in the headlines. This is how the propaganda machine of that era inverted the truth. Seize the Kurds' land, steal their culture, have them shelter you, learn civilization from them, and then massacre them. Then act as if nothing ever happened. This is how the truth was sacrificed to the propaganda machine of the newly established Turkish state in these lands. Today, the situation in Rojava is hit by precisely the same propaganda tactics. Yet history is not written about the so-called evil of the Kurds—it speaks of the massacres and barbarities they have endured. Now, a century later, the state's propaganda machine that distorted this historical truth is once again in action in Rojava, targeting the Kurds once more.

History does not record the massacres, the bloody atrocities, and the genocide in Dersim as acts committed by the Kurds. The Kurdish Alevis, who lived in peace for thousands of years with their traditions, tribal systems, and spiritual teachings, were first targeted by the propaganda machine and then subjected to some of the most brutal scenes of massacre in human history. The propaganda machine labeled the Alevis as "godless and faithless," thereby legitimizing the process that led to their extermination. This is the truth, and history has documented it as such.

Following these events, there was a prolonged period without significant resistance in Kurdistan. Military dominance had been established across the region, paving the way for a new era of cultural assimilation through the use of modern propaganda tools. During this time, policies were implemented to erase thousands of years of traditions and the Kurdish language. Thousands of Kurdish works of art and musical pieces were translated into Turkish. Kurdish music was appropriated, rebranded as Turkish art music or folk music, and claimed as part of Turkish heritage.

The 1980s and 1990s: The active use of the propaganda machine

The 1990s marked a period when the Kurdish Political Movement gained strength and broader acceptance within society. This presented a new challenge for the state. To counteract this, the state reintroduced its policies centered on dividing, fragmenting, and vilifying the Kurds, forcefully imposing them on society through its propaganda machine. Every aspect of life was turned into a part of a dirty war. Tens of thousands of village guards, JITEM (the Gendarmerie Intelligence and Anti-Terror Unit), and its extension, Hizbul Kontra, were activated as death squads. Extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and torture became a routine part of daily life. The state's propaganda machine worked tirelessly to cover up this brutality and justify the atrocities committed.

Propagandists speaking on television screens and news headlines in newspapers were focused on justifying the massacres and destruction that had taken place. Burned villages, murdered civilians, and acts of brutality were presented to society as if they were legitimate. The existence of the Kurds was no longer outright denied but was instead demeaned with an arrogant and condescending perspective.

Media outlets competed to absolve the massacres committed by JITEM and other death squads, which indiscriminately targeted men, women, and children. These media tools were mobilized to defame the Kurdish people and their demands.

During this period, the truth was once again inverted for the Kurds. The state covered up the crimes it committed against the Kurds and silenced society, presenting all the pain and oppression as justifiable realities distorted for public consumption.

Rojava and Today: The Continuation of Propaganda

As Rojava adds a new chapter to the Kurdish people's epic of resistance, the Turkish state's propaganda machine works tirelessly to obscure this truth. The struggle for freedom and democracy by the Kurdish people in the region has become a beacon of hope not only for Kurds but for all of humanity.

However, the Turkish state is conducting an intensive propaganda campaign alongside military assaults to destroy the revolutionary popular movement in Rojava. By supporting radical groups and waging war against the Kurds, this strategy reflects a modern continuation of historical massacres. The Turkish media relentlessly perpetuates manipulative narratives to legitimize these atrocities and defame the Kurds.

In Rojava, however, a model has been built that demonstrates the possibility of social equality, cultural diversity, coexistence, and peace, especially under the leadership of women, through resistance against the most barbaric organizations. This truth, despite all pressures, has earned immense respect in global public opinion and created hope for the future.

Today, the Kurds continue to transcend state propaganda by defending their truth. The history being written in Rojava stands as a testament to the Kurdish people's determination and the collective dignity of humanity.