Valley of the Wolves: Or Art Deeply Mired in the Lexicon of Bigotry

By: Sabah Salih

April 2, 2006

A political culture that produces and consumes a movie like Valley of the 
Wolves is still a long way from realizing how deeply mired its lexicon is in 
bigotry.

Movies, like advertising, are essentially social texts.  Advertising does 
not just sell a product; it also promotes a style of living.  Movies, 
likewise, do not just tell a story; they also play an important role in 
shaping a national identity.  Like advertising, they do so through a process 
of promotion and demotion, or what Robert Scholes calls in The Protocols of 
Reading "cultural reinforcement," that is, reassuring the viewers that the 
values and beliefs they hold are superior to those held by others. For 
movies, as for advertising, there is also the question of timing, or the 
historical moment: both tend to respond to key political or social 
developments in the life of a culture.  Furthermore, because movies promise 
to satisfy our craving for stories the way mythology did for the ancients, 
we willingly allow our thinking to be saturated by them.  Movies, thus, 
become a big player in the way today's humans think about themselves and 
their world.

For all these reasons, and also because movies can be quite good at 
packaging complicated events as simple stories, movies can play a major role 
in shaping and policing the national culture, especially when they operate 
with an easily identifiable ideological bent.  The aim of such movies is to 
turn a lie into a fact, or a stereotype into a piece of coveted wisdom, or 
racism into a love for one's homeland.  To that end, the viewer is bombarded 
with images, close-ups, and narrative bits and ends at an alarming rate.

Such is the case with the recently released Turkish movie, aggressively and 
suggestively titled Valley of the Wolves.  Here propaganda crudely and 
nakedly masquerades as artistic material.  This much is given to us right 
from the start by the title and then reinforced by the plot.  The word 
 "wolf" has been one of the key terms of self-definition in the racist 
vocabulary of Turkish ultra-nationalism. The wolf's appeal to this 
nationalism stems from the beast's legendary ability for strength, stamina, 
and ruthlessness; this is exactly how this nationalism sees and promotes 
itself, and it is exactly with opposite terms that this nationalism defines 
and demotes its opponents: in this case, the Kurds, the Jews, and the 
Americans. By demonizing these three, the movie confirms for its Turkish 
viewers the righteousness of the racist belief implanted into their heads by 
years and years of ideological indoctrination at school, at home, and at the 
workplace, namely, that to be a Turk is to be racially superior to others.

For the movie, the Kurds are the easiest of the three to be trashed.  One 
reason is because the Kurds traditionally have had little power to define 
themselves by themselves; their enemies have done that for them in order to 
damage them, of course. Another is because Kurdish nationalism has been 
resolute in refusing to bow down to the Turkish state's notion of 
Turkishness as a national ideology. Still another is because Turkish 
nationalism has yet to even admit the word Kurdistan into its vocabulary. 
In other words, within the Turkish national discourse the green light to say 
and believe in some of the most loathsome things about the Kurd is already 
there.   As one fellow student years ago ruefully told me, "Growing up in 
Turkey as a Turk, it never occurred to me, even when I was in college, to 
stop and examine my racist thoughts about the Kurd; I grew up believing, 
like every one else, that the Kurd was really subhuman.  Sadly, the 
situation is not all that different today."

In its portrayal of the Kurd, therefore, the movie takes its cue from the 
storehouse of the national culture itself.  The main reason why the Turks 
continue to be so strongly opposed to the American project in Iraq is 
because they are painfully aware that, whatever the outcome, Kurdistan in 
the end will be its biggest beneficiary.  That this was not in the planning 
makes little difference to them.  They view every American-Kurdish handshake 
as a move against them, and see in the dramatic rise of Southern Kurdistan 
as the mother of all conspiracies against them.  Then came the shocking blow 
to their national pride early in the war when Turkish paratroopers were 
shown on television being arrested and humiliated by American troops near 
Slemani with the Kurds looking on in joyful disbelief.

So, not surprisingly, in trying to erase this national dishonor, Valley of 
the Wolves takes its revenge first and foremost on Kurdistan. The method of 
attack is the standard one, portraying the legitimate struggle of an 
oppressed people against their oppressors as a mercenary act. But the movie 
goes much further than just insulting the Kurd. The movie strips the Kurd of 
nationhood by imposing an embargo on its cultural and political narrative. 
The only approved Kurdish voice in the movie is the one certified to be 
politically acceptable by the Turks. Trashing the Kurd thus becomes the Turk's 
way of feeling good about himself and is one reason for the movie's huge 
popularity at home and among the two-million-plus Turks living in Germany. 
The movie, in short, gives voice to an anti-Kurd feeling already embedded in 
the culture, and in doing so the movie becomes both the endorser and the 
enforcer of that feeling.  Is it any wonder then that even many in the 
Turkish political and military hierarchy have spoken approvingly of the 
movie?

In targeting America for abuse, the movie, likewise, taps into the 
anti-American feeling that has been brewing and intensifying in the country 
by the day since the Iraq invasion.  Here too the movie works with the same 
set of stereotypes making the rounds all over the world: Americans are 
arrogant, Americans are stupid, Americans want to take over the world, 
America is anti-Muslim, America is anti-Europe. You know the rest.  Such 
group thinking or stereotypes are, of course, the most common forms of 
thinking.  Their simplicity makes them very appealing to the masses and the 
intellectually lazy. That is why demagogues love them; they know that such 
thinking, coupled with cinematic images, can be an effective tool of 
ideological manipulation, as was recently demonstrated by the Danish cartoon 
portrayal of Mohammed. (The cartoons offered an opportunity for liberating 
language from the tyranny of the sacred; Islamists responded with the 
tyranny of fatwas and blind rage, thus confirming once again that under them 
language will continue to be a prisoner.) The movie's reliance on stock 
anti-American images is, therefore, calculated to have a similar effect: 
turning gross simplifications, prejudice, even falsehood into a blueprint 
for national thinking.  But, with political Islam also lurking ominously in 
the background, America's demonization will remain incomplete without the 
Jew.  Here, again, there is no shortage of stock images to draw upon; the 
national culture endorses and openly circulates some of the most vicious 
ones.  They all portray the Jew as the archetypal figure of deceit and greed 
responsible for everything from sucking children's blood, to the horrific 
events of 9/11, to even epidemics and natural disasters.

In the end, Valley of the Wolves becomes the source of its own undoing: it 
never stops drawing attention to itself as a project devoted solely to 
ideological manipulation; and, as a consequence, the movie reveals a strong 
bond between itself and its many Turkish viewers.  What easily emerges from 
this is that the movie and the people are actually of the same mind and are 
nourished by the same pattern of thinking.



Dr. Sabah Salih is Professor of English at Bloomsburg University.



http://www.kurdistanobserver.com/

"From: Ali Asker (pasa_as...@lycos.com)
Subject: Re: Kuwerdish contribution to Oscar 2005
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian, soc.culture.kurdish,
soc.culture.turkish, soc.culture.iraq
Date: 2004-10-02 04:55:12 PST


We are the TERRORISTS...


We will divide Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq in to the pieces until
ever single individual is free from thought control, torture and
brain-washing! Every nation should have their own land where they can
practice their own culture. Iran has consist of about 20 some
different nations and we will tore them in to 20 different countries
and give mollahs a small land where they can practice their barbaric
religion to themselves and only harm temselves.


WE WILL BREAK IRAN IN TO THE PIECES!!! "


ﯯ뻻ﯯ뻻


http://www.turkses.com/index.asp


The Terror Organization KADEK


1. General


    Historical Background


    The initial activities regarding the terror organization PKK have
started with the intellectual activities of some students defending the

Marxist-Leninist ideology within the Ankara's Democratic Patriotic
Students Association (ADYÖD) under the leadership of Abdullah ÖCALAN
since 1973.


    Abdullah ÖCALAN and his friends declared the setting up of the
Kurdistan's Workers Party (PKK) during an illegal meeting held in the
Diyarbakir province, Lice district, Fis village on November 27, 1978
which was called 1 st. Congress.


    The inital documents stating PKK's aim were the "The Way Of
Kurdistan's Revolution-Manifesto" and party program published in 1978.
According to the said program, the aim of the terror organization is to

found initially an independent Marxist-Leninist Kurdistan state in the
East and Southeast Anatolian regions in Turkey by using the method of
armed propaganda and to achieve subsequently its final goal of
establishing an "Independent United Kurdistan" through the unification
of the Kurdish states to be founded in neighboring countries.


    To this end, the terror organization PKK having officially declared

the commencement of its armed activities following the bloody attacks
on the districts Eruh and Þemdinli on August 15, 1984 has determined
four-stage strategy in order to divide and destroy Turkey by trying to
gather some part of the people, who have been living in peace within
the country for thousands of years, on a separate territory under a
different flag claiming that they have allegedly a different identity.


    According to the above-mentioned strategy, it has been intended to;



   - Obtain certain cultural and social rights at the first stage,


    - Set up an autonomy or another administrative system of federation

type at the second stage,


    - Establish the alleged North Kurdistan in our territory at the
third stage and


    - Found an independent and united Kurdistan state in the region to
include some parts of Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian territories at the
final stage.


    To this end, the terror organization PKK has adopted the method of
separatism-based, three-phased armed propaganda which was called the
war of people, and based on violence directed against the regional
people. Accordingly, the terror organization PKK has aimed at.


    - Completing strategic defense stage through armed propaganda,
alleged guerilla war and mobile war operations under the control of its

leading staff within the framework of its ideological ideas in the
first phase,


    - Partially completing the process of establishing fronts and an
army and thus, creating the strategic balance which will provide the
balance of power between the security forces and the terror
organization in the second phase and,


    - Establishing saved areas in the region after triggering public
risings wherever possible by escalating the conflicts and passing into
strategic attack state when seizing the authority in the third phase,


    The terror organization which has increased its armed force over 8
thousand men and raised the violence it has used against the people
regardless of their being women, elder or children to the highest level

from 1992 has not been able to achieve the above-mentioned stages until

today due to the measures taken in accordance with the "Area
Superiority Concept" put into practice from 1994, and the operations
successfully conducted by security forces. As a result, the separatist
terror organization was forced to take the decision of unilateral
ceasefire four times in 1993, 1995, 1998 and finally on September 01,
1999 in order to preserve its terrorist power.


    The terror organization desiring to exploit the alleged cease-fire
as an opportunity of recovery for tactical purposes has tried to prove
that it still maintains its existence by continuing its acts and
violence against the civilians and security forces in rural, on the one

hand, carrying out sabotage and bomb attacks in the cities, on the
other hand.


    The Turkish Armed Forces has gained an important success in pulling

down the terror organization and its activities to a marginal level
through a successful military operation it has conducted under the
Turkish constitution and legislation to destroy the internal threat, by

acting in a way that ensures the simultaneous implementation of a
series of administrative, social and economic measures taken to prevent

the support being provided to the terror organization.


    The last achievement of the Turkish Armed Forces in struggling
against terrorism was that head of the terror organization A. ÖCALAN,
who was deported from Syria, was taken to Turkey following his capture
in Kenya/Nairobi on February 15, 1999 and brought before the
independent court.


    The terror organization, tending to resort again to violence during

the period when the head of the terror organization has been taken to
Turkey and brought before the judge, has been able to adapt itself to
the new situation in a short time within the framework of the defense
that head of the terror organization has made in the court and has
tried to reach its goal by exploiting Turkey's EU goal and certain
values such as human rights and democratic rights widely accepted by
the international community. Within the framework of his defense in the

court, the head of the terrorist organization has changed his tactic
and begun to articulate such concepts as "Democratic Republic" and
"Democratic Middle Eastern Union" in its defense to save himself from
capital punishment.


    At the VII. Congress of the terror organization held in the Kandil
Mountain region in Iraq on January 02-23, 2000 during which the new
strategy of the terror organization was agreed, it was decided that;


    - The armed activities should be resumed in case of execution of
head of the terrorist organization and.


    - The Kurdistan's National Liberation Army (ARGK), the alleged
military flank of the terror organization should maintain its existence

under the title of "People Defense Forces (Hezi Parastini Gel-HP) and
the Kurdistan's National Liberation Front (ERNK), the alleged political

flank of the terror organization, which mainly carries out activities
in European countries under the "Kurdish Democratic People Union
(Yekita Democratic A Gele Kurd-YDK) until appropriate legal
arrangements regarding recognition of the Kurdish identity in Turkey
and constitutional guarantees are provided.


    The legalization plan that the terror organization has developed
according to its new strategy agreed during its congress, provides for
the followings:


    - Giving the message that it is ready to make peace with the
government of Turkish Republic in order to obtain the status of being
recognized as a party in national and international public opinion,


    - Handing over some terrorists to the security forces to convince
the public opinion that it is allegedly ready to make peace,


    - Making political studies within the People's Democratic Party
(HADEP), which has political connection with the terror organization,
or a similar legal organization, and cooperating with other political
parties,


    - Making guiding studies within the municipalities governed by
HADEP to broaden grass roots,


    - Having contacts and cooperating with intellectuals from all
circles in Turkey's democratization to ensure the alleged cultural
rights of Kurds being recognized,


    - Demanding that the Turkish government should make legal changes
to prove its goodwill through the human rights organizations,


    - Bringing up the education in Kurdish language,


    - Ensuring the Kurdish identity coming to the fore by focusing on
cultural activities,


    - Organizing campaigns in order to ensure the scope of the law of
amnesty being extended,


    The terror organization has attempted by its new plan to reach its
final goal that it could not achieve through its armed struggle it has
been carrying out for 16 years, through legalization efforts. To this
end, it has increased its activities it has conducted under the title
of the "Democratic Republic" at home and under "Political Settlement (
Solution ) To The Kurdish Problem" abroad,


    In the plan the terror organization developed under the name of
"Peace Project" on March 07, 2000 following the VII. Congress,


    - The alleged "Kurdish Problem" and PKK terror are identified with
the Irish, Palestinian, East Timor and Basque problems and it is
requested that the related "Political Solution" initiatives should also

be taken in Turkey and,


    - It is put forward that the settlement of the alleged Kurdish
problem in Turkey in accordance with the predictions of head of the
terror organization, Öcalan would also serve the settlement of the
problems in the Middle Eastern countries, and the "Democratic Middle
Eastern Union" to be set up in regional countries would lead to
economic, social and cultural developments,


    - Subsequently, in its 2nd "Party Assembly" meeting held in North
Iraq in September 2000, the terror organization decided to be
reorganized to conceal its terrorist identity and began to term its
former structure with innocent titles,


    - Assuming that the new strategy of the terror organization could
not be well understood and adopted by its mountain members, the terror
organization held the III. "Party Assembly" meeting between 27 February

and 03 March 2001 and focused on restructuring activities in accordance

with the decisions it took during the said meeting. In addition, the
terror organization, having assessed that the people movement
activities could not achieve the desired level, has intensified its
efforts to ensure its new strategy being accepted by its members and
supporters through a series of meetings.


In this context;


    * The "Centralized Propaganda and Media Conference" was held
between 29 May and 07 June 2001 in order for the efforts in the media
field, that the terror organization considers to be insufficient, and
to reach an organized structure,


    * The "1st Public Movement Conference" was held between 20 June and

02 July 2001 for the purpose of carrying out the acts and activities
the terror organization has started under the name of alleged 2nd Peace

Efforts, in a more organized manner through its supporters and
sympathizers who are directed by the front organizations,


    * The "1st Public Defense Forces (HPG), Conference" was held
between 28 June and 12 July 2001 in order to develop a new structure by

making radical changes in the armed flank of the terror organization
from the armed group order and discipline to war tactics and
techniques,


    * The "3rd Free Women Party (PJA) Conference" was held on July
11-22, 2001 to make the women organizations conducting activities in
legal and illegal fields more active and organized,


    * The "1st Culture, Art and Folklore Conference" was held on 11-22
July 2001 in order to indoctrinate wider parts of the people with
separatist ideas and,


    * The "6th National Conference" was held on August 05-22, 2001
under the leadership of the alleged Supreme Council of the terror
organization in order to coordinate the conferences to be held in line
with the activities the terror organization carries out in various
fields and to direct all organizational efforts towards public
movements,


    - The above-mentioned conferences have drawn special attention as
the ones which have been held within the framework of preparations for
the 8th Congress of the terror organization PKK. According to the
decisions taken during the said conferences, various campaigns have
been organized primarily in Europe and subsequently in Turkey for the
purpose of gaining support for the requests of constitutional
recognition of the Kurdish identity and the use of Kurdish language as
the language of education. However, the terror organization has not
been able to reach the desired level of participation by the people.


    - On the other hand, the terror organization has focused on
re-establishment of the terrorist groups not directly affected by the
security forces and on their armed training in raid, laying ambush and
sabotage. The disagreements arising within the terror organization,
PKK-KPU conflict and escape of nearly five hundred Syrian terrorists
from the terror organization in particular have been the noticeable
problems that the terror organization has faced within the period under

review.


    - In the meantime, the defense that head of the terror organization

has developed for his trial lasting in the European Court of Human
Rights has been printed by the terrorist organization in a two-volume
book under the title of "From the Sumerian Monastic State To The
Democratic Republic", accepted as the second manifesto and begun to be
used as a guide document for all activities carried out by the terror
organization and as a basic document in the ideological training of the

terrorist organization's members and supporters.


    - The 8th Congress preparations which have lasted for a long time
in accordance with the outline of the said defense of head of the
terrorist organization was held in the Kandil Mountain region in
Northern Iraq on April 04-10, 2002 with the participation of 285
terrorist's 106 of whom were women and 179 men as well as about 100
audiences,


    - In the said congress during which the activities the terror
organization PKK has conducted in the past and report developed
according to the defense of head of the terror organization and
submitted to the congress have also been evaluated, it has been pointed

out that;


    * The terror organization PKK has obtained some advantages like
raising of the Kurdish problem in international area as a result of the

armed struggle it has conducted since 1977,


    * However, the ideology and modus operandi adopted by the terror
organization at the beginning have failed due to the collapse of the
former Soviet system and the anti-terror environment arising following
the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the US and,


    * It has been the time that PKK would be replaced by a completely
new formation in order not to be included in the list of terrorist
organizations, and it must undergo restructuring beginning from its
ideology to its lowest-level units, including a change in its
organizational title,


    * The "3rd Free Women Party (PJA) Conference" was held on July
11-22, 2001 to make the women organizations conducting activities in
legal and illegal fields more active and organized,


    * The "1st Culture, Art and Folklore Conference" was held on 11-22
July 2001 in order to indoctrinate wider parts of the people with
separatist ideas and,


    * The "6th National Conference" was held on August 05-22, 2001
under the leadership of the alleged Supreme Council of the terror
organization in order to coordinate the conferences to be held in line
with the activities the terror organization carries out in various
fields and to direct all organizational efforts towards public
movements,


    - The above-mentioned conferences have drawn special attention as
the ones which have been held within the framework of preparations for
the 8th Congress of the terror organization PKK. According to the
decisions taken during the said conferences, various campaigns have
been organized primarily in Europe and subsequently in Turkey for the
purpose of gaining support for the requests of constitutional
recognition of the Kurdish identity and the use of Kurdish language as
the language of education. However, the terror organization has not
been able to reach the desired level of participation by the people.


    - On the other hand, the terror organization has focused on
re-establishment of the terrorist groups not directly affected by the
security forces and on their armed training in raid, laying ambush and
sabotage. The disagreements arising within the terror organization,
PKK-KPU conflict and escape of nearly five hundred Syrian terrorists
from the terror organization in particular have been the noticeable
problems that the terror organization has faced within the period under

review.


    - In the meantime, the defense that head of the terror organization

has developed for his trial lasting in the European Court of Human
Rights has been printed by the terrorist organization in a two-volume
book under the title of "From the Sumerian Monastic State To The
Democratic Republic", accepted as the second manifesto and begun to be
used as a guide document for all activities carried out by the terror
organization and as a basic document in the ideological training of the

terrorist organization's members and supporters.


    - The 8th Congress preparations which have lasted for a long time
in accordance with the outline of the said defense of head of the
terrorist organization was held in the Kandil Mountain region in
Northern Iraq on April 04-10, 2002 with the participation of 285
terrorist's 106 of whom were women and 179 men as well as about 100
audiences,


    - In the said congress during which the activities the terror
organization PKK has conducted in the past and report developed
according to the defense of head of the terror organization and
submitted to the congress have also been evaluated, it has been pointed

out that;


    * The terror organization PKK has obtained some advantages like
raising of the Kurdish problem in international area as a result of the

armed struggle it has conducted since 1977,


    * However, the ideology and modus operandi adopted by the terror
organization at the beginning have failed due to the collapse of the
former Soviet system and the anti-terror environment arising following
the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the US and,


    * It has been the time that PKK would be replaced by a completely
new formation in order not to be included in the list of terrorist
organizations, and it must undergo restructuring beginning from its
ideology to its lowest-level units, including a change in its
organizational title,


    - During its 8th Congress, the terror organization has stated that
PKK's role has ended under current circumstances and decided that;


    * It will not use the title "PKK" in the activities it carries out
in every field from April 04, 2002 when the birthday of head of the
terrorists is,


    * It will conduct its activities under the title "Kurdistan's
Freedom and Democracy Congress-KADEK" from now on in accordance with a
new program, statute and organization based on the solution of Kurdish
problem in line with the main points of the defense that head of the
terrorists has submitted to the European Court of Human Rights within
the existing borders in four countries,


    * PKK considers KADEK as its sole legal representative and disposes

of its moral and physical acquisitions to KADEK. The terror
organization made a press conference in Belgium/Brussels on April 16,
2000 and publicized its decisions.


    - In the meantime, the fact that the inclusion of the PKK in the
list of terrorist organizations developed by the European Union member
nations which was issued on May 4, 2002 has led the members of the
terrorist organizations into great concern regarding the possible
inclusion of KADEK in the list of terrorist organizations. For this
reason, the terror organization has immediately begun to make protests
against such nations as Denmark, Spain, the UK who have had an effect
on the related decision-making,