Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR

Altuntas Cakir, Ravza

Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR

Ravza ALTUNTAŞ ÇAKIR (İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim Üniversitesi, İstanbul, Türkiye)

Insight Turkey

17 3

Yıl: 2023 Cilt: 25 Sayı: 1 Sayfa Aralığı: 147 - 169 Metin Dili: İngilizce İndeks Tarihi: 21-07-2023

Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR

Öz:

This paper investigates the relationship between an ethnic Muslim minority identity and transnational Muslim solidarity through the case study of HÜDA-PAR,1 the most organized political Islamic organization and the second-largest political party native to Southeast Türkiye. In this paper, it is scrutinized how the concept of ummah motivates the domestic/ ideological, national, and transnational political discourse and initiatives of HÜDA-PAR. Based on interviews with senior members of the party, it is clear that HÜDA-PAR views “Islam as nationalism” while also adopting the ummah as a mechanism to voice the aspirations for greater Kurdish rights and interests. As a part of examining the party’s ideological posi- tion, the first section explores how ummah became an empowering notion within a national Turkish political structure. Section two illustrates the way the notion was used as a legitimizing force within the religiously con- servative Kurdish social structure. The third section examines the notion’s unifying role with like-minded Pan-Islamic groups within the region they operate. The article also addresses the ambiguities that a mostly abstract and idealist ummahist approach to modern politics brings when faced with Kurdish nationalism, the regional realpolitik, and democratic pluralism.

Anahtar Kelime:

Belge Türü: Makale Makale Türü: Araştırma Makalesi Erişim Türü: Erişime Açık

1. HÜDA-PAR is the acronym of Hür (Free) Dava (Cause) Partisi (Party).
2. This paper has emerged from a workshop on “Conceptualising the Umma,” funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom, held in Kuala Lumpur, in association with Not - tingham University/Malaysia, December 10-11, 2014. The author would like to express her gratitude to James Piscatori for organizing the ummah workshop series. The author would also like to thank Kelly al-Dakkak, Joud Alkorani, Rahman Dağ, Hakan Erdagöz, Z. Hale Eroğlu, Halime Kökçe, Mohamed Moussa, and the two anonymous referees of the journal for their valuable comments and criticisms.
3. James Piscatori and Amin Saikal, Islam beyond Borders: The Umma in World Politics (Cambridge: Cam- bridge University Press, 2019), p. 50.
4. Clay Ramsay, Lewis Ebrahim Mohseni, Weber Evan, Mary Speck, Melanie Ciolek, and Melinda Brouwer “Muslim Public Opinion on US Policy, Attacks on Civilians and al Qaeda,” World Public Opinion, (January 2007).
5. Piscatori and Saikal, Islam beyond Borders: The Umma in World Politics, p.vii.
6. Peter Mandaville, “Transnational Muslim Solidarities and Everyday Life,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 17, No. 1 (2011), p. 7.
7. Cemil Aydın, The Idea of the Muslim World, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017), p. 3.
8. Sami Zubaida, Beyond Islam: A New Understanding of the Middle East (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011), p. 175.
9. Sami Zubaida, “Islam and Nationalism: Continuities and Contradictions,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 10, No. 4 (2004), p. 407; Hakan M. Yavuz, “Five Stages of the Construction of Kurdish Nationalism in Tur- key,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 7, No. 3 (2001), pp. 5-6.
10. Piscatori and Saikal, Islam beyond Borders: The Umma in World Politics, p. 140.
11. “Hüda-Par’s Emergence: An Islamist Party for Turkey’s Kurds,” The Economist, (November 23, 2013), retrieved from https://www.economist.com/europe/2013/11/23/Hüda-Pars-emergence.
12. “Party Program,” Free Cause Party, (2013), retrieved from https://hudapar.org/files/uploads/file/file_ fc094d8eb8.pdf.
13. Aslı Z. Elitsoy, “Silahlı Terör Örgütünden Legal Siyasi Partiye Hizbullah’ın HÜDA-PAR’a Dönüşüm Sü- reci,” Birikim, No. 301 (2014), p. 52.
14. Burcu Özçelik, “Turkey’s Other Kurds,” Foreign Affairs, (May 4, 2015) retrieved June 15, 2018, from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/turkey/2015-05-04/turkeys-other-kurds.
15. Elitsoy,“Silahlı Terör Örgütünden Legal Siyasi Partiye Hizbullah’ın HÜDA-PAR’a Dönüşüm Süreci,”p. 48.
16. Ruşen Çakır, “Geçmiş, Bugün ve Gelecek Kıskacında Türkiye Hizbullahı,” Birikim, (April 22, 2007), re- trieved June 15, 2018, from http://rusencakir.com/Gecmis-bugun-ve-gelecek-kiskacinda-Turkiye-Hiz- bullahi/739.
17. Mehmet Kurt, Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey, (London: Pluto Press, 2017), p. 43.
18. Elitsoy,“Silahlı Terör Örgütünden Legal Siyasi Partiye Hizbullah’ın HÜDA-PAR’a Dönüşüm Süreci,”p. 51.
19. Çakır, “Geçmiş, Bugün ve Gelecek Kıskacında Türkiye Hizbullahı.”
20. Mustazaf-Der has pursued charitable causes such as organizing mass marriage ceremonies, provid- ing education bursaries to pupils, free health services in improvised rural areas, reconciliation of blood feuds, and charity campaigns for Palestine.
21. Elitsoy,“Silahlı Terör Örgütünden Legal Siyasi Partiye Hizbullah’ın HÜDA-PAR’a Dönüşüm Süreci,”p. 50.
22. Çakır, “Geçmiş, Bugün ve Gelecek Kıskacında Türkiye Hizbullahı.”
23. Engin Esen,‘‘Hizbullah’ın Parti Kurması’Ne Anlama Geliyor?”BBC, (December 17, 2012), retrieved May 15, 2018, from https://www.bbc.com/turkce/haberler/2012/12/121217_huda_party_turkey.
24. Kadri Gürsel, “New ‘Party of God’ Will Divide Kurdish, Turkish Islamists,” Al-Monitor, (December 23, 2012), retrieved May 20, 2018, from https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/fr/originals/2012/al-monitor/ hizbullah-turkey-islamist.html.
25. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
26. As a side note, Şahin referred to Hizbullah as “an Islamic fraternity” and “a reality of this country,” and not as a terrorist organization. Yet, as a party, he cautiously noted, HÜDA-PAR operates within legal borders and as a legal entity, and it has “no organic tie with Hizbullah.”
27. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
28. Interviews by author with Hüseyin Yılmaz, October 29, 2014.
29. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
30. Mehmet Yavuz passed away on August 10, 2019 at the age of 45. Yavuz was my initial contact person for this research. He first met me in İstanbul and then kindly arranged other interviews in Diyarbakır. I am thankful for his efforts and contributions to this research.
31. Interviews by author with Mehmet Yavuz, August 24, 2014.
32. Jillian Schwedler, “Can Islamists Become Moderates: Rethinking the Inclusion-Moderation Hypothe- sis,” World Pol, Vol. 63, No. 2 (2011), p. 365.
33. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
34. Serkan Ramanlı, “6-8 Ekim Olayları veya Zehirli Ağacın Meyvesi,” Star, (October 18, 2014) retrieved January 12, 2017, from http://haber.star.com.tr/acikgorus/68-ekim-olaylari--veya-zehirli-agacin-mey- vesi/haber-953579.
35. Party Program, Free Cause Party.
36. M. A. Muqtedar Khan, “The Political Philosophy of Islamic Movements,” in A. Afsaruddin (ed.) Islam, the State, and Political Authority: Medieval Issues and Modern Concerns, (NY: Springer, 2011), p. 161.
37. Interviews by author with Mehmet Yavuz, August 24, 2014.
38. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
39. Yavuz, “Five Stages of the Construction of Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey,” p. 10.
40. Hakan M. Yavuz, “A Preamble to the Kurdish Question: The Politics of Kurdish Identity,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 1 (1998), p. 11.
41. Paul R. Brass, Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison, (CA; London: Sage Publications, 1991), p. 8.
42. Michael Hechter, Containing Nationalism, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
43. Özçelik, “Turkey’s Other Kurds.”
44. Yavuz, “Five Stages of the Construction of Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey,” p. 7; Rahman Dağ, Ideo- logical Roots of the Conflict between Pro-Kurdish and Pro-Islamic Parties in Turkey, (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017), p. 28.
45. Hakan Özoğlu, Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries, (New York: SUNY Press, 2012).
46. Ramanlı, “6-8 Ekim Olayları veya Zehirli Ağacın Meyvesi.”
47. Ramanlı, “6-8 Ekim Olayları veya Zehirli Ağacın Meyvesi.”
48. Serhun Al, “An Anatomy of Nationhood and the Question of Assimilation: Debates on Turkishness Revisited,” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Vol. 15, No. 1 (April 2015), p. 83.
49. “Party Program,” Free Cause Party.
50. “Party Program,” Free Cause Party.
51. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
52. Interviews by author with Mehmet Yavuz, August 24, 2014.
53. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
54. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
55. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
56. Nikki R. Keddie, An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal ad- Din al-Afghani, (Berkeley: UC Press, 1983), p. 58.
57. Ümit C. S akallıoğlu, “Kurdish Nationalism from an Islamist Perspective: The Discourses of Turkish Islamist Writers,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 1 (1998), p. 81.
58. “Party Program,” Free Cause Party. 59. Christopher Houston, Islam, Kurds and the Turkish Nation State, (Oxford; New York: Berg, 2001), p. 157, p.177.
60. “Party Program,” Free Cause Party.
61. “Party Program,” Free Cause Party.
62. “HÜDA-PAR ’s Emergence: An Islamist Party for Turkey’s Kurds.”
63. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
64. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
65. Interviews by author with Mehmet Yavuz, August 24, 2014.
66. Zeki Sarıgil and Ömer Fazlıoğlu, “Religion and Ethno-nationalism: Turkey’s Kurdish issue,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 19, No. 3 (2013), p. 551.
67. Mesut Yeğen, Uğraş Ulaş Tol, and Mehmet Ali Çalışkan, “Ethnicity and Elections in Eastern Turkey: What Do the Kurds Want?” Contemporary Review of the Middle East, Vol. 7, No. 4 (August 20, 2020), p. 447.
68. Piscatori and Saikal, Islam beyond Borders: The Umma in World Politics, p. vii.
69. Mandaville, “Transnational Muslim Solidarities and Everyday Life,” p. 23.
70. Sarıgil and Fazlıoğlu, “Religion and Ethno-nationalism: Turkey’s Kurdish Issue,” p. 554; Dağ, Ideologi- cal Roots of the Conflict between Pro-Kurdish and Pro-Islamic Parties in Turkey, p. 91.
71. Mehmet Gürses, “Is Islam a Cure for Ethnic Conflict? Evidence from Turkey,” Politics and Religion, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2015), p. 137.
72. Piscatori and Saikal, Islam beyond Borders: The Umma in World Politics, p.vii.
73. Interviews by author with Mehmet Yavuz, August 24, 2014.
74. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
75. Interviews by author with Mehmet Yavuz, August 24, 2014.
76. “Hamas: HÜD A-PAR için Sürekli Başarılar Diliyoruz,” Hüdapar, retrieved from https://Hüdapar.org/ web/813/hamas-Hüda-par-icin-surekli-basarilar-diliyoruz.jsp; “İhvan’ın Genel Mürşidi HÜDA-PAR Heye- tini Kabul Etti,” Hurseda, (April 25, 2013), retrieved from https://hurseda.net/Dunya/76778-ihvanin-Ge- nel-Mursidi-HÜDA-PAR-Heyetini-Kabul-Etti.html.
77. Although there exists an on-going political and ideological feud between secular and left-leaning ethno-nationalists and Islamist Kurdish groups in Türkiye, which at times turn violent, HÜDA-PAR exec- utives lack in articulating a vision for reconciliation with these fractions.
78. Güneş M. Tezcür, “The Moderation Theory Revisited: The Case of Islamic Political Actors,” Party Poli- tics, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2010), p. 84.
79. Güneş M. Tezcür, Muslim Reformers in Iran and Turkey: The Paradox of Moderation, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010), p. xi.
80. Interviews by author with Said Şahin, October 29, 2014.
81. Ramanlı, “6-8 Ekim Olayları veya Zehirli Ağacın Meyvesi.”
82. “Party Program,” Free Cause Party.
83. Interviews by author with Mehmet Yavuz, August 24, 2014.
84. “Party Program,” Free Cause Party.
85. David Chandler, “Critiquing Liberal Cosmopolitanism? The Limits of the Biopolitical Approach,” Inter- national Political Sociology, Vol. 3, No. 1 (March 2009), p. 53.
86. Barak Mendelsohn, “God vs. Westphalia: Radical Islamist Movements and the Battle for Organising the World,” Review of International Studies, Vol. 38, No. 3 (2012), p. 596.
87. Faiz Sheikh, “Two Sides of the Same Coin? The Muslim Umma and the European Union,” Politics, Religion and Ideology, Vol. 15, No. 3 (2014), p. 45.
88. Akif Emre, “Türk İslamcılığı vs Kürt İslamcılığı?” Yeni Şafak, (March 31, 2016) retrieved from https:// www.yenisafak.com/yazarlar/akifemre/turk-islamciligi-vs-kurt-islamciligi-2027910.
89. Sarıgil and Fazlıoğlu, “Religion and Ethno-nationalism: Turkey’s Kurdish Issue,” p. 553.
90. Christopher Houston, “Civilizing Islam, Islamist Civilizing? Turkey’s Islamist Movements and the Problem of Ethnic Difference,” Thesis Eleven, Vol. 58, No. 1 (August 1999), p. 91.
91. Ahmet Yıldız, “Kürt İslamcıların Kürt Meselesine Bakışları?” BİSAV, (April 2, 2014) retrieved May 14, 2019, from https://www.bisav.org.tr/Bulten/207/1281/kurt_islamcilarin_kurt_meselesine_bakislari.
92. Ahmet Yıldız, “Kurdish Islamist Nationalists: New Actors in Turkey’s Kurdish Politics,” Al Sharq Fo- rum, (October 2015), retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.researchgate.net/publica- tion/335976989_kurdish_islamist_nationalists_new_actors_in_turkey’s_kurdish_politics, p. 3.
93. Mehmet Gurses, “Is Islam a Cure for Ethnic Conflict? Evidence from Turkey,” Politics and Religion, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2015), p. 137.
94. Kurt, Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey, p. 109.
95. Elizabeth S. Kassab, Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective, (Colum- bia University Press, 2010), p. 145.

APA	Altuntas Cakir R (2023). Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR. , 147 - 169.
Chicago	Altuntas Cakir Ravza Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR. (2023): 147 - 169.
MLA	Altuntas Cakir Ravza Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR. , 2023, ss.147 - 169.
AMA	Altuntas Cakir R Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR. . 2023; 147 - 169.
Vancouver	Altuntas Cakir R Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR. . 2023; 147 - 169.
IEEE	Altuntas Cakir R "Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR." , ss.147 - 169, 2023.
ISNAD	Altuntas Cakir, Ravza. "Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR". (2023), 147-169.

APA	Altuntas Cakir R (2023). Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR. Insight Turkey, 25(1), 147 - 169.
Chicago	Altuntas Cakir Ravza Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR. Insight Turkey 25, no.1 (2023): 147 - 169.
MLA	Altuntas Cakir Ravza Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR. Insight Turkey, vol.25, no.1, 2023, ss.147 - 169.
AMA	Altuntas Cakir R Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR. Insight Turkey. 2023; 25(1): 147 - 169.
Vancouver	Altuntas Cakir R Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR. Insight Turkey. 2023; 25(1): 147 - 169.
IEEE	Altuntas Cakir R "Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR." Insight Turkey, 25, ss.147 - 169, 2023.
ISNAD	Altuntas Cakir, Ravza. "Reclaiming the Ummah from the Margins: The Case of Türkiye’s HÜDA-PAR". Insight Turkey 25/1 (2023), 147-169.