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destroyed. Wherever you find them -at home, in the fıelds, in themountains, or in the valleys- the only thought you are permittedto have is: destroy our enemies! The only good Kurd is a deadKurd" 30 .Although this quote originates from a strongly ideologically plaguedsegment of German journalism, it may be taken a representative- in bothsenses. Based on the terminology of the Romanticism of Race, the racialdistinctiveness of the Kurds is ascertained, with the biological differencesdeduced from the lingustic. Because the author considers the Kurds todiffer linguistically and racially from the Turks, he views the denial ofthis, in the framework of a secular conception of nationhood, to be theequivalent of a racial erime. It should be noted that here the German conceptof nation as a biological community is being transplanted to Turkey,just as vvords are put in the mouth of the Turkish army that vvere heretoforeassociated only with the German holocaust. Every other vievvpoint isdenigrated as 'a Kemalist interpretation of history' 31 . For if the Kemalistschoose to ignore the 'racial distinctiveness' of the Kurds and speak insteadof a unifıed Turkish nation, this can be nothing but an 'ethnic lie'.The Turkish nation, vvhich has recently been referenced in quotes in Germanacademic publications, is considered as being a construction of ahandful of former members of the Ottoman ruling elite and has nothing incommon vvith the realities of Turkey. According to a German Turkish expert,the Turkish people supposedly did not even vvillingly participate inthe war of liberation: "Atatürk did not draw his support from a popularresistance movement" 32 .A further idiosyncrasy of the German critique of Turkish minoritypolicies is the emphasis on the 'indo-Germanic' origin of the Kurds. Here'indo-Germanic' means 'Aryan', a term that has been taboo since Auschwitz.In addition, the term 'culture' is often used in this connection in thesense of 'race' 33 . Not only does the use of the fıction that the supposedlyoppressed belong to a 'higher' race serve to illuminate the "ethnoobscurantism"of the Kemalist conception of nationhood, but it also is intendedto inerease the empathy of the German public for the fate of theKurds. A crass example vvas provided by Udo Steinbach, the director of30. Albrecht Metzger: Verfolgung und Genozid, in: Kürden, (ed. by A. Metzger), p. 17,Lamuv Verlag, Göttingen 1996.31. Renate Kreile & Rainer Werle: Renaissance des islam. Das Beispiel Türkei, p. 23,Junius Verlag, Hamburg 1987.32. "On the contrary, his army consisted of demobilized veterans, wheras the farmerswere forced to fıght on the front". According to the author, "the great mass of thepopulation only identifıed partially with the war of liberation ". Furthermore, she assertedthat at the time the people saw no difference between the occupiers and theTurkish offıcers (ibid., p. 23).33. Michaela von Freyhold: Rassismus I, in: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon, Vol. 1, p.1431, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1997.824