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Turkish premier's remarks stir debate
29.11.2005
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ANKARA, Turkey -
When Turkey's prime minister recently recognized
that not all Turks are alike, the restive Kurdish
population rejoiced.
Finally they could call themselves a distinct ethnic
group - providing they acknowledged being first and
foremost citizens of Turkey.
But many non-Kurds were alarmed, saying the prime
minister's remarks amount to a redefinition of
Turkish identity that could threaten the nation's
survival.
Multiculturalism is an explosive concept in Turkey,
where the army has been battling Kurdish rebels
since 1984 in a fight that has left 37,000 dead. The
conflict has destabilized the country, a key U.S.
ally straddling Europe and the Middle East. It has
also carried over to neighboring Iraq, where Kurdish
militants have established a base.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the
comments in an effort to calm unrest in the
country's largely Kurdish southeast. No one should
be discriminated against because of their ethnicity,
he told hundreds of Kurds who gathered to hear him
during a trip to the region last week.
"We are all citizens of the republic of Turkey under
that upper identity," he said. However all Turks
have "sub-identities," Erdogan said. "No one should
be offended by this. A Kurd can say 'I am a Kurd.'"
The audience burst into applause.
Back in the capital, though, Erdogan's speech
angered the country's powerful nationalists, who
assailed him for questioning the "one Turkish
nation" policy that gave birth to the republic 82
years ago. So deeply engrained is the policy that
Turkish schoolchildren start the day by chanting
"Happy is the one who says 'I am a Turk.'"
Many nationalists regard any expression of a
separate Kurdish identity as a cover for trying to
break up the state along ethnic lines. That fear has
been strengthened by the war in Iraq, which left
Iraqi Kurds in control of a region in the north of
the country bordering on Turkey.
Deniz Baykal, the main opposition leader, claimed
that Erdogan's redefinition of Turkish identity
could lead to a conflict of the kind that tore up
the former Yugoslavia and threatens to do the same
in Iraq.
"If we go into that process, we would be drifted
toward the danger of becoming the Balkans,
Yugoslavia and Iraq," Baykal said.
Turkey is home to the largest Kurdish population in
the Middle East - at least 12 million out of a total
population of 70 million. It also has an estimated
130,000 non-Muslims - mainly orthodox Christians and
Jews.
Turkey grants Jews and Christians minority rights
under a 1923 treaty but considers all Muslims in the
country to be of Turkish ethnicity. It has never
granted Kurds, who also are Muslims, minority
rights.
Turkey is under pressure from the European Union to
improve its human rights record, including
recognizing Kurds as an official minority. The EU
started formal talks with the country last month on
its application to join the EU.
In a progress report earlier this month, the
European Commission urged Ankara to review its
restrictive interpretation of the treaty.
"There are other communities in Turkey which, in the
light of the relevant international and European
standards, could qualify as minorities," the report
said.
The national identity debate has only aggravated the
unrest Erdogan was seeking to calm.
Violent protests have convulsed southeastern Turkey
since a Nov. 9 grenade attack targeting a convicted
Kurdish guerrilla. He survived but four people have
died in the unrest. Kurds say security forces were
behind the attack in Semdinli, the town the prime
minister visited last week.
On Monday two paramilitary police officers were
arrested in the attack and charged with
"establishing an organized crime ring" and "inciting
hatred based on ethnic differences."
Human rights groups repeatedly have accused the
government of brutal tactics against rebels.
On Monday, NTV television reported that a mass grave
containing nine bodies believed to be those of
Kurdish guerrillas was discovered in southeastern
Mardin province.
On Sunday, police refrained from using force against
several hundred stone-throwing Kurdish children
marking 27 years since the founding of the rebel
Kurdistan Workers Party, known by its Turkish
acronym PKK.
But a group of Turkish children threw stones back at
the Kurdish children - and were awarded chewing gum
by the officers, according to Turkish media reports
Monday and Tuesday.
AP
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