|
The Cypriots and the Kurds in Turkey
14.11.2006
By Kirsty Hughes |
|
|
|
November 14, 2006
LONDON: Turkey complains vociferously about
the European Union's unfair treatment of the
politically and economically isolated Turkish
Cypriots. Why then shouldn't Turkey grant a big
chunk of its own citizens - the Kurds - the same
rights it demands for people who are not even
Turkish nationals?
There are many similarities between Northern Cyprus
and the Turkish southeast, where many of Turkey's
estimated 15 to 20 million Kurds live. They are
geographically similar and are located in sensitive
areas - the one off Syria's coast, the other
bordering Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Both are relatively isolated and poor, though the
Kurds are a lot poorer than the Turkish Cypriots. In
both cases, poverty is linked to the unresolved
political and security issues around their identity
and political status.
But it's the differences that are more striking.
Turkey is loudly championing the rights of Turkish
Cypriots in the EU. But anyone who champions Kurdish
rights in Turkey risks being accused of separatism
and even terrorism.
While Turkey expects international support for its
Cyprus solution, based on a bizonal, bicommunal
federation with political equality between the two
communities, it argues the precise opposite for its
own Kurdish citizens.
For many Turks, any Kurdish request for national
recognition - whether to be called Kurdish citizens
of Turkey rather than Turks, or for a federation, or
to use the Kurdish language in schools or in the
media - is perceived as an attack on the Turkish
nation and its territory.
While many Kurds are ready to remain within a
unitary Turkish state so long as they can have full
cultural rights, for most Turks the idea of Turkish
Cypriots accepting simply minority status in a
Greek-Cypriot dominated Republic of Cyprus is
anathema.
The Turkish habit of stamping slogans onto
mountainsides is evident both in Northern Cyprus and
in southeastern Turkey. But on Cyprus, the slogans
declaring the north to be the Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus are directed at the Greek Cypriots
across the Green Line, while in the desolate
mountains of southeast Turkey, the slogans assert
"one state, one flag, one language."
Many Turks will argue that the Cyprus problem and
the Kurdish problem are not the same due to the
violence of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK),
which has been fighting the Turkish military for
over 20 years and is and labeled as a terrorist
group by Turkey, the United States and the European
Union. But why should violence by a minority of
Kurds mean curtailing the rights of the majority of
Kurds?
How can there be any hope of a political solution in
either place without respect for the rights of both
minority groups?
Where are the political leaders? Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is struggling on many fronts,
not least to win re-election next year in the face
of a nationalist and secularist onslaught, and also
to keep Turkey's EU process on track despite
negative signals from Europe and waning public
enthusiasm in Turkey. Thus Erdogan may not be
capable of making a deal on Cyprus, nor of making
any progress on the southeast in the face of growing
hostility both to him and to the Kurds.
And yet while some hardline Turkish nationalists may
want an independent Northern Cyprus, and some
radical Kurds may dream of an independent Kurdistan,
the fact is that neither Turkey's southeast, nor
Northern Cyprus has a realistic future as
independent state.
In both cases the best hopes for an acceptable
solution lie with a continuation of Turkey's EU
negotiations.
Much of the solution lies in Turkey's hands. If
Turkey's government and public stand up consistently
for democracy and human rights - whether in support
of Turkish Cypriots or Turkey's Kurds - and against
the undemocratic political pronouncements of
Turkey's military and nationalists, then it will be
hard for democratic European politicians to give in
to their nationalists and to suspend membership
negotiations with Turkey.
Kirsty Hughes is a former senior fellow of the
Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels.
Source: iht com
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 