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Turkey: Let every one look to himself, and
no one will be lost
20.12.2006
By Vladimir van Wilgenburg |
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December 20, 2006
There is positive news from Turkey and also negative
news. According to the Kurdish news agency "Presskurd"
there were some problems in Amed (Diyarbekir). The
article of Presskurd stated that Turkish soldiers
arrested and shot at Kurdish children. More then a
dozen children were arrested and one died. In Amed
four people died, including two children , caused by
an explosion of a defective heating system that
razed a five-storey building housing families of the
Turkish military in Amed.
Finnish sociologist Dr Kristiina Koivunen was
deported, because of her articles about the Kurdish
question. This isn't the only
person/scholar/professor that was deported by the
Turkish authorities or had problems with the
foundations of the Turkish state.
Earlier before HRW researcher, Jonathan Sugden was
detained by the Turkish police and deported. Prof.
Dr. Diemut Majer said the word Kurdistan in a "State
Theory" lesson on a Turkish university. He was
sacked and later leaved Turkey. Gerhard Pils, also
was sacked by the school management, because he said
Kurdistan during the lesson. He wrote more about
this in his letter called Flowers of Turkey.
On 29th of March a citizen from Norway was arrested,
because she told the Turkish police she was in
Kurdistan. She was heading to the Kurdistan region
of Iraq.
Apparantly criticizing Ataturk is costly in Turkey.
Prof. Yayla who was dismissed for calling Ataturk
"this man" and "Kemalism corresponds more with
regression than it does with development". So far 11
people tried, two imprisoned for their opinions on
Ataturk.
The Kurdish ex-chairmen of the Human Rights
Association (IHD) Istanbul branch, Eren Keskin will
be tried by "insulting Turkishness" via the debated
article 301 of the Penal Code.
IDP's
According to the findings of a research by acettepe
University's Institute of Population Studies, the
internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Turkey number
between 950 thousand and 1 million 200 thousand.
According to the report both the PKK and the state
are responsible.
The report is very informative about the problems of
the IDP's. Dilek Kurban from Turkish Economic and
Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) said that in the
speech he gave during the press conference the
Minister of Interior Abdülkadir Aksu said that they
would evaluate and take into consideration the
findings of the report; that policies would be
formulated in line with the UN Guiding Principles
and taking into account the choices of IDPs and that
they were "aware of the socio-economic and
psychological problems of urban IDPs." |
Erdogan dancing with Kurds dressed in traditional
Kurdish costumes
Photo of the Kurdish conference in Ankara (25th of
November 2006)
The presentation reception of the first Kurdish
Operating System Ubuntu- Linux |
Kurban says "This is a statement of political will"
and adds "we should note this and closely monitor
the implementation." This could be seen as a
positive step. Because not only the PKK is blamed,
but also the Turkish state.
Erdogan: Kurds have all rights in Turkey
When a reporter asked the Turkish prime minister:
“Are you ready to give the Kurds in your country the
rights you ask for Turkish Cypriots?” Erdogan said
Kurds in Turkey unquestionably had all the rights
other ethnic groups in the country do.
Citing his own multi-cultural marriage to an Arab as
an example, Erdogan said encouraging that kind of
attitude in Cyprus would solve the problem. The
reported was clearly influenced by an article in the
International Herald Tribune. The International
Herald Tribune apparantly was into the Kurdish mood.
In an advertisement published on December 16-17, 166
personalities lend their support to the unilateral
cease-fire initiated by PKK and Kongra Gel on 1
October 2006.
More about Erdogan and his views on the Kurdish
issue can be read on Bianet in Turkish. It's a bit
strange though, because according to Fehmi Koru,
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is more courageous
than his predecessors in name calling, since he used
the term "Kurdish problem" when he met with the
"intellectuals." But now he says there is no
problem. This maybe has to do with the coming
elections.
Kurdish discussions
This week intellectuals discussed solutions to
Kurdish question. One of the most interesting views,
was that of Perihan Mağden. She criticized the
military and “military supporters.” Mağden said that
neither Kurds, Turks, Muslims nor Christians in
Turkey are able to live their lives the way they
would like to. “They live the way military
supporters want them to,” she said in reference to
an earlier statement made by Çalışlar that the
Kurdish
question had to be solved in the way the Kurds
wanted.
Mağden said, “Something has to be done against the
General Staff's absolute authority in Turkey.”
Mağden expressed her concern that support for
military influence in Turkey was on the rise and
that Turkey was moving backward under the name of
“democratization.” Mağden also criticized the media
for its coverage supporting the General Staff.
Also the comment of the important Armenian
intellectual Hırant Dink was interesting: “Having a
state of one's own is a very human feeling” and
added that he was very happy when Armenia gained
independence. Dink said he first asked the question,
“What would I want if I was a Kurd?” when
approaching the Kurdish question.
Dink expressed his observation that the Kurdish
question was no longer an internal Turkish problem.
He was happy that the Kurds in Iraq have their own
government and autonomy now. According to him this
is positive. “The Kurdish question is an
international problem for Turkey,” he said, adding
that he was happy that a Kurdistan was currently
being established in northern Iraq and said that
Turkey's Kurds had to work to improve relations
between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdistan.
These kind of panels/conferences are good for the
Kurdish question. It shows that people can still
speak about the Kurdish question in Turkey. It's not
all negative. Earlier before there were also
conferences. On Nov. 25, a series of conferences was
held by the Ankara-based Kurdish Democracy Forum and
the Academic Research Association. On the 13th of
March, a controversial two-day conference on the
Kurdish problem organized by the Helsinki Citizens'
Assembly (hCa) was held at Istanbul's Bilgi
University over the weekend. One of the
participants, Author Muhsin Kizilkaya, still
remembered us that "being a Kurd is a somewhat
dangerous issue in Turkey". So talking about Kurds
stays dangerous.. as demonstrated by the
sacked/deported personalities.
The press Office of Diyarbekir Metropolitan
Municipality opened an own website in Kurdish,
English and Turkish. Interesting activities of the
Kurdish party DTP that dominates the municipality in
Amed can be found here. Mayor Osman Baydermir
recently visited London. The existance of a Kurdish
Municipality website in Turkey, is a positive sign.
But Rasti warns us that nothing has changed.
Although the Kurdish veteran politician Serafettin
Elci was talking about federalism for Turkey. This
without ending up in court. But Rasti recalls that
several DTP politician do have to go to court. The
Diyarbakir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office
yesterday launched an investigation into Sur Mayor
Abdullah Demirbas who commissioned a Kurdish
language version of a widely used computer program
Linux. Also to municipality website reported about
this here. According to Baydemir: “A Kurdish
Operating System is a historical step”.
Next to this they also launched a Kurdish language
conference. This was called the "Protecting Kurdish
and Kurdish Training Conference". Itwas began by
about 150 intellectuals and authors from different
countries [Countries inhabited by Kurds]. Mehmed
Uzun who had been asked for making opening speech
couldn’t participate in the conference because of
his illness.
Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Osman
Baydemir said: “There is still pressures on language
and literature in Middle East. Kurdish is not
against Turkish, Arabic, Persian. Everybody must see
this fact and change his/her opinions. The main
reason of this Conference is that. We want the
Conference to be a reason for protecting language
and literature in the Middle East".
It continued for two days and they also spoken about
the situation of the Kurdish language in Syria,
linguistic rights, the civil contention in Europe
for protecting language and technology and Kurdish.
Conclusion:
There is a lot of negative news and positive news.
In the past these conferences, words, events were
unthinkable. But in the past Kurds were called
"Mountain Turks". So what else do you expect. I
still think the Turkish legislation is still far
from being compatible with that of the EU. As stated
by Kristiina Koivunen. That's also a result of the
major power of the Turkish army in the Turkish
society. But a lot of these Kurdish news items come
from Turkish news papers like Turkish Daily News and
The New Anatolian. And they are objective. Although
the situation is still not good yet, you couldn't
see conferences about the Kurdish language in the
past. You couldn't see a democratically elected
Kurdish party having power over several
municipalities. In those times they were closed
down. The Kurds in Turkey currently have more rights
in Turkey, they have ever had before. We can only
hope that the power struggle between EU opponents
and supporters, is won by the supporters. Because
that would be better for everyone, including Kurds.
However, there are still a lot of dark clouds in the
sky. In Holland we therefore to say:"Let every one
look to himself, and no one will be lost."
* Vladimir van Wilgenburg, is a non-Kurdish
writer from Netherlands, he regularly writes for
several Kurdish web sites and medias
vladimirkurdistan.blogspot.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"
Southeast Turkey. The Kurds have no rights in
Turkey.
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
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