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Turkey: Elçi asks for rights for Kurds,
same as 'what Turkey asks for Turkish Cypriots'
11.12.2006 |
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The Free Kurds Group will next week submit their
petition to the Interior Ministry to form a
political party
December 11, 2006
DIYARBAKIR , Bringing to mind that Ankara has
insisted on having a bi-communal state on the
divided island of Cyprus saying that Turkish and
Greek Cypriots on the island should live in a bi-zonal
state, senior ethnic Kurdish politician Şerafettin
Elçi argued that Turkey should grant the same rights
-- which it sought for Turkish Cypriots -- to the
Kurdish people living in Turkey.
Elçi is known for his stance favoring federalism as
the optimal administrative system for multiethnic
countries like Turkey and as a resolution to the
Kurdish issue. In July, Elçi and his Free Kurds
Group announced that they were getting prepared to
form a new pro-Kurdish political party. |
senior ethnic Kurdish politician Şerafettin Elçi |
The Free Kurds Group held the last of a serial of
regional gatherings in Diyarbakır over the weekend.
The group is prepared to submit a petition to the
Interior Ministry next week in order to officially
form a political party.
Around 1,500 people attended the gathering in
Diyarbakır with some of them singing songs in
Kurdish and reading poems in Kurdish.
Elçi started his speech in Kurdish and later
continued in Turkish.
“What we want is extremely clear: The resolution
formula for the Kurdish problem is a federative
system,” Elçi said, noting that Kurds are the most
crowded nation on the world which still doesn't have
a state of its own.
“If we explain our rightful cause properly, then we
can gain our rights and this can only happen with
qualified persons taking responsibility. That's why
we want to establish a political party,” he said.
“We want the rights which Turkey wants for Turkish
Cypriots to be granted to the Kurds living in Turkey
as well,” he added.
Elçi, who served in the pre-1980 Bülent Ecevit
government as public works minister, faced
prosecution after the 1980 coup because of his
political statements and served a 30-month prison
sentence. In the 1970s he caused a huge uproar when
he said, “I have Kurdish origins” -- the first ever
member of a Turkish Parliament who openly declared
his Kurdish origin -- and for speaking in Kurdish to
constituents from Diyarbakır [Amed] who did not know
Turkish.
In 1997, Elçi established the Democratic Mass Party
(DKP), which was closed down by the Constitutional
Court on grounds that the party program included
separatist elements.
Source: turkishdailynews com.tr
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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