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Turkey: The Conference on the Kurdish
Issue
13.3.2006
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ISTANBUL, Turkey
12 March (DIHA) - A two-day long conference on the
Kurdish issue in Turkey was hosted in the Dolapdere
campus of Bilgi University, a private university, in
cooperation with the Helsinki Citizens Assembly and
the Empathy Group.
Described sometimes as the Southwest issue or
Kurdish problem, speakers, most of whom are
influential figures on their fields, tried to find a
common ground to discuss the problem.
The opening of the conference witnessed hot debate
between Ahmet Turk, the former deputy of the defunct
Democratic Party (DEP), and Umit Firat, one of the
organizers of the conference during the second
session titled “Organizations and Experiences” that
took place in the morning. Mr. Turk criticized
Umit’s interview with Hurriyet, a daily newspaper
that contained angry statements over not inviting
Leyla Zana.
While Firat responded by refuting Hurriyet’s news
the reporter of the news Sefa Kaplan claimed he had
evidence to confirm the news article published.
Sertac Bucak, the founder and former president of
the International Center for Human Rights of the
Kurds, called PKK, the Kurdish Worker’s Party, for
disarmament during the first session titled “The
Evolution of Kurdish Issue and its Historical
Background” and added “Armed resistance fits well in
with the policies of status quo in Turkey. However,
anyone who acknowledges the existence of the Kurdish
issue should not be claimed as separatist.
During the session on nationalism, Professor Ahmet
Insel claimed that nationalism is an exclusionist
discourse when he said: “Nationalism is the
non-modern part of the modern human being and all
kinds of nationalism such as good or bad, vulgar or
sympathetic are on the same continuum. Nationalism
is an identity given to the human being and
separates one from another. Therefore, those
claiming themselves as nationalist can not talk
about a peace.
The nationalism of both the winner and loser are
modern but the black sheep of the modernism. Just as
the nationalism of Ataturk contains the
discrimination in it, the nationalism of the Kurds
does the same thing.” He further deepened his speech
saying “the burden on the shoulders of the Kurds is
more than that of the Turks.” One of his strongest
emphasize was on the militarism and disarmament. He
proposed to develop a new consciousness to solve the
problem saying “there should be no loser and
winner.”
Mumtaz’er Turkone, professor at Gazi University,
started to his speech paying attention on the
concepts’ not being understood by the sides. He
claimed that the Turkish nationalism is not created
by the Turks. “Perhaps the Kurds contributed more to
the Turkish nationalism than the Turks did,” said
Turkone, “It is the Macedonians and Circassians who
founded the Republic and they created the
nationalism in order to protect the state. Ziya
Gokalp, the author of The Basics of Turkish
Nationalism, was also of Kurdish origin.” He
categorized the kinds of nationalism into three
saying “there is the nationalism of Ankara,
Diyarbakir and Istanbul and I thing the problem
should be approached with the nationalism in
Istanbul.”
Another speaker Hasan Yildiz, author and expert on
philosophy of politics, said the problem should be
discussed freely in Turkey, rather than trying to
searching for the external provocation. His another
emphasize was on the Sevres Convention. He claimed
that the Sevres, on the articles 62, 63 and 64, does
not say how a Kurdistan be founded but rather shows
why a Kurdistan can not be. Everybody says the
British provoked the Kurds against the Turks but
nobody talks about the provocation of the Turks
against the British.”
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