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Turkey's Kurdish DTP calls for autonomy in
SE Turkey
8.11.2007
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November 8, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey's leading pro-Kurdish party
called on the government on Thursday to grant
autonomy to the mainly Kurdish southeast as a
solution to the violence that has plagued the
impoverished region for more than two decades.
Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the
conflict since the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) guerrillas took up arms to fight for a Kurdish
homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey.
Tensions have escalated in recent weeks and Turkey
has sent tens of thousands of troops to the border
region with Iraqi Kurdistan region where many PKK
rebels operate. |
Turkey's pro-Kurdish DTP party |
"A democratic and federal system is the most
suitable solution (to Turkey's Kurdish problem),"
Aysel Tugluk, an influential Democratic Society
Party (DTP) lawmaker, told a party convention in
Ankara.
The party approved a declaration calling for
autonomy for Kurds in the southeast, a move expected
to raise tensions further.
Calling for greater autonomy for the Kurds remains a
highly contentious issue in Turkey and has led to
prosecutions.
The DTP won 20 seats in elections in July, the first
time supporters of more rights for the large ethnic
Kurdish minority have been represented in parliament
for more than a decade.
Turkey's troops on the border are in place to cross
into Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' where some 3,000 PKK
guerrillas are based.
The DTP said a military offensive, approved by
Turkey's parliament, was no solution to the
long-running problem.
"Everyone knows very well that the solution to the
Kurdish problem lies in democratic moves rather than
(military) operations," Tugluk said.
DTP offices have been attacked by ultra-nationalist
groups in the past few weeks and calls for the party
to denounce the PKK as a terrorist organisation have
intensified.
Many Turks remain deeply suspicious of the DTP and
believe it is just a mouthpiece of the PKK. The DTP
rejects any ties to the PKK, which is considered a
terrorist organisation by the United States, Turkey
and the European Union.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government, which is
seeking European Union membership, has eased some
curbs on Kurdish language and culture, but many
Kurds say this is not enough.
"The most urgent issue that needs to be solved by
politics is the Kurdish problem," said Nurettin
Demirtas, who is expected to be appointed the DTP's
new chairman later on Thursday.
The DTP wants the government to ease restrictions on
the Kurdish language further, give Kurds the choice
about whether to learn Turkish and give them other
political and cultural rights.
Reuters
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
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.
Others estimate over 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.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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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