|
Why Turkey's Kurds are ever more edgy
29.6.2007
By Scott Peterson |
|
|
|
While
Kurds are testing the limits of legal reforms that
grant more freedoms, an uptick in attacks from
separatists threaten to erode gains made by the
ethnic minority.
June
29, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Mohammad Isiktas, only 13 years old, is
prepared to take on the Turkish state so he can
legally use his Kurdish middle name.
He is still forbidden from having Demhat, which
means "the time has come," on his ID card. His
younger brother will also go to court, to use his
Kurdish name, which means "freedom."
While Turkey's Kurds have seen some limited reforms,
this family's pending fight is emblematic of the
legal limits the ethnic minority still face.
Application of new laws that permit limited use of
Kurdish, such as ending the ban on Kurdish names and
allowing 45 minutes of Kurdish TV broadcasts a day,
are being challenged by zealous state prosecutors
fearful that such minority rights will undermine the
Turkish republic.
So change has come only fitfully to southeast
Turkey, where separatist guerrillas of the Kurdistan
Worker's Party (PKK) and Turkish forces fought a
vicious war throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
"I want peace between Turkey and Kurds, between
police and the PKK," says Mohammad, his dress shirt
buttoned to the neck. "For that reason I want both
names, Mohammad and Demhat, as a combination of
these two: the [Turkish] police and [Kurdish]
fighters."
"In the past, because of high pressure, we were
afraid of learning our own culture," says Makbule
Tanriverdi, the boys' mother. "But now we are more
self-confident and brave because of that hard
struggle period."
Still, after five years of relative peace, expanding
self-rule, and easing language restrictions, there
has been a resurgence of PKK attacks and Turkish
military action, which threatens to spill into
Kurdistan region (northern Iraq) and erase these
modest changes.
The PKK is increasing attacks on Turkish soldiers
and is blamed by officials for a string of bombings
against civilians.
Public support is high for a military invasion
against PKK bases in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' – the
US and their Iraqi Kurdish allies are accused by
Turks for giving the PKK safe haven.
The US and European Union labels the PKK a
"terrorist" group for targeting civilians. Turkey
has backed up threats by boosting troop strength
along the border.
But even as Kurds test the limits of EU-inspired
legal reforms that grant more cultural rights, they
say the renewed bloodshed stems from a lack of
creativity on both sides.
The PKK, for example, did not disarm after the 1999
capture of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who vowed in
court to "give up the armed struggle" and "dedicate
my life to bringing Kurds and Turks together."
Earlier this month, the imprisoned PKK leader warned
that invading Iraq would spark a broader Turk-Kurd
war and risk "losing all Turkey."
For its part, the state ended a brutal state of
emergency marked by extrajudicial killings,
destruction of villages, and torture. "They did not
internalize those changes, so they were token
moves," says Osman Baydemir, the mayor of Diyarbakir.
Like local Kurdish officials across southeast
Turkey, home to some 15 million ethnic Kurds, he is
facing a number of legal cases.
Still, a Kurdish political party exists with many
PKK sympathizers among its ranks, and some 30
members hope to be voted into Turkey's parliament in
July 22 elections.
Development and other economic projects have borne
little fruit or not materialized, however, leading
to 60 percent unemployment in this city alone, and
feeding what Mr. Baydemir counts as the 29th Kurdish
rebellion – the one launched by the PKK in 1984.
"From the end of 2005 onwards, there has been a
remarkable regression of cultural rights," says
Baydemir, whose broad desk is watched over by a
portrait of Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
"Currently there is no trace of the positive
atmosphere from 2000 to 2005."
The result is clear in the number of legal court
cases brought against local officials and Kurds, who
daily test the limits of the law. The mayor and
municipal council of Diyarbakir's Sur district, in
the old city, were recently sacked for voting to use
Kurdish to spread information about local services
ranging from tourism to trash cleanup.
Baydemir's most recent case is prosecution for
printing New Year cards in Turkish, English, and
Kurdish. Some non-Kurdish officials who received
them sent them back. The case was not brought
because Kurdish is banned, the prosecutor explained,
but because the letters X, W, and Q exist in Kurdish
but not Turkish, so their use violates a law
protecting Turkish letters.
The mayor responded, in court, that the prosecutor
also must violate the law every day, when he logs
into the Justice Ministry website, tapping the URL
address that begins www.
"In the last four years, many new laws passed
parliament and as a rule they are not bad – the same
as in European countries," says Tahir Elci, a human
rights lawyer who spent time in detention in the
1990s. "But in practice, the problems continue
because prosecutors and judges haven't changed their
minds."
Broad Kurdish disillusion means more than 50 percent
of Kurds believe the PKK "represents their rights,"
estimates Mr. Elci, though only 10 to 20 percent
support killings.
"Kurdish people are not happy with the violence –
they want peace and don't support these attacks,"
says Elci. "But also they are not happy with
government policy, because the Kurdish problem is
not solved.... Kurds in Turkey don't believe this
state represents them, or belongs to them."
Indeed, unity was the key message of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan at an election rally in
Diyarbakir on Sunday.
In this long-neglected region, Mr. Erdogan listed
his Islamist Party's achievements, including claims
of opening 1,500 new classrooms already, and 500
more by the end of the year.
"What did we do in Diyarbakir? You'll tell everyone
what we did!" Erdogan told the chanting crowd. "We
just want to win your hearts and emotions. We don't
want any hate or conflict."
Still, Mr. Erdogan has sought to take a tough line
against "terrorists" and says he would approve a
military push into northern Iraq when "necessary."
But he also says that 5,000 PKK activists inside
Turkey – his numbers – should be dealt with before
crossing into Iraq.
Turkish generals Wednesday repeated their call for a
cross-border operation into Iraq, estimating that
2,800 to 3,100 guerrillas are based there. "Turkey
prefers security to democracy, [and] if you prefer
security to democracy, then you will have a violent
reaction," says Ali Akinci, head of the Diyarbakir
branch of Turkey's Human Rights Association.
Turkish military operations have stepped up since
2004 and surged in the past six months, during which
time 214 people died on both sides, says Mr. Akinci.
His predecessor was hit with 46 court cases from
state prosecutors; the office was shut down between
1997 and 2000 for saying that "a Kurdish nation
exists in Turkey."
A breaking point, observers here say, came during
riots in Diyarbakir in March 2006, when protestors
at the funerals of PKK militants clashed in the
streets with Turkish soldiers for several days. A
total of 10 people died in the gunfire, including a
boy watching from a balcony; the Human Rights
Association is handling 350 cases of the 600 people
arrested.
"The latest conflicts will increase nationalism [on
both sides] and will make things worse than ever
before," says Sezgin Tanrikulu, chair of the bar
association in Diyarbakir. "Kurds are becoming more
radical, and I believe their trust in the system is
going to be weaker."
A call by Turkey's top general on June 8 for Turks
to "show their reflex action en masse against these
terrorist acts" amounts to a "declaration of
internal war," says Mr. Tanrikulu, winner in 1997 of
the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Award.
PKK attacks also have some Kurds angry. "Lots of
people are shouting against them, 'Why are they
using such violent methods?' " asks Tanrikulu.
"Especially operations against civilians. People
don't support this."
He is handling a string of cases at the European
Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, where
decisions often go against Turkish authorities.
Locally, Tanrikulu is now defending Baydemir, the
mayor, who has been charged with "aiding and
abetting the terrorist organization PKK," and faces
10 to 15 years in prison for trying to calm
demonstrators during the riots last year with the
words: "We share your pain deep in heart."
"In Turkey, we have lived almost everything that
could be lived; war and torture...." says the mayor.
"The war concept was consumed to its limits. But
there is only one way we have not tried:
negotiations, peace, and talking.
"Dialogue and compromise are inevitable [to end]
this conflict," adds Baydemir. "We need to show
Turkey the path of reason. But now there is an
eclipse of reason."
Source: csmonitor 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.
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.
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
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 