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Turkey: Kurdish politicians see opportunity in
upcoming election
11.7.2007
By Yigal Schleifer |
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July
11, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey, -- One recent day under a
blazing morning sun, Selahattin Demirtas, a member
of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP)
and a candidate for parliament in Turkey’s southeast
region, was out and about pressing the flesh.
As he works his way down the main street of Ergani,
a dusty agricultural town of some 60,000, Demirtas,
dressed in a light gray suit despite the heat,
stopped to greet storeowners. "Chawani bashi?" said
Demirtas, a human rights lawyer from the nearby city
of Diyarbakir, asking the shopkeepers how they are
in Kurdish.
While he waited for the candidate to pass, one man,
an owner of a small market dressed in a brown vest
and traditional Kurdish baggy pants, waved his arms
excitedly and said loudly to no one in particular,
"He’s going to win! He’s going to win!"
In previous elections this might have seemed like
wishful thinking. No pro-Kurdish party has gained
representation in Turkey’s parliament in almost two
decades, shut out by Turkey’s high election
threshold – the highest in Europe – that requires a
party to gain at least 10 percent of the national
vote to receive legislative seats. In Turkey’s last
election, in 2002, the DTP (then known as the
Democratic Peoples’ Party, or DEHAP) received 6
percent of the vote, although it swept most of the
voting districts in the predominantly-Kurdish
southeast.
The election threshold does not apply to independent
candidates, though, and for the upcoming polls – set
for July 22 – the DTP has decided to make an end run
and field its candidates as unaffiliated. This
innovative tactic has created an unprecedented
opportunity for the Kurdish community’s voice to be
heard on the national political level. |
Selhattin Demirtas, a member of the pro-Kurdish
Democratic Society Party (DTP) who is running for
parliament a s an independent candidate, meets
voters in the southeastern Turkish town of Ergani on
July 5. No pro-Kurdish party has made it into
Turkey’s parliament in almost two decades, shut out
by Turkey’s high election threshold – the highest in
Europe – that requires a party receive at least 10
percent of the national vote to go to Ankara. The
election threshold does not apply to independent
candidates, though. photo Eurasianet |
If more than 20 of the "independents" make it into
parliament, then by law they will be able to regroup
under their party’s banner. Some polls predict that
as many as 35 of the DTP’s stealth candidates could
make it into parliament.
The prospect of a strong Kurdish representation in
Ankara is creating a sense of excitement in many
parts of the southeast and, observers say, presents
both an opportunity and a challenge for Turks and
Kurds at a time when attacks by the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Turkish forces are
on the rise. Those attacks have prompted Turkey’s
political and military establishment to contemplate
invading northern Iraq with the aim of destroying
PKK training and logistics bases. [For background
see the Eurasia Insight archive].
"There’s a sense of excitement because our
candidates have a chance of getting into parliament.
It’s almost guaranteed that we will be in the next
parliament," says Husseyin Baydur, a 27-year-old
librarian sitting at an outdoor café in Diyarbakir,
where the pro-Kurdish DEHAP won nearly 60 percent of
the vote in the previous elections.
The last time a pro-Kurdish party made it into
parliament, 16 years ago, ended in disaster when the
new parliamentarians insisted on taking their oath
in Kurdish and were kicked out of the body and
ultimately jailed. The question now, many say, is
whether Turkey is ready to accept a pro-Kurdish
party in parliament and whether the Kurdish
politicians have matured enough to moderate their
positions?
"We all have changed. I think both sides now see
more clearly that they cannot win the war," says
Cuneyt Ulsever, a columnist with Hurriyet, Turkey’s
largest daily newspaper. "Before you could have not
even written about the Kurdish issue, now even the
people in the street are talking about this issue."
"If the DTP can act like a general Turkish party
rather than talk about the Kurdish problem right
from the beginning, that would be more easily
digested by the public," Ulsever continued. "But if
they came out right from the beginning and called
for freedom for [Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK’s jailed
leader], then there would be hell."
Hilmi Aydogdu, the DTP’s Diyarbakir chairman, says
the party’s candidates are not going to parliament
"to fight" but to try and foster dialogue with the
other parties there. "This way we hope to break the
way people have been looking at us and to show that
our aim is to be integrated with Turkey," says
Aydogdu, who recently served a two-month prison
sentence in connection with a roundup of several of
the DTP’s top leaders around Turkey.
Taking a lunch break after campaigning in Ergani,
Selahattin Demirtas says he and his fellow
independents’ first order of business once in
parliament would be to push for the adoption of a
new civil constitution to replace the current one,
written under the auspices of the military following
a 1980 coup. The ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP), which is expected to retain its
parliamentary majority, has also called for a new
constitution, although DTP candidates say they will
push for one that guarantees cultural and linguistic
rights for the Kurdish community.
Demirtas, who runs the Diyarbakir office of the
Human Rights Association, a watchdog group, says he
and his fellow independent DTP candidates are aware
of the opportunity the upcoming elections present.
"We will be able to participate in the discussions
and commissions in parliament," Demirtas, serious
but soft spoken, says. "Even if we can’t change the
commissions’ decisions, we will have a platform to
air out our complaints."
Those complaints are not hard to hear in the
southeast. While the unemployment rate in Turkey
stands at close 10 percent, the figure is closer to
60 percent in the region. And while some cities in
western Turkey, where much of the country’s industry
is located, have per capita incomes that are on par
with some parts of Europe, many cities in the mostly
agrarian southeast have per capita incomes that are
more in-line with developing nations.
In addition, Kurds complain about discrimination. To
promote Turkey’s European Union bid, the AKP
government has instituted a number of reforms to
ease restrictions on Kurdish language and culture.
But many Kurds complain that the new measures are
limited, or are not being implemented properly. For
example, when Abdullah Demirbas, the DTP mayor of
Diyarbakir’s multicultural old city district, tried
last year to offer municipal services in Kurdish,
Arabic and Armenian, along with Turkish, he soon
found himself in legal trouble – accused of
violating Turkey’s constitution – and out of a job.
"If there were any improvements, I would not have
been sacked from my position," the former mayor
says.
"There have been some positive steps…but they were
just for show, to show the EU and the world that
Turkey is making reforms."
Isa Akengin, a retired tax collector chatting with
friends in front of his Diyarbakir apartment
building, says that the strong local support for the
"independent" DTP candidates is rooted in the
feeling that the Turkish government is not committed
to the expansion of cultural rights. "We’re not
expecting jobs or factories from them," Akengin, 75,
says. "We know whoever goes to parliament might not
be able to do anything for us and we don’t expect
them to. We just want them to represent our identity
in parliament. Kurdish politicians with other
parties have promised to do this, but once they got
to Ankara they forgot about us, as if they had never
said those words."
"They will take our voice to Turkey, to Europe," he
adds. "This will already improve our life."
Editor’s Note: Yigal Schleifer is a freelance
journalist based in Istanbul.
eurasianet org
** 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
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