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Turkey election stirs optimism, change for Kurds
16.7.2007 |
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July
16, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Pro-Kurdish politicians are poised to
enter Turkey's parliament for the first time in more
than a decade, bringing hope to many Kurds that
their cultural and political rights will be
addressed.
Turkey's poor, restive southeast has not been
represented in parliament by pro-Kurdish parties
since the early 1990s when several MPs were kicked
out of the chamber and later jailed for speaking the
Kurdish language while taking their oath of office.
Turkey's parliamentary elections are set for July
22.
"We don't care that they won't get into government.
All we want is to be represented in parliament and
that they speak on our behalf," said Mehmet Serif
Kurtay, 47, a vegetable vendor in a dusty bazaar in
Diyarbakir, the largest city of the southeast.
Turkey's Kurds, numbering between 12 million and 15
million in a total population of 74 million, have
long complained of political, economic and cultural
discrimination, partly because they are not
officially recognised as an ethnic minority.
Kurds hope these elections will be a turning point
for the poorest region in Turkey, a country
otherwise experiencing an economic boom, and
ultimately lead to the end to an armed conflict
between separatist Kurdish rebels and the armed
forces.
"No one dares to address the Kurdish issues because
many Turks think all Kurds are terrorists and that
the only language and identity in Turkey is
Turkish," said Nusret Icli, a Kurdish musician who
abandoned his professional music career after
serving time in jail. He is now planning a new
record.
"The Kurdish candidates can help change that image."
Turkey's largest pro-Kurdish Democratic Society
Party (DTP) has fielded dozens of unaffiliated or
"independent" candidates because the DTP fears it
would not pass Turkey's high 10 percent national
threshold of votes required to win seats in
parliament.
Opinion polls predict these candidates will win 20
to 30 of the 550 seats in parliament. That would be
sufficient for the members to reorganise under the
DTP banner once elected.
Turkey's ruling centre-right AK Party, with Islamist
roots, is expected to remain the biggest party in
the new parliament.
The centre-left CHP and the far-right Turkish
nationalist MHP are also tipped to clear the 10
percent barrier and win seats.
The DTP, then known as DEHAP, won six percent of the
vote in the last general election in 2002. It picked
up no seats despite winning most votes in the mainly
Kurdish southeast.
HIGH EXPECTATIONS
"My worry is that expectations are too high, Kurds
think all their problems will disappear once the DTP
enters parliament. That would be true if Turkey were
a democracy, but it's not," said Sezgin Tanrikulu, a
leading human rights lawyer.
Turkish nationalists fear Kurds want to divide the
country and say the DTP is a mouthpiece for the
banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which still
musters considerable regional support.
The DTP denies any links although people in the
southeast say the party has loose ties with the
rebel movement.
Ankara blames the PKK -- considered a terrorist
organisation by the United States and the European
Union as well as by Turkey -- for more than 30,000
deaths since the group launched its armed campaign
for an independent homeland in 1984.
Violence is again on the rise, with over 200
soldiers and PKK rebels killed since January, a
human rights group says.
Many locals believe the DTP can help end the
conflict.
But if opinion polls are correct, the DTP could find
itself embroiled in confrontations and possibly
legal challenges from Turkish nationalists once in
parliament.
Aysel Tugluk, a DTP member running as an
independent, is likely to get heat from fellow MPs
if elected because of her ties as a defence lawyer
for jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
DTP leader Ahmet Turk, a veteran politician who was
among those jailed over the 1991 incident in
parliament, downplayed concerns that his party would
spoil this historic opportunity.
"We know there will be provocations, but we are not
going to parliament to create clashes, but to find
solutions," said Turk during a campaign trip to
Kiziltepe, near the Syrian border.
The DTP already runs a few municipalities in the
southeast.
Pressured by the EU, Turkey's AK Party government
has taken small steps to meet Kurdish demands in
recent years, such as allowing limited Kurdish
language television broadcasts and private Kurdish
language classes.
"The situation has improved since we came to power,
but it takes time and there is a lot of history to
overcome," said Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker,
himself a Kurd, during a campaign trip to the
province of Igdir in eastern Turkey.
Some local people seem impressed by the AK Party's
record.
"I'm voting for the AK Party because they are making
investments and giving us school books. I don't know
what the DTP has done," said student Aydin Baykara,
21, from Kiziltepe.
Reuters
** 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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