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Turkey's Kurds eye parliamentary comeback
17.7.2007 |
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July
17, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Thirteen years after they were
dramatically expelled from Turkey's parliament,
Kurdish politicians are poised for a comeback in a
general election Sunday, pledging efforts at
reconciliation at a time of simmering anger over
renewed Kurdish rebel violence.
Sixty members of the Democratic Society Party (DTP)
will contest the polls as independents, a strategy
designed to circumvent a 10-percent national
threshold that has kept Kurdish parties outside
parliament.
Drawing on strong support in the mainly Kurdish
southeast, between 20 and 30 of them, according to
opinion surveys, are expected to win seats before
regrouping under the DTP banner once in parliament.
In Diyarbakir, the largest city of the
Kurdish-majority southeast, excitement is in the
air: the posters of Kurdish candidates adorn
billboards, music blares from the loudspeakers of
vans and hundreds of party volunteers are canvassing
for support.
"We will vote for our own to show that we exist in
this country, that we also have a voice," said
22-year-old Ferhat as he pushed his vegetable cart
through the dusty streets of the city's slums.
The Kurdish candidates campaign for reconciliation
between Turks and Kurds, calling on Ankara to
abandon the military option against the separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and expand Kurdish
freedoms to pave the way for a peaceful settlement
of the 23-year conflict.
But they have no illusions of a warm welcome in
Ankara.
The DTP is widely suspected of being a PKK tool to
advance separatist ambitions.
Its line-up of candidates includes militant lawyers
of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, accused of
being intermediaries between the rebel chief and his
troops.
"We know it will be difficult, but we will act
sensibly," said one of them, Aysel Tugluk. "People
will get to know us better in parliament and see
that we are not monsters."
The PKK stepped up violence this year, sending
nationalist sentiment into a frenzy and prompting
calls for a military incursion into neighbouring
northern Iraq, where the rebels take refuge.
The DTP has angered Ankara for refusing to condemn
the PKK as a terrorist group, a label endorsed by
the European Union and the United States, among
others.
"The PKK is not simply a gang of armed men. They
have strong support among the Kurdish people," said
another candidate, Selahattin Demirtas. "If we
condemn them, it will amount to condemning the
people."
The DTP denies any links with the PKK, but members
privately admit that the rebels have influence in
the party.
"The success of our MPs will depend on how the
establishment treats them and on whether the PKK
will back democracy or pressure the deputies into
adopting radical policies," one party member said.
The DTP wants amnesty for the PKK; Ankara insists
the rebels should surrender.
The first stint in parliament of Kurdish politicians
campaigning for minority rights ended in disaster in
1994, when their immunity was lifted on charges of
aiding the PKK.
The group camped inside parliament for two days to
avoid arrest, but eventually gave up. Some of them,
including human rights award winner Leyla Zana, were
jailed; others went into exile and one joined the
PKK.
Since then, Turkey, under EU pressure, has granted
the Kurdish minority a measure of cultural freedom
and lifted emergency rule in the southeast.
Kurds, however, still complain of discrimination and
ask for Kurdish to be taught in schools and used in
all fields of public life.
Rampant poverty also remains a major problem in the
region.
In the shantytowns of Diyarbakir, unemployment is
estimated at about 70 percent. Many villages still
lack running water and electricity.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and
Development Party also enjoys support among the
Kurds, who credit it with easing access to medical
care, providing free textbooks and food aid for the
poorest.
"What has the DTP done for us?" housewife Necla
grumbled outside her ramshackle house. "I care about
my home and my children. That's why my vote goes to
Tayyip."
AFP
** 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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