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EU urges Turkey to reduce Kurds' poverty
4.3.2008
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EU enlargement chief urges Turkey to promote
cultural rights, reduce poverty of Kurds.
March 4, 2008
BRUSSELS, Belgium, -- The European Union's
enlargement commissioner urged Turkey's government
Monday to promote cultural rights and reduce poverty
among the country's Kurdish minority.
Olli Rehn, speaking at a conference on Turkey said
important reforms, including increasing the rights
of Kurds, are needed for Turkey to advance its
effort to join the EU.
"Resolute government action is urgently needed to
pursue change," Rehn said.
Rehn has made improving the rights and economic
well-being of Turkey's large Kurdish minority a
priority in the nation's membership negotiations
this year. |
The European Union's enlargement commissioner, Olli
Rehn |
Ankara needs to improve
the access of its Kurdish population to radio and
television broadcasting "and to support the teaching
of languages other than Turkish," Rehn said.
He said Turkish officials told him the government
plans to devote one public TV channel to broadcasts
in Kurdish. Rehn said a planned constitutional
reform could improve rights for Kurds and other
minority religious groups that are not currently
treated fairly under Turkish law.
The EU has long urged Turkey to accelerate programs
to undermine the PKK rebel group, which is fighting
for autonomy, through nonmilitary means,www.ekurd.net
by granting Kurds more
rights and promoting economic development in the
impoverished southeast, where Kurds constitute a
majority.
Rehn said there was a need for Turkey to address
economic disparities within the Kurdish community.
He said the Turkish government needed to facilitate
the return of internally displaced Kurds who have
fled their homes in recent years, and to compensate
those who have suffered because of fighting against
rebel groups there.
He said the Turkish government needed to make sure
that future military incursions against rebel
Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq were not
disproportionate.
"Turkey should limit military actions to those
absolutely necessary for achieving its purpose,
protecting the Turkish population from terrorism,"
Rehn said.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey. A
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise
with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
AP | Agencies
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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, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community 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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