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Turkey looks to ease minority tensions
with one eye on EU
29.11.2009 |
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November 29, 2009
ISTANBUL, Turkey, — Turkey is making moves to
reconcile with the country's minority communities,
but analysts are divided on whether this new form of
openness indicates a seismic shift in policy.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to
heal the sectarian wounds that run deep through
Turkish society as he looks to take his country
closer to European Union membership -- Brussels
wants democratic reforms and improvement of human
rights before Ankara will be considered for entry.
The Turkish premier has been looking to make
concessions to the Kurdish, Armenian, Roma and Alevi
(Shia Muslim, practicing a modern tradition of
Islam) communities over the past year.
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
"Not long ago, this was
all taboo," said Mehmet Ali Birand, a political
commentator with Turkey's newspaper of reference
Hurriyet.
Turkey and Armenia have been at loggerheads for
years over the killing of an estimated 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
Ankara still rejects Yerevan's genocide label, but
the two countries inked a deal on October 10 to
establish diplomatic ties and open their shared
border.
Earlier that month, Erdogan addressed his Justice
and Development Party's (AKP) annual conference in
which he named 13 people who have made telling
contributions to Turkish society.
He cited left-wing singer Cem Karaca, communist poet
Nazim Hikmet, Armenian musician Tatyos Efendi and
two Kurdish poets, Ahmet Kaya and Ahmed Khani, as
being among the most influential Turks.
The Turkish government has also been keen to win
over the Kurds as it looks to boost its bid for EU
membership.
Erdogan recently announced a "democratic opening"
for 12 million Kurds living in Turkey, which led to
the Kurdish language being used for the first time.
He also released a group of pro-independence Turkey
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels at the end of
October, who were arrested after they re-entered
Turkey from their base in Iraqi Kurdistan region.
Just three years ago, the Turkish army vowed that it
would vigorously defend the country from any threats
made by the PKK.
The Islamist-rooted government hopes fresh gestures
to the Kurds will erode popular support for the
rebel group, which took up arms against Ankara in
1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some
45,000 lives.
Opposition lawmakers say these overtures could risk
national unity, while some critics say these moves
have garnered no concrete results and are merely
aimed at pleasing the European Union.
Hugh Pope, a senior analyst specialising in Turkish
affairs at the International Crisis Group,
disagrees.
"The fact that AKP leaders have chosen this year to
push forward with these openings - at a time of
discouraging, cynical and misguided opposition to
Turkey's EU convergence from key EU powers --
strengthens the argument that AKP and Turkey are
genuine in their attempt to assert universal values,www.ekurd.netrights
and freedoms," Pope said.
For Hurriyet's Birand, this is merely a cynical ploy
by the government to defend its own policies -- such
as freedom of religious expression.
"By citing a variety of names, recognising the
rights of other communities, the government puts
itself in a strong position to defend its own
demands, such as lifting the ban on wearing the veil
at the university," he said.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey
(Turkey-Kurdistan) which has claimed around 45,000
lives of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas. A large Turkey's Kurdish community
openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority.
"The Kurdish question cannot be resolved without
recognizing the will of the Kurdish people and
holding dialogue with its interlocutors," the group
said.
The PKK has long called on Ankara to halt military
operations and agree to negotiations for a solution,
which it says should include official recognition of
the country's Kurds in the constitution.
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,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
The government categorically rejects dialogue with a
group it labels a terrorist organization and says it
will not let up on the military campaign against the
rebels. The PKK is considered a 'terrorist'
organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to
be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling
which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, has
praised Erdogan's efforts to end the conflict. His
so-called democratic initiative aims to expand
cultural and political liberties to address decades
of grievances from Kurds who say they have faced
state-sanctioned discrimination and violence.
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respective author or news agency, AFP |
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