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UK foreign policy report reveals limits to
Kurdish Lobby 11.6.2012 |
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Kurdish Genocide Epetition Rally in British
Parliament, March 2012. Photo: uk.krg.org
June
11, 2012
LONDON, — The U.K.’s Foreign
Affairs Committee (FAC) recently focused on
U.K.-Turkey relations. According to critics, the
U.K. is more concerned about its economical
interests than the “troubling human rights record”
in Turkey.
“We urge the committee to not ignore the serious
decline into state repression, primarily against the
Kurds,” the Peace in Kurdistan Campaign (PIK) said
in response to the committee’s report, referring to
the ongoing arrests of Kurdish activists in Turkey.
Estella Schmid, a spokesperson of the PIK, a
U.K.-based lobby group focusing on Kurds in Turkey,
told Rudaw, “We acknowledge the FAC report and
debate as a welcome initiative by parliamentarians
which reflects the growing awareness among
Westminster politicians of the deteriorating
situation in Turkey and dangers that lie ahead. But
as for any real political resolution for the Kurds,
this is not addressed other than proposals for some
vague notion of a new constitution.”
According to the PIK, the report “gave insufficient
attention to a number of key issues relating to the
Kurdish conflict in Turkey.”
Professor Clement Dodd suggested to the FAC that the
“British policy may need to be somewhat muted in
this area [of Kurdish rights], since Turkish
nationalists tend to see it as a ‘slippery slope’
that ends in independence.”
Jill Evans, a Plaid Cymru member of European
Parliament, spent two days in Ankara along with
Jeremy Corbyn MP and Lord Hylton on the invitation
of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). She told
Rudaw that “as the U.K. is anxious to develop trade
relations with Turkey, I am generally concerned that
there is a willingness to not scrutinize their human
rights record sufficiently.”
She added that the report references the minister of
state for Europe who believes that there are
“encouraging signs” from Turkey.
“I visited Ankara last month and I was certainly not
encouraged by the evidence I saw of the government
repressing the Kurdish people. I do not believe that
the report's recommendations are strong enough to
improve the situation on the ground for the Kurdish
community,” said Evans.
During the delegation’s visit in April, they spoke
with U.K. Ambassador David Reddaway in Ankara about
the ongoing human rights violations. According to
their report, the ambassador acknowledged that the
“human rights situation is not acceptable,” and
agreed that the EU should monitor trials of those
accused under anti-terrorism laws.
The delegation’s report said, “He believes that
Turkey would like to begin negotiations with the
Kurdish side and are very serious about their
ambition to join the EU but are frustrated with the
process.”
According to the PIK, Turkey is seen by the U.K. as
a lucrative and fast expanding export market, and
consequently it aims to build on cooperation between
the countries in trade, defence, security, energy
and foreign policy. Last October, MP David Watts
questioned former British ambassador to Turkey,
David Logan, saying the “British foreign policy
seems to be to improve trade … what does our present
position do to our ability to influence things such
as human rights? ... Perhaps we are not as critical
as we should be, because we are interested in
promoting trade?”
Dr. Janroj Keles, a research fellow at London
Metropolitan University, told Rudaw that the
influence of lobby organizations in the U.K.
representing Kurds from Turkey is limited due to
issues beyond their power. “The U.K. government is
very careful in making any statements regarding
Turkey’s Kurdish question due to economic, political
relations with the Turkish government. Both
countries are also members of NATO and share some
sort of security policies, too.”
Dr. Keles added that the terrorist label for the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey and the EU
makes it more difficult to lobby for the Kurdish
people in international politics. The PIK accused
the U.K. and EU of encouraging the Turkish
government to see the Kurdish issue primarily as one
of terrorism. However, the British Foreign and
Commonwealth Office said that PKK attacks “damage
the political will to make difficult compromises
towards solving the Kurdish problem.”
Dr. Keles points out that Kurdish lobby
organizations are limited because they do not have
an independent state to support them. “The stateless
nations remain invisible in political circles of
nation states. Therefore, Kurdish lobby
organizations will always operate within the context
of human rights and have limited influence and
limited connections with a few MPs or Lords who can
highlight a different position than their
governments.”
As a result, Dr. Keles says, the KRG representative
in the U.K. has more influence, because this is the
“only legitimized Kurdish political representative
in the world of nation states. In addition to this,www.ekurd.net
the KRG representative in the U.K. offers business
opportunities whereas Kurds from northern Kurdistan
(southeast Turkey) are not in a position to offer
any such opportunities, therefore they have less
access to the political establishment in the U.K.”
According to Dr. Keles, the KRG representative works
very professionally and is well-connected within the
British establishment.
On May 16, Stan Newens, former MP and MEP, spoke on
the PIK panel “Roadmap to Negotiations” in London,
telling the Kurdish audience that the West does not
do much to help the Kurds in Turkey. “As Öcalan [PKK
leader] makes clear, the Western powers – above all
the United States, in recent years – have never been
prepared to favor a solution to the Kurdish problem.
As long as Turkey was, and is, prepared to act as a
bulwark for NATO, the West has been prepared to
condemn the PKK as a terrorist organization and
ignore the Kurdish issue.”
Despite this, Newens advised British Kurds to visit
their local MPS and send letters to British
political parties since this could “achieve
something in the long run.”
“Go to see your own MP. Half of the members of the
House of Commons have not heard of him [Öcalan],”
Newens suggested as a way of showing that the
“Kurdish problem won’t go away.”
By Vladimir van Wilgenburg
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