“Talking about peace while building military bases and increase the number of village guards does not make sense.”

The Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz told the construction of the military stations was necessary for security and border control.

"Each country must secure its borders and thus defend its citizens. This is exactly what we are doing. Nothing else," Yilmaz told the newspaper Avrupa.

"To ensure that our borders are secure for our citizens and to prevent smuggling, the construction of military stations will continue," the Turkish defense minister added.

Over a year ago, the PKK and Turkey’s government started a peace process to end a bloody war that killed more than 40,000 people in a 30-year conflict. In return for the pullout of PKK guerrillas from Turkey, it was expected that the Turkish government would give the Kurds greater cultural and linguistic rights, even though details of the agreement between the two sides remain unknown.

Last year, Ankara launched a “democracy package,” which among other things gave the Kurds the right to Kurdish education in private schools, and the use of the letters q, w and x, which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet, but do in Kurdish.

But that is not enough, Besikci believed. The solution is education in mother tongue in public schools, he said.

"If children must go to private schools to learn their mother tongue, they must pay. Do Turkish children have to pay to learn their language? No. The state educates them in Turkish. So the state should also provide free education to Kurds in their language," he said.

As long as there is no Kurdish education in public schools and military bases are still being built, he will remain skeptical, Besikci said.

“The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is not taking any steps to create peace. They try to stall off the Kurds,” he said.

It has created anger in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, that the Kurdish autonomous government in Erbil has signed a series of energy agreements with Turkey. This would potentially allow the Kurdswww.Ekurd.net to export oil bypassing the Iraqi government and thereby make a significant step towards real independence, the Iraqi politicians fear.

According to Besikci the Kurds must decide on their own natural resources.

“The Kurds have the right to decide on their own production and export,” as he said.

After insurgents led by the extremist Sunni Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in June, the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq (KRG) moved Peshmerga forces into Kurdish-populated territories left abandoned by the military, including the key oil-city of Kirkuk. Because of Iraq’s future is uncertain, Kurds are now inching toward full autonomy, experts say. Besikci supports full independence in a greater Kurdistan.

“KRG is not the whole Southern Kurdistan. There are areas that should be connected to the Kurdistan territory. Even now Kurds rule themselves with their own army, parliament and schools. But it is important that they also get independence,” he said.

At that point he critizices the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey, officially fighting for linguistic and cultural autonomy within Turkey's borders. HDP and BDP argues that Kurdish independence in southeast Turkey is impossible, since millions of Kurds are living in Western Turkey.

But according to Besikci only complete independence kan ensure the Kurds against discrimination. He refers to countries in Europe, that despite small populations, are independent.

"Today, countries such as Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus have a population of under half a million, but they are independent. Kurds are nearly 40 million, so why should they not have any status? They should have their own state or at least federation with secured boundaries, where they can rule themselves," he said.

Ismail Besikci is ethnic Turk and has written over 30 books, of which 36 were released and 32 prohibited. He was in the 90s convicted of separatism and terrorism propaganda, but was however released due to an amnesty. He has served in Turkish prison for 17 years.

haber/muslim-isid-turkiye-icin-tehlikeyse-neden-isbirligi-yapmayalim-132180.htm

Deniz B. Serinci, a freelance Danish professional journalist. You can visit his official website at: www.serinci.dk.

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