Kurdish rights a key obstacle to Turkey’s acceptance by EU

Date: 08/04/1999

By Simon Taylor

ABDULLAH Ocalan's arrest highlighted the Kurdish issue in the most visible way since the western powers urged Iraqi Kurds to rise up against Saddam Hussein at the end of the Gulf War.

But while the media's gaze concentrated on images of occupied embassies and burning Turkish flags, journalists rarely focused on the facts about the Kurdish community in Turkey.

The country's nine to 15 million Kurds (estimates vary) are not recognised as an official minority in Turkey - unlike the much smaller groups of Armenians, Jews and Greeks - which bars them from being educated in their own language.

While they are free to enter the highest ranks of public office, anyone who publicly asserts his or her ethnic Kurdish origin risks “harassment or persecution”, as the European Commission noted in its 1997 report on Turkey's progress towards meeting the criteria for EU membership.

Since the capture of the Kurdish Workers' Party leader, caretaker Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit has announced a new package of economic aid for south eastern Turkey. The thinking behind this move is that by alleviating some of the poverty in one of the country's most underdeveloped regions, political support for Kurdish paramilitary organisations can be combated.

While political commentators hope to see a thawing in EU-Turkey relations after the elections, Kurdish groups are very sceptical that a new government could make significant concessions to the Kurds, as this would be seen by the powerful military as undermining its political influence.

Campaigners argue out that Kurds are effectively barred from legitimate political activity, with many groups banned and their leaders and party workers in prison.

Hadep, the main legal Kurdish party which won the largest number of votes in the South East in the 1995 elections, stands next to no chance of winning political power in the new parliament because of a rule which requires parties to get at least 10&percent; of votes nationally.

The European Parliament, in its report on the EU's European Strategy for Turkey, called for the lowering of this threshold, which acts as an effective bar to parties with a strong regional showing. In Germany, for example, the limit is only 5&percent;.

Human rights groups see these measure as part of an overall strategy which effectively prevents public discussion of the 'Kurdish issue', and say the state prefers to address the question simply in terms of terrorist activities, tarring all political activity with the same brush as the violence of the PKK.

The Commission highlighted this problem in its November report when it wrote: “Public criticism of the armed forces or the peaceful advocacy of alternatives to the basic principles of the Turkish state (e.g. territorial integrity and secularism) may both lead to criminal charges being passed.

Objective and independent reporting by Turkish media of the Kurdish issue is not possible.”

When Ocalan sought political asylum in Italy late last year, he was reported to be offering a seven-point peace plan, including a cease-fire and the start of negotiations based on respect for Turkey's current borders; in other words, dropping demands for an independent Kurdistan.

But European governments failed to respond to the initiative and even backed away from their initial pledge to try Ocalan in an international tribunal where his right to a fair trail could be better guaranteed. Indeed, when the Kurdish leader was captured, the immediate reaction of European governments was to move quickly to crack down on the wave of protests staged by Kurds across Europe.

Clearly, any Turkish politician who offered concessions to the demonised Kurds would be committing political suicide. Yet it is clear that until the Kurds win substantial rights within Turkey's political system, there will be people prepared to resort to force of arms to assert their ethnic identity.

While the PKK's commitment to a peaceful solution and willingness to negotiate has to be tested, there are a number of recent examples of paramilitary organisations like the Irish Republican Army and the African National Congress laying aside their weapons and moving to the negotiating table to work out solutions.

In the long run, say Turkey's critics, the Kurdish issue will also have to be settled through negotiation, to ensure lasting peace and an end to a dispute which has cost tens of thousands of lives.