2010 ilerleme raporu - Avrupa Birliği Bakanlığı

several incidents took place between Roma and other citizens, resulting in the displacement of
Roma citizens.
Turkey has not been participating in the 2005-2015 ‘Decade of Roma Inclusion’, despite calls
on the government to do so by the Roma community.
Overall, Turkey has made progress on cultural rights, especially by further relaxing use of the
Kurdish language in private TV and radio broadcasts and in prisons. The 24-hour Arabiclanguage
TV broadcasts started in 2010 in addition to the Kurdish-language TV channel
which started the previous year. However, restrictions remain, particularly on use of
languages other than Turkish in political life, education and contacts with public services. The
legislation on use of languages other than Turkish is open to restrictive interpretations and
implementation is inconsistent. There has been some progress in the situation of the Roma, as
their issues have become more publicly debated, and implementation some measures is
underway. However, Roma still frequently face discriminatory treatment.
Situation in the east and south-east
Implementation of the government’s plan to complete the South-East Anatolia project (GAP)
by 2012, a key project for socio-economic development of the region, continued. According to
official statistics, GAP’s share of total public investment increased to 14.4% in 2009 (from
12% in 2008). Investments on irrigation, road transport, health and education continued along
with special programmes on business development, human resources development and
empowerment of women. The first meeting for evaluation of the revived GAP took place in
February 2010 and a monitoring report for 2009 was published.
Following the debate on the government’s democratic opening to address notably the Kurdish
issue, some restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language in broadcasting and the use of
pasture land in the region have been removed. In a number of cases original place names have
been restored in response to public demand 31 .
However, terrorist attacks by the PKK, which is on the EU list of terrorist organisations,
continued to claim many lives, not only in the south-east but also throughout Turkey. During
the summer, terrorist attacks increased strongly throughout Turkey, including in major urban
centres. Turkey conducted air strikes against terrorist hideouts in northern Iraq in May,
following parliament’s decision to extend its 2007 motion authorising the government to
order cross-border operations. At the same time, temporary security zones were established in
several provinces, restricting access by civilians.
The return of PKK members and refugees from the Mahmur camp has been put on hold. In
October 2009, a group of 34 people crossed from Iraq as part of the government’s democratic
opening. In July some of the refugees returned to Iraq.
Concrete measures announced within the framework of the democratic opening fell short of
the expectations and were not followed through and implemented.
31
Currently the law allows only village place names to be changed by a decision of the Council of
Ministers.
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