FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS
rently broadcasting in Kurdish—are ongoing, in relations to the wording of Kurdish
songs the channel has aired. Children whose mother tongue is not Turkish cannot
learn it in the Turkish public schooling system. Under the current legislation such education
can be provided only by private educational institutions. However, in the case
of Kurdish courses which had opened following the changes to the law [these] have
now closed down. As a result, there are currently no opportunities to learn Kurdish
in either the public or private schooling system. Finally, according to the Law on political
parties, the use of languages other than Turkish remains illegal in political life.
In this context, a large number of investigations and court cases have been launched
against officials and executives of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) (Ibid.). 39
The Report also took issue with Turkey’s continuing approach to the rights of minority
ethnic groups, which—with the exception of such non-Muslim groups as Greeks,
Armenians, and Jews who are protected as minority groups by the Treaty of Lausanne
(1923)—only grants rights to individual not groups. ‘This should not prevent Turkey,
in accordance with European standards, from granting specific rights to certain Turkish
citizens on the grounds of their ethnic origin, religion or language, so that they
can preserve their identity’ (p. 25) concluded the Report. Although ‘Turkey is a party
to the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, . . . its reservation regarding
the rights of minorities and its reservation concerning the UN Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights . . . regarding the right to education are causes
for concern’ (Ibid.). Finally, the Report also noted that ‘Turkey has not signed the
Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
or the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages’ (Ibid.).
The Report also listed a number of other points specifically concerning the Kurds. 1.)
‘The Kurdish Newroz Spring celebrations in March 2008 resulted in violence against
demonstrators in several provinces’ (p. 17). 2.) ‘No steps have been taken to abolish
the system of village guards,’ (p. 28) long seen by many as an instrument of official
state repression. 3.) ‘The ‘temporary security zones’ established in June 2007 in the
provinces of Sirnak, Siirt and Hakkari close to the Iraqi border remain operational’
(p. 27). These ‘temporary security zones’ were suggestive of the former emergency
rule provinces that had been seen as another arm of state repression but had been
finally abolished in 2002. In all fairness to Turkey, however, the Report explained
that ‘terrorist attacks by the PKK, which is on the EU list of terrorist organizations,
[not only] continued in the South-East, but also throughout the country and claimed
many lives’ (Ibid.). In addition, ‘landmines remain a security concern for both military
personnel and civilians. The government reported ongoing use of anti-personnel
mines by the PKK/KONGRAGEL’ (Ibid.).
39 In January 2009, however, the state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT)
launched an exclusive Kurdish-language television station. It remains to be seen how successful this
initiative will prove. Ihsan Dagi, “The Turkish State’s Kurdish TV Channel,” Today’s Zaman, January 5,
2009.
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