FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

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FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS I think we have to speak out very clearly and I will leave you with this thought. Within Turkey and beyond there is the PKK, which has chosen terrorism and chosen violence as its means of action. There is no getting away from it. It is on the list of terrorist organizations recognised by the European Union. We’re slightly sceptical about the way that list was composed in the European Parliament but you can’t deny that the PKK uses terrorist methods. Indeed it has attacked the civilian population. So I believe the Kurdish issue could only be addressed by democratic means in Turkey. Like many of the representatives of your movement have consistently done, I would say we have to make the non-violent option of your political grouping clear, and that must apply also to relation with the PKK. The disproportionate response of the armed forces to the terrorist threat is perfectly clear to me, but at the same time, using terrorism as a political method does provide the armed forces in Turkey with a very strong alibi for acting within and beyond Turkey’s border and even resuming their prominence in Turkish public life. There should be no ambiguity about this. Turkish legislation does embody unacceptable ambiguity when it comes to drawing distinction between terrorist acts and opinions. I think there has to be a similarly clear distinction between the democratic option and the terrorist option. I believe this will help this country to clarify matters. I believe the European Union is well advised to follow Turkish application process very carefully, going into all the details, because if any country wants to join the European Union it has to be aware that that process implies change. And I was extremely unhappy to note the latest declaration of President Erdoğan which deeply contrasts with previous declarations, up to the point of using for example the issue of energy as a weapon of exchange in negotiations regarding accession with the Commission. That’s unacceptable. The country has to make progress with its reforms because otherwise the prospect of accession to the Union will be a remote one. I believe that if this prospect does become remote we’ll be heading for a very difficult situation for Turkey, for the Kurdish minority and for Europe, and let’s hope that this doesn’t not happen. Amed Dicle Before beginning to my speech, I would like to pay respectful homage our colleague, writer, thinker and also one of the hosts of this conference Harold Pinter. In my speech I’ll have another view on the subject ‘The Role of Europe in Promoting Democratic Changes’. In it I’ll focus on the ‘Freedom of Press’ and democratisation itself. Please allow me to make an initial statement. The AKP government has never seen the accession process to the European Union as a strategic ambition. The AKP has instead considered it as an opportunity for a tactical manoeuvre. That is why, when 80
FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS AKP thought it was in its interests, it pushed reforms forward; when not, it decelerated the reform process. Sometimes, as has been the case for the last two years, it forgot the reform process completely. Now, with the local elections coming up, the AKP government has again remembered the EU accession process and democratisation, which doesn’t seem to be honest, fair-minded and stable, since democracy can not be compatible with nationalist, racist and religious slogans. In my opinion, the difficulties that the Kurdish media are facing in Turkey and the politics that the Turkish state is using against the Kurdish media will draw a very serious and understandable picture of where Turkey has got to in its accession to the European Union. Despite the wars and intern conflicts in Kurdistan, Middle East and in different parts of the world, it is evident that the 21st century is at the same time a century of progress in democracy and human rights. It is a shame for humanity that in this century, a people consisting of millions individuals is still considered as one without identity. In spite of values of this era, as a member of a people whose language, culture and identity is denied, as a journalist of these people, I would like to point to the violence and oppression that Kurdish media is facing. Kurdish Media begun with the newspaper Kurdistan which was published for the first time on the 22nd April 1898 by Miqtat Mithat and Bedirxan. Between 1992 and 1994, 19 friends and colleague of ours lost their lives as a result of assassinations by a Turkish contra-guerrilla organisation. For the first time in history a prime minister ordered the bombing of a central building of a newspaper, namely Ozgur Ulke. The building was totally destroyed and journalist Ersin Yildiz lost his life. Also official notices were distributed which gave orders to silence journalists. In only the last 15 years in Turkey writers and journalists including Hafız Akdemir, Musa Anter, Hüseyin Deniz, Ferhat Tepe and dozens of journalists, labours of newspapers and newspaper distributors have been murdered. Even today censorship in Turkey is practised in a very strict, crude way. A very strict policy is pursued, particularly against Kurdish Media. The printing of Kurdish Media’s publications have been halted one by one; their magazines are closed down, their television channels are declared illegal by state censorship. For instance between 4th August 2006 and 27th December 2008, 22 Kurdish newspapers had their printing halted 49 times. Yes, this happened in a Turkey governed by the AKP, and it continues to happen. This shows how Kurdish Media and opinions about the ‘Kurdish question’ are oppressed in Turkey. Kurds are forced to issue a new newspaper almost every day. They now even have difficulties finding new names for their newspapers. Gundem, which is published in Turkish and Azadiya Welat, which is published in Kurdish, are two Kurdish daily newspapers facing an unprecedented censorship. Because they printed the letters W, Q and X they have been closed down several times. I suppose such a tyrannous practice of a similar oppression is not seen anywhere else in the world. While the Turkish state is using all opportunities and instruments it can to mute Kurdish Media, it has also always tried to mute the first multilingual Kurdish 81
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FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

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