Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivist~ Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-:Basm Özeti
ment. "Great new laws, zero implementa-, ,hap) won 60% ot the votes in the last election,"
he says. "There's no control over 10- .
cal bosses ... and there's been no change sotion in Diyarbakir and got a quarter of
them in the 20 eastern provinces peopled
far in the state's mentality." ,
Moreover, conditions attached to the predominantly by Kurds. But across the
country, at least three out of four Kurds
proposed amnesty mean that PKKinsur- voted for non-Kurdish parties, including,
gents thought to have committed acts of
violence will not qualify for clemency. in growing numbers, the ruling Develop- ,
There has been no hint so far that Abdul- " ment and Justice Party. "
lab Ocalan, the PKKleader sentenced to But this, as Kurdish activists argue, does
death in 1999 (the term was commuted to not justify the abuses of state power inflicted
on those among the sizeable minorlife),will
be freed any time soon. ity who have argued, non-violently, for
They're still getting nabbed
Kurdish language and cultural rights. Last
month, a ~amous sm'ger was detam'ed fora
Diyarbakir's mayor, Feridun Celik, who 1.
belongs to a pro-PKKpolitical party which, week for singing a provocative song-in
has recently changed its name from the Kurdish. And it is still illegal for a Kurd to '
People's Democratic Party (known as Ha- register his child with a Kurdish name.
dep, which was barmed) to the Demo- On paper, many of these restrictive
cratic People's Party (known as Dehap), laws have already changed. The recent removal
of a catch-all article in the penal
says that 600 of its people have been de- code now allows anyone to argue peacetained
this y,ear. But the fact that some )0
towns in the south-east have mayors who
belong to the party shows that it is allowed
a measure of power and freedom.
Politicians in Ankara, Thrkey's capital,
point out, correctly, that most Kurds are
well assimilated into Thrkish society and
do not seek to express the Kurdish identity
beloved of Dehap and the PKK.Many top
Thrks, including past prime and foreign
ministers, are or were Kurds by blood.
Moreover, it is true that only a minority
of Thrkey'~ 14Jll-odd Kurds vote for Kurdish
parties. Hadep (before it became Defully
even for separatism, says a senior
Thrkish diplomat. "Today, the non-violent
advocacy of Kurdistan is legal-in theory,"
says Emin Sirin, an MP in the ruling party
who is on parliament's foreign-affairs
committee. "Thrkey should regard Kurdistan
as the United Kingdom regards Scotland,"
says Faruk Demir, of the Centre for
Advanced Strategy, a think-tank in Ankara.
''1\venty years ago nobody officially even
accepted the existence of a Kurdish identity
or people," marvels a leading broadcaster
in Istanbul. Such relaxed public discussion
of the Kurdish issue was rare even
a few years ago.
So attitudes are changing-on both
sides. Both the PKK/KADEKand Dehap,
which tends to echo the fighters' latest
views, insist that they now' seek only cultural,
linguistic and general human rights
for Kurds."Forget about federalism [within
lUrkey]," says Diyarbakir's Dehap mayor.
Maybe the militant minority among
Thrkey's Kurds, once they feel no longer
treated as second-class citizens, will fit
happily into a unitary Thrkish state. But if
peaceful and public discussion of such
dangerous notions as a Greater Kurdistan
becomes allowable: as it must do if Thrkey
is to come closer to joining the EU, who
knows what a distant constitutional future
might hold? That unanswered question is
precisely what still rattles the lUrks.•
Turkey's challenge
that Turkey is ready to begin negotiations
to join the European Union.
The talks would start at the end o{
The vote by Turkey's Parlia- , security Cowicil, which' is composed next year if Turkey makes the grade.
ment last week to curb the • o{ military leaders and senior politi- Despite overwhelming public supcians.
The council's executive powers port {or entry into the union, Prime
political po~r o{ the milio: '
tary and increase freedom will be abolished, relegating it to an Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
o{ expression is a significant step advisory role, and the council's secre- his party will still need courage to entary
general, whose power in the past {oree the new measures in the {ace of
away from army domination o{Turkish
politics. The challenge now {or has rivaled that Of the prime minister, ' the entrenched interests o{ the mili-
the government, led by the moderate
Islamists o{ the Justice and Development
Party, is to ensure that the new
measures are carried out.
Not long ago, Turkey's military
would have responded to such a VQte
by seizing power - the armed {orees
removed {our governments in the
last {our decades. That is less likely
today because o{ broad support in
Turkey {or democratic rule, but
,'these reforms present a clear test o{
just how much the climate has
changed. Military leaders should
step back and let the nation continue
along the path to deeper democracy
and European Union membership.
,. The measures approved Wednesday
take aim at the core o{ the military's
political influence. the National
need no longer be a {our-star general., tary and other conserVative {orees in
The military budget, formerly secret, ,Turkish society. Turks will know that
will be put under the scrutiny o{ Par- he is succeeding if military leaders
liament. Some legislation restricting who embrace the reforms get profreedom
of expression and assembly mated during the military council
will be repealed.
meetings that conclude on Monday.
The PlI,rliament also ~ to offer Erdogan deserves all the support
an amnesty to some members of the he can get from Europe, which
outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. stands to benefit from the partner-
The amnesty, which builds on a re- ship of a truly democratic Turkey.
form package approved in Junethat ,The United States should put aside
protects the rights of Turkey's Kurd- any lingering spite over Turkey's reish
minority, doubles as a gesture of fusaI to allow U.S. {orees in during
good will to the United States, which the Iraq war; and back Erdogan's ef-
. deems the Kurdish organization a ter- {arts. Washington, facing an uphill
rorist group and wants it out ofnorth- struggle in Iraq, has much to gain
ern Iraq, where about 5,000 members from showing that it trusts ~oderate
are thoqght to have sought refuge. Islamists with the task of embracing
The moves are intended to prove democratic reforms.
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