Basından
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,
June 2000, pages 31, 75 Special Report
Turkey’s Kurds Look Forward to Enhanced Cultural Rights as Turkey Moves Toward EU Membership
By Marvine Howe
There was a whirr of excitement the other day in the busy offices of the Kurdish Institute, a shabby five-floor walkup in the old Aksaray quarter of Istanbul. It was graduation day for the first class of 40 instructors who have been trained to teach in Kurdish.
It was not a momentous event, perhaps, but significant because there are still no Kurdish schools in Turkey. In fact, it was illegal to speak in Kurdish before 1991, and since then only in informal circumstances.
“We want to be ready when the day comes,’’ a Kurdish teacher remarked brightly.
Hasan Kaya, chairman of the Kurdish Institute, said there has been “an improvement’’ in the situation since Europeans have been talking with Turkey about Kurdish problems. He expressed the hope that as Turkey moves toward membership in the European Union, Kurds would gain the right to learn in Kurdish as well as Turkish and English. The institute, he said, was opened in 1992 as a company—it could not obtain official recognition as an association—and publishes Zend, a tri-monthly academic journal, and Kurdish textbooks.
Across town, at the Mesopotamian Cultural Center—a social-cultural club for Kurds and Turkish friends—on the main Istiklal Boulevard, the atmosphere was upbeat. Members of the theatrical group suggested they might be permitted to reopen the center’s theater soon, and cinemaphiles hoped they would be able to show in Turkey their latest film, which has won prizes abroad.
The center’s modest bookstore offers cassettes of popular Kurdish songs, books in Turkish and a few in Kurdish, but the best- sellers are texts of the legal defense by Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, currently on death row. In the café, several Kurds, who did not give their names, said Ocalan has grown in popularity since his arrest and trial last year, mainly because of his peace initiative. They insisted that an overwhelming majority of Kurds do not want a return to violence but support the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party mayors and the new Kurdish liberal party as lobbies for Kurdish interests. And they stressed the importance of Foreign Minister Ismail Cem’s statement last winter that Kurds should have cultural rights.
Many Turks as well as Kurds are looking forward to an end of the long and bloody Kurdish conflict. In recent months, there has been a significant decrease in violent actions in the southeast. The army claims it has crushed the 15-year-old Kurdish rebellion led by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has taken nearly 40,000 lives.
A massive concentration of military force and improved anti-guerrilla tactics have reduced the conflicts to what military sources call “an acceptable level.’’ But the real change came last fall, after Ocalan, who has been sentenced to death by a State Security Court, called on his guerrillas to put down their arms. Following the leader’s bidding, PKK militants have given up their aim of independence and announced they will settle for cultural rights. Military circles view this as a ploy to save Ocalan’s skin and have refused to make even a minimum gesture to acknowledge the peace gestures.
Prominent Turkish and foreign commentators, however, have urged the authorities to take advantage of this “window of opportunity.’’ The government has yet to draft a comprehensive policy on the Kurdish question. In fact, not long ago, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told the European Union: “Turkey does not have a Kurdish issue.’’ Kurds, who form one-fifth of Turkey’s 65 million inhabitants, are considered Turkish citizens. Kurdish broadcasts and education are banned and publications regularly seized.
Among positive developments, a Kurdish group has been allowed to form a liberal Kurdish party. An appeals court ruled that a couple could give their daughter a Kurdish name, setting an important precedent. Foreign Minister Cem said publicly that Kurds should have the right to broadcast in Kurdish. (He was slapped down, however, by President Demirel, who said this would lead to “separatist violence.’’) And for the first time, the Foreign Ministry has begun drafting a report on Turkey’s practices toward minorities and Turks of Kurdish origin and how current laws must be readjusted to European standards.
But the authorities continue to take harsh measures against those Kurds who are seen to advocate separatism. In widely criticized moves last February, three popular Kurdish mayors were arrested like common criminals for allegedly supporting the PKK, and 18 leaders of the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party were sentenced to 45 months in prison for the same reason. Seven Labor Party officers were sentenced to up to six months’ imprisonment for singing Kurdish songs; a European parliamentary delegation was barred from meeting with a prominent Kurdish political prisoner, Leyla Zana, but finally was allowed to see her informally; and CNN-Turk TV was closed down for a day because a well-known Turkish journalist asked if Ocalan could become “another Nelson Mandela.’’
Human rights reform and improved treatment of Kurds stand at the top of European demands of Turkey. For years, Turkish politicians have denounced the country’s deplorable human rights record, but failed to correct it, citing the Kurdish insurgency as the reason for exceptional measures. On coming to power last year, Prime Minister Ecevit announced that human rights would be given high priority, warned against abuses and introduced tougher penalties against torture.
In its human rights report on Turkey for 1999, the U.S. State Department commended efforts to correct the worst abuses but was critical of “the climate of impunity’’ enjoyed by police and other security officials. The report said: “Extra-judicial killings, including deaths in detention from excessive force, ”˜mystery killings’ and disappearances continue. Torture remains widespread.’’
Human rights advocates and journalists are still subject to official harassment, particularly on the Kurdish issue. Nazmi Gur, secretary-general of the Human Rights Association, faces up to seven years in prison for calling for an end to the conflict in the southeast. A peace march organized by the association’s Istanbul branch was blocked by police with armored cars and 100 demonstrators detained. Nadire Mater is being tried for “insulting the military’’ in her best-selling book of interviews with soldiers who served in the Kurdish conflict.
To harmonize Turkish laws with European standards, the State Planning Organization has been charged with studying amendments to the Constitution, the Turkish Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Law, the Anti-terror Law and other laws. But the military leadership has openly opposed changing such controversial laws as Article 312 of the Penal Code, considered vital for national integrity.
In a dramatic sign of the more relaxed atmosphere and possible pitfalls, Kurds were allowed to hold celebrations for the Kurdish New Year—which the Turks spell as “Nevruz,” on March 21—for the first time in many years. As a result, festivities for “Peace and Brotherhood’’ took place around the country, except in Istanbul and several other cities, where the event was banned and scores of people arrested because the organizers had used the Kurdish spelling, Newroz, on their application.
Marvine Howe is a former New York Times correspondent in Turkey and the author of Turkey Today: A Nation Divided over Islam’s Revival, just published by Westview Press.
