Turkish Forum

Tag: Kurds

  • “Inside the country, the job has been done – the regime has been destroyed”

    “Inside the country, the job has been done – the regime has been destroyed”

    The Kurdish Globe

    Dr. Radwan Badini/ GLOBE PHOTO / Qassim Khidhir
    Dr. Radwan Badini/ GLOBE PHOTO / Qassim Khidhir

    Turkey plays a dual game with Syrian Kurds. What we want from Turkey is to look at the Syrian opposition parties equally.

    Dr. Radwan Badini, an independent Syrian Kurdish politician and intellectual, participated in both of the Syrian opposition meetings in Turkey, as the representative of Kurdish opposition. He was in Antalya on June 1 and in Istanbul on July 16. In an interview with the Globe, Dr. Badini discusses issues regarding Syria and its future.

    Globe: You participated in both of the Syrian opposition meetings in Turkey, what was the difference between the Istanbul and Antalya meeting?

    Dr. Badini: At the Istanbul meeting, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood Party had a larger presence; they wanted to show their power and be recognized inside Syria and internationally. As Kurds, we don’t mind sitting with the Muslim Brotherhood, but we have conditions and limits. We insist that Kurds in Syria are not a minority, they are one of the main nations, and we want the Kurdish rights to be written in the new Syrian constitution. Right now, the level of understanding between Kurds and the Muslim Brotherhood is positive.

    Globe: Is the Muslim Brotherhood considered the most powerful Syrian opposition party?

    Dr. Badini: No, but among the traditional Syrian opposition parties, the Muslim Brotherhood is considered the strongest. Moreover, the Muslim Brotherhood is the most experienced Syrian opposition.

    Globe: Which opposition parties are strong?

    Dr. Badini: There are no strong Syrian opposition parties because for more than 45 years the Syrian regime has monopolized power in the country and never let any political party beside Baath Party (the ruling party) practice or even breathe. In the meantime, the Kurdish opposition is the most organized opposition in Syria.

    Globe: There were reports that Turkey did not invite Kurdish parities to participate in the opposition meetings. Is this true?

    Dr. Badini: Turkey plays a dual game with Syrian Kurds. What we want from Turkey is to look at the Syrian opposition parties equally. We respect what (Turkish Prime Minister) Erdogan has done recently to improve the Kurdish rights in Turkish Kurdistan. Turkey is a neighbor to Syrian Kurdistan, and Syrian Kurdistan has a strategic place for Turkey because it is one of the main gateways to Arab countries. With Turkey, we can be strategic partners based on bilateral interests. Around 15 percent of Syria’s population is Kurdish, and the size of Syrian Kurdistan is more than 30,000 square kilometers — the same size as Israel.

    Globe: What was the level of Turkey’s role in the Syrian opposition meetings?

    Dr. Badini: Well, only the blind people cannot see Turkey’s role. The meetings were organized by Turkey and behind the curtain; they (Turkey) were playing an important role. As the Syrian opposition, we visited Germany, Russia and the United States, but everybody showing us the route to Turkey.

    Globe: Do you think the European countries and the U.S. are slow in supporting the Syrian opposition?

    Dr. Badini: The U.S. is busy with other countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq. Regarding European countries, among them there are different points of view regarding how to deal with Syria, as you can see their different opinions on Libya. However, the European countries told us: “If you want us to interfere, first go and convince the Arab countries.”

    Globe: How do you describe the situation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad?

    Dr. Badini: I see him as a sick man, dying in bed. He and his regime are over. His regime sent a telegram to the meeting, asking the Syrian opposition for dialogue. We rejected it because we believe what the regime is asking is only monologue, not dialogue.

    Globe: Four months of violent protests and the international community still has not made any move to support the protesters. Do you think the Syrian protestors are becoming impatient?

    Dr. Badini: I believe the job inside the country has been done — the regime has been destroyed. Now it is the international community’s turn to take a step.

    Globe: The Syrian regime is talking about possible civil war in Syria, civil war among ethnic groups. Is it true or it is just the regime’s propaganda?

    Dr. Badini: it is just the regime’s propaganda. In Homs, the regime made a rouse by killing Allawis (Shiite ethnic group), blamed it on the Sunnis and then killed some Sunnis and blamed it on the Allawi.

    Globe: How do you describe the current situation of Kurdish areas in Syria?

    Dr. Badini: They are living in extreme poverty. For several years there have been droughts in the Kurdish areas, and many Kurdish families moved to the big cities, leaving their villages. No Kurd has faith in the Syrian regime; they believe the only solution is to topple the regime. They are hopeful and enthusiastic; they believe the regime will be over soon.

    All Kurdish Syrian parties need to hold a conference soon to better organize ourselves and have one voice when it comes to the Kurdish issue in Syria.

    via KurdishGlobe- “Inside the country, the job has been done – the regime has been destroyed”.

  • Turkey responds to Kurdish autonomy vote with a military offensive against Kurdish rebels

    Turkey responds to Kurdish autonomy vote with a military offensive against Kurdish rebels

    By Associated Press, Published: July 15

    ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships conducted a major offensive in southeastern Turkey on Friday after Kurdish legislators declared autonomy in the region and more than a dozen soldiers were killed there by Kurdish rebels.

    After Friday prayers in this mostly Muslim nation, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said violence by the Kurdish rebels in the Diyarbakir area will achieve nothing.

    “What they did is never going to drag us to the table,” Erdogan said of the Kurdish guerrillas. “If they want to make peace, there is only one thing to do: the terrorist organization must lay down arms,” he said in nationally televised comments in Istanbul.

    In a rare show of unity, Erdogan’s ruling party and the opposition issued a joint parliamentary declaration denouncing the violence and vowing solidarity against “terrorism and separatist attempts.”

    On Thursday, Kurdish guerrillas attacked Turkish forces in Diyarbakir, leaving 13 soldiers and seven rebels dead. It was the deadliest violence involving the Kurdish guerrillas in three years. That clash and the autonomy declaration by the regional Kurdish legislators also sparked anti-Kurdish protests across Turkey, including a firebomb attack on a closed office of the Kurdish political party on Thursday night in Ankara, the capital.

    The rebel attack, and the autonomy vote, occurred hours after lawmakers from the country’s Kurdish party and the government failed to reach an agreement to end a boycott of Turkey’s Parliament in Ankara by Kurdish legislators.

    Kurdish lawmakers have said they will not take their oath of office until five pro-Kurdish legislators who are charged with ties to Kurdish rebels are released from jail and another Kurdish politician, Hatip Dicle — whose election to Parliament was canceled due to a conviction for ties to the rebels — is allowed to work in Parliament.

    The military’s offensive involves hundreds of elite soldiers sent to remote areas of southeastern Turkey where Kurdish rebels are believed to be hiding. The area is near northern Iraq, where Kurdish rebels have long been based. Turkey’s military declined to comment when asked if the offensive has caused casualties.

    Kurdish politicians have long pushed for greater cultural and political rights for Kurds, who make up around 20 percent of Turkey’s 74 million people. Since Kurdish rebels took up arms in 1984 to seek autonomy in their southeastern region, the conflict has killed nearly 40,000 people.

    After an umbrella group that includes Turkey’s Kurdish party proclaimed Kurdish autonomy in Diyarbakir on Thursday, the prosecutor’s office the region’s largest city said it was examining the declaration, which the government sees as a threat to national unity. Prosecutors are expected to press criminal charges against dozens of Kurdish lawmakers, politicians and activists after the probe.

    Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen denounced Thursday’s rebel attack on Turkish soldiers.

    “I strongly condemn the terrorist attack in Diyarbakir province,” Rasmussen said in a statement on Friday. “Such heinous attacks have no justification. I express my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who were killed. NATO allies stand in full solidarity against the scourge of terrorism.”

    Dutch legislator Ria Oomen-Ruijten, a member of the European Parliament, also condemned the attack and urged Kurdish lawmakers to distance themselves from the rebels who are regarded as a terrorist group by the West.

    “I urge the newly elected (Kurdish) members of Parliament to distance themselves from this unacceptable violent attack and call upon them to make a fresh start in the peace settlement,” she said. “The only way forward is through political dialogue and concrete initiatives for reconciliation.”

    In Turkey on Friday, top generals and senior Cabinet members stood by coffins of the dead soldiers draped in the red and white Turkish flag at a solemn funeral service at a military base in Diyarbakir and prayed for them.

    Thursday’s military casualties were the highest since the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party killed 17 soldiers in an October 2008 attack on a military unit on the Iraqi border.

    The rebels also killed a dozen soldiers in an ambush along the Iraqi border in October 2007, an attack that triggered a weeklong air-and-ground Turkish offensive in early 2008 against Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq.

    __

    Associated Press Writers Suzan Fraser and Ozgur Akman contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    via Turkey responds to Kurdish autonomy vote with a military offensive against Kurdish rebels – The Washington Post.

  • Turkey’s Kurdish Security Problems Require Political Solution

    Turkey’s Kurdish Security Problems Require Political Solution

    By Francesco F. Milan | 11 Jul 2011

    pkkSince the 1980s, the Kurdish separatist group Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK), labeled as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has been one of the main threats to Turkey’s domestic security. The PKK lost momentum after the group’s leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was captured in 1999. But since 2003, the turmoil resulting from military operations in Iraq has facilitated the creation of a new safe haven for PKK bases in the Qandil mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan. In the past few years, clashes between Turkish security forces and PKK militants have been interrupted only by sporadic and ineffective cease-fires, while the absence of credible political initiatives to address Turkey’s domestic Kurdish issue fuels frustration on both sides.

    Last year, nearly 100 Turkish soldiers and dozens of civilians were killed in PKK ambushes, carried out mainly in Turkey’s southeastern provinces. But attacks also hit major cities, especially Istanbul, and strategic infrastructure such as gas pipelines. Moreover, the PKK showed increased familiarity with the preparation and use of improvised explosive devices. More recently, in the run-up to June’s national elections, one policeman died when PKK militants attacked Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s campaign convoy, and in the past several weeks two policemen and four soldiers were killed in a number of different ambushes, while two more soldiers were kidnapped by the PKK just this weekend. A few weeks ago, Ocalan stated openly that the PKK will launch major attacks on Turkish soil should the government fail to commit to a genuine reform program on the Kurdish issue. …

    via WPR Article | Turkey’s Kurdish Security Problems Require Political Solution.

  • Tuncel: AKP must “make a decision” on Kurdish issue

    Tuncel: AKP must “make a decision” on Kurdish issue

    The government should show whether it is committed to finding a solution, says pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) politician Sebahat Tuncel in an exclusive interview with SETimes.

    By Anna Wood for Southeast European Times in Istanbul – 06/07/11

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    Sebahat Tuncel (above) and BDP supporters were dispersed by riot police at a protest rally in Istanbul. [Reuters]

    An unanticipated political crisis has emerged in the aftermath of Turkey’s national elections. Elected parliamentarians from the main opposition CHP and the Kurdish-backed Labour, Democracy and Freedom bloc have been denied entry to parliament, ostensibly because of their criminal records.

    In protest, Kurdish independent candidates are staging a parliamentary boycott. CHP members, meanwhile, have entered but refuse to be sworn in.

    BDP bloc candidate Sebahat Tuncel, the youngest female parliamentarian in Turkey’s history, discusses the reactions of the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Bloc, the Kurdish people’s demands, and the possibility of reaching an agreement with AKP.

    SETimes: Can you describe the events in Sisli, Istanbul, where a clash broke out between Kurdish parliament members who were walking to a press conference, the public and the police? Will this event have larger repercussions?

    Sebahat Tuncel: As the Labour, Democracy, and Freedom Bloc, our aim was to walk to Taksim to make a press statement to protest the High Election Organization’s decision to prevent Hatip Dicle and [the court’s decision not to allow] other elected candidates who are in prison as part of the KCK case from serving as a parliamentarians despite having been elected.

    However, we were confronted by a large attack. Without thought to the women and children, they attacked with gas bombs and clubs and tens of our friends were injured.

    The events experienced in Sisli further exemplified the AKP administration’s approach to the Kurdish problem. In their refusal to grant permission to a press conference, they clearly showed their preference for deepening the crisis and chaos.

    SETimes: What are your expectations and greatest concerns regarding this situation?

    Tuncel: Turkey’s most fundamental problem is the Kurdish problem. Without solving the Kurdish problem, Turkey’s democratisation and the creation of a democratic constitution are not possible.

    Today, Kurds are asking for education in their native language, the ability to freely express their identity and culture, and the right to self-rule. They want these things to appear in the new constitution.

    Today, it is unacceptable to take this problem, which has arrived at the solution stage, back to a level of conflict. From that perspective, we’re hopeful, but this process won’t be very easy. It will be defined by democratic forces and the freedom struggle of the Kurdish people. We take our hope from this struggle.

    SETimes: Do you think it’s possible to come to an agreement with the administration?

    Tuncel: The administration needs to make a decision on the topic of finding a solution to the Kurdish problem. If they opt to live together with the Kurdish community, agreement and a solution are possible.

    What we desire and what we strive for is the immediate establishment, via negotiations, of the peace craved by Turkey’s peoples. Everyone should be responsible for this, but as the recipient of 50% of the people’s votes in the last election, AKP is even more responsible. If AKP doesn’t find a solution, if it doesn’t fulfill this responsibility, Turkey might experience even greater conflict.

    SETimes: Do you feel any sense of togetherness on this topic with CHP or MHP, or is your situation different?

    Tuncel: Even if the events appear legally similar, it needs to be seen that we are in a very different political position. Both the reasons for our friends’ arrests and Turkey’s approaches to solving these problems are different. The arrest [of KCK members] are unjustly and illegally taking away the Kurdish people’s right to political participation. We see this as the taking of political hostages and believe that such approaches must be abandoned at once, that they are themselves the fundamental cause of the crisis.

    SETimes: If an agreement does occur and everyone, including Dicle, enters parliament, will it be possible for bloc candidates and AKP to work together while creating the new constitution?

    Tuncel: If an agreement is reached and concrete steps are taken, this will be quite significant for Turkey’s future. If our friends are freed along with Hatip Dicle, this can be considered a gesture of good faith. If such a situation occurs, we would create a cooperative working platform for a democratic, pluralist, environmental and liberal constitution.

    SETimes: Final thoughts?

    Tuncel: The cause of the recent crisis in Turkey is not the Kurds or the bloc … As the current developments in the Middle East show, it’s impossible to protect governments from people’s demands for equality and freedom.

    It’s clear that Kurds aren’t without alternatives on this topic. For us, parliament isn’t the sole working space … Even if all our work occurs outside parliament, we will pursue our people’s struggle for freedom and equality as if we were in parliament. From now on, Diyarbakır will be the centre of our group meetings and parliamentary work.

    If this situation isn’t solved, Turkey will have come to a political turning point. By refusing to recognize Kurds’ right to political participation, Ankara may open up a path for Kurds to establish their own parliament …There is no legitimacy in a parliament that lacks the Labor, Democracy and Freedom Bloc.

    This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.
  • Letters: Kurdish success in Turkey’s elections

    Letters: Kurdish success in Turkey’s elections

    Kurdish success in Turkey’s elections

    * guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 July 2011 21.00 BST

    In all reports of the recent Turkish elections (Report, 13 June), why has there been so little coverage in the UK media about the significant success of the Kurds or of their continued repression by the Turkish authorities?

    Because of a rigged electoral system, the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy party did not field candidates but stood as independents. Despite widespread “dirty tricks” by the authorities, including intimidation, threats, bribery and fraud, 36 Kurdish politicians were elected, nearly doubling the number of Kurdish representatives in parliament since the previous election.

    There has also been little coverage in the UK media of the imprisonment of 151 peace-seeking Kurdish politicians, human rights activists, elected mayors and lawyers, nor of Turkey’s denial of the use of the Kurdish mother tongue in education.

    It is heartening to see Leyla Zana elected and back in the parliament. Following her election 20 years ago, when she made her oath in Turkish and then repeated it in Kurdish, she was arrested and detained for 10 years in prison. The Turkish prime minister, Recep Erdogan, would do well to read carefully her thoughtful court defences to all the charges that today she still faces.

    The UK government has welcomed Turkey’s role as a negotiator in any Middle East peace process, and supported its aspiration to join the European Union. It is time our government reminded Mr Erdogan that he needs first to make peace in his own backyard, and that if he continues to deny some 15 million Kurds their basic democratic rights, Turkey will never be accepted in the EU.

    via Letters: Kurdish success in Turkey’s elections | World news | The Guardian.

  • Lessons from Turkey’s elections: The AKP is dominant, but the Kurdish question is central

    Lessons from Turkey’s elections: The AKP is dominant, but the Kurdish question is central

    By Ali Ezzatyar

    TurkeyflagThe Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the recent elections, as expected. But that’s not the most important election news coming out of Turkey. With a record number of seats being won by PKK-sympathizing Kurds running as independents, Turkey’s oppressed Kurdish minority sent a chilling message to the AKP government: deal with our problems, once and for all, or face unrest. In a new Turkey for which the world can’t seem to contain its praise, the world had better encourage Turkey to take heed.

    Its reelection on Sunday the 12th was a further reminder of how the widely popular AKP continues to dominate Turkey’s political landscape, and for good reason. It has managed a spectacular rise. Through a global economic downturn, Turkish unemployment was reduced and per capita GDP has doubled since the AKP took power. The Turkish economy grew at a staggering 9% last year; that is more than twice the rate of growth of the rest of the world. The AKP supervised this economic upturn all while making Turkey more democratic and influential internationally.

    But if today’s unbounded optimism for Turkey demonstrates anything, it is that the world’s memory is terribly short. Turkey’s Kurds, who make up about a fifth of the country and much of Istanbul and the south-east, are still denied basic human rights. Admitting the mere existence of the Kurds was taboo in Turkey until recently.

    The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), lead by its militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, resorted to separatist violence in the ’80s and ’90s to combat these failures. 40,000 deaths (mostly Kurdish), as well as the arrest or murder of hundreds of journalists and politicians, followed. During this period, foreign investment and tourism dwindled, the Turkish economy was in shambles, and military intervention in politics loomed on multiple occasions.

    In the aftermath of Ocalan’s arrest in 1999, the Kurdish rebellion stalled. With every Kurdish political party banned, the AKP played on Kurdish frustration in its election campaign. The AKP’s perceived message of Islamic unity was attractive to Kurds; they saw it as a slap in the face to Turkey’s extreme secular, nationalist tradition. The combination of promises from Prime Minister Erdogan, minor concessions, and growing prosperity has mostly calmed violence throughout the last decade.

    But Kurds, partially bolstered by the success and freedom of Kurds in Northern Iraq, are still unhappy. Erdogan’s “Kurdish Initiative” of two years ago never materialized, and is widely perceived as an election stunt in south-east Turkey. Meanwhile, the PKK, still widely popular in the Kurdish region, is making ominous threats of war. Abdullah Ocalan has recently stated from prison that armed rebellion will resume if Turkey does not negotiate with the PKK.

    Kurds running as independents won 36 seats in Sunday’s elections, including seats in Istanbul. Most of these Kurds ran on a pro-PKK platform, and will go to parliament with strict demands.

    Far from an encouraging show of Kurdish participation in a new democratic Turkey, Sunday’s elections are a warning to the Turkish state that Kurdish dissatisfaction is widespread. With countless pronouncements from newly elected Kurdish MPs about the need for drastic change, as well as the PKK’s military arm threatening a renewed civil war, the handwriting is on the wall. An Arab Spring type uprising by Turkey’s Kurds could devolve, and any armed conflict would undo the new and fragile and in many ways superficial gains the AKP has made in the last ten years. The West, likewise, will no longer have a model Middle Eastern democracy to point to.

    The international community has an important role to play in encouraging the AKP to exercise its leverage with respect to the Kurdish question. First, Europe and the United States must use the ‘K’ word in their public relations with Turkey, signifying their belief that a serious human rights problem continues to exist. Second, as the AKP drafts a new constitution that can finally put the Turkish state’s discriminatory structural impediments behind it, the world needs to its apply diplomatic pressure to ensure a conciliatory approach with Turkey’s Kurds.

    With particular encouragement from a Europe that is perceived as being increasingly friendly and dependent on Turkey, Erdogan has a powerful argument to advance to his citizens that Kurds must be accepted as equals at this pivotal juncture. Confrontation is brimming beneath the surface in Turkey, and without genuine regard for the Kurdish question, calamity could ensue.

    via Lessons from Turkey’s elections: The AKP is dominant, but the Kurdish question is central | Tufts Roundtable Commons.