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  • Ban on Kurdish Lawmaker Sparks Protests

    Ban on Kurdish Lawmaker Sparks Protests

    By MARC CHAMPION

    ISTANBUL—A decision to bar an elected Kurdish candidate from Turkey’s Parliament triggered protests and warnings of “chaos” from a top Kurdish politician on Wednesday.

    Turkey’s High Election Board ruled late Tuesday that Hatip Dicle, one of 36 Kurdish-backed candidates to win a seat in elections June 12, wouldn’t be allowed to enter Parliament because of a prior conviction for spreading terrorist propaganda.

    The election board and courts are still deciding whether to release from jail nine elected candidates, including Mr. Dicle and five backed by the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, so they can take their seats in Parliament. The three non-BDP candidates—a former university rector, a journalist and a retired general—are awaiting trial on charges of taking part in terrorist conspiracies to bring down the government.

    Under Turkish law, anyone convicted of a terrorism-related charge can’t enter Parliament. Mr. Dicle lost an appeal against his 2010 conviction earlier this month. However, Kurds and many human-rights lawyers argue that Turkish terrorism laws are unduly broad.

    The decision to bar Mr. Dicle raised tensions in Turkey’s large ethnic Kurdish minority, after an election campaign that featured attacks by Kurdish terrorists and a toughened stance from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan toward Kurdish demands for greater language and political rights as he sought nationalist votes.

    “This decision has openly shown what the state’s real approach and understanding of a solution to the Kurdish problem is,” Ahmet Turk, a former Kurdish party leader elected to parliament on a ticket backed by the BDP, said in televised remarks Wednesday. “This is a decision that will draw Turkey into chaos.”

    Two policemen were killed in an explosion Wednesday while driving in the Eastern province of Tunceli, the state-run Anadolu Ajansi reported. No group had claimed responsibility for the attack by afternoon. The banned Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, is active in the area.

    A sit-in was held in the main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on Wednesday to protest the decision to bar Mr. Dicle, the Firat news agency reported. A Facebook campaign was under way to organize a demonstration in Istanbul in the evening.

    Mr. Erdogan began an initiative during his last term in office aimed at resolving Turkey’s long-running Kurdish problem. A war between Turkish security forces and the PKK that started in 1984 has claimed up to 40,000 lives. There was widespread disappointment among Kurds as Mr. Erdogan appeared to backpedal on the initiative in the face of nationalist opposition within Turkey.

    The government is expected to make resolving the Kurdish issue a high priority in its new term, amid reports Mr. Erdogan will create a cabinet-level portfolio to deal with the issue. Analysts say unrest in Syria, which borders Turkey’s Kurdish regions, has increased the urgency of resolving the Kurdish problem.

    If Mr. Dicle remains barred from Parliament, the runner-up for his seat in Diyarbakir, who is from Mr. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, would take his place.

    Prior to the June 12 elections, the election board announced it was barring seven Kurdish candidates from running, but then reversed under pressure its decision on six of them.

    Mr. Turk had warned that all 36 Kurdish-backed candidates would boycott the new 550-seat Parliament if Mr. Dicle wasn’t reinstated. But Altan Tan, also elected on a BDP-backed ticket in Diyarbakir, said in a phone interview that no formal decision had been made and a discussion was expected on “the pros and cons, and the consequences” of a boycott.

    —Ayla Albayrak contributed to this article.

    via Ban on Kurdish Lawmaker Sparks Protests – WSJ.com.

  • Turkey’s Kurds furious over lost parliament seat

    Turkey’s Kurds furious over lost parliament seat

    AFP/Diyarbakir, Turkey

    Newly-elected Kurdish lawmakers came under pressure yesterday to boycott Turkey’s parliament after one of them lost his seat, as Ankara faced warnings of renewed bloodshed.

    Some 2,000 Kurds launched a sit-in in Diyarbakir, the largest city of the Kurdish-majority southeast, furious with an electoral board decision to strip veteran activist Hatip Dicle of the parliamentary seat he won in the June 12 polls over a terror-related conviction.

    Dicle, in jail since 2010 on separate charges, had been expected to be freed to assume his seat.

    The Democratic Society Congress (DTK), a Kurdish umbrella organisation, appealed to the other 35 Kurdish-backed lawmakers elected along with Dicle to boycott parliament when it convenes in the coming days.

    The deputies “should openly declare their stance in line with their earlier decision not to go to parliament if even one of them is missing”, it said, according to Anatolia news agency.

    The statement also urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and parliament to find a way to reverse the ruling.

    The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which backed Dicle’s candidacy and is part of the DTK, said it would convene today to evaluate the situation.

    The electoral board’s ruling “is a decision to drag Turkey into chaos … to push our people into an environment of conflict”, Anatolia quoted DTK chairman Ahmet Turk as saying.

    Ankara, he charged, is “trying to block (Kurdish) efforts to create a democratic political ground” for a peaceful end to the Kurdish conflict.

    Adding to the tensions, a landmine explosion hit a police car in the eastern province of Tunceli, killing two officers, security sources said, pointing an accusing finger at the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

    The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has carried out similar attacks in the past as part of a separatist insurgency that has resulted in some 45,000 deaths since 1984.

    Eager to boost its EU bid, Turkey has broadened Kurdish freedoms in recent years.

    The Kurds, however, have upped the stakes, demanding constitutional recognition and autonomy.

    On Monday, the PKK announced tough conditions for Ankara for the extension of a unilateral truce it had declared last August until the June 12 elections.

    Dicle was among candidates that the BDP, which is close to the PKK, fielded as independents to get around a 10% national threshold for parties.

    The Higher Electoral Board ruled on Tuesday that the 57-year-old was not eligible to run because of a 20-month jail term he had received for a speech deemed “propaganda for an armed terrorist organisation” – a reference to the PKK.

    The legal jumble arose from the fact that the Appeals Court upheld Dicle’s sentence just four days before the polls, when the list of candidates had been confirmed.

    Dicle’s seat went to a candidate from the ruling Justice and Development Party, which will now have 327 seats in the 550-member house.

    In 1991, Dicle was among the first group of Kurdish nationalists to enter Turkey’s parliament. They were banished from politics in 1994 over links to the PKK.

    Dicle landed in jail, along with several colleagues, among them activist Leyla Zana who also won a seat in the June 12 polls. They were released in 2004.

    Dicle was arrested again last year as part of a massive probe into PKK collaborators.

    via Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper – Europe/World.

  • Turkish Singer Resurfaces After Violent Brush With Death

    Turkish Singer Resurfaces After Violent Brush With Death

    By SUSANNE GÜSTEN

    ISTANBUL — Drums were beaten, pipes played, and people danced in the streets of Istanbul on Sunday, as the singer Ibrahim Tatlises, a megastar in Turkey and much of the Middle East and Central Asia, made his first public appearance since being shot in the head by a hit squad three months ago.

    Clad in a white shirt and cap and appearing to walk unaided, Mr. Tatlises, 59, emerged onto the rooftop terrace of a rehabilitation clinic in the Maltepe neighborhood of Istanbul, waving to the fans who had gathered in the street below to wish him well on Father’s Day.

    His appearance, captured by the news cameras keeping watch outside the clinic, offered the first public glimpse of the wildly popular singer since he was gunned down on March 14 outside an Istanbul television studio after taping a segment of his regular TV show.

    Three months after the attack, the good news for fans is that Ibo, as they affectionately call him, may well sing again. The bad news is that he may have to do it in prison.

    Mr. Tatlises, whose high-pitched voice and sentimental songs are beloved throughout the region, suffered a gunshot wound through the right side of his head when hit men fired on his limousine with an automatic weapon from a car waiting outside the television studios in Istanbul’s Maslak neighborhood. His assistant was also wounded in the attack, for which the police, after a manhunt, arrested a dozen suspects, among them a former associate of the singer.

    Mr. Tatlises underwent several operations, but awoke from an artificial coma days after the attack able to breathe and speak, according to medical bulletins at the time. He was flown to a rehabilitation facility in Munich in early April and returned to Turkey this month, transferring by ambulance from his private plane straight to the Maltepe clinic.

    In a televised press conference, doctors at the facility said last week that Mr. Tatlises was improving daily. But although admirers hoisted huge posters with greetings to the singer and kept vigil outside the hospital, the star had not been seen again until Sunday.

    As he appeared at the parapet and raised his right hand in greeting, jubilant cheers of “Ibo, Ibo” rose from the crowd, and well-wishers slaughtered a sacrificial ram on the grounds outside the hospital in thanksgiving.

    But in countless discussions of the event on television, in social media and in daily life, observers noted that Mr. Tatlises appeared much thinner, that his jet-black hair was grey, and that his trademark mustache was gone. More importantly, the singer did not appear to be moving his left arm, fueling speculation about a paralysis of his left side.

    Doctors would not specifically comment on the paralysis, but said Mr. Tatlises was able to perform the normal tasks of daily life in his suite at the clinic, such as opening doors, feeding himself and attending to his personal hygiene.

    Mr. Tatlises could speak and had recently begun singing exercises, his doctor, Tunc Alp Kanyon, added, to the delight of the singer’s fans.

    Meanwhile, prosecutors have decided to merge two ongoing investigations into the attack, after establishing strong ties between the two lines of inquiry, the Zaman newspaper reported this week.

    The prosecutor in charge of the case, Ali Haydar, declined to comment.

    The report said one line of inquiry had been examining links to Mr. Tatlises’s business dealings and alleged ties to organized crime, while the other had been looking into a possible political background connected to the Kurdish issue and the recent elections in Turkey.

    Mr. Tatlises, a flamboyant figure off-stage and on, has far-flung business interests, including fast-food chains, media companies, hotels and an airline. In addition, he recently ventured into construction in northern Iraq, partnering with a local businessman to build villas and condominiums in Erbil and Sulaymaniya.

    Mr. Tatlises’s business deals and partners have not always been above suspicion, and he has been cited in several racketeering investigations. Last year, he was convicted and sentenced to a year and 10 months in jail for “knowingly aiding and abetting organized crime.” The sentence was initially suspended for five years, but the High Court of Appeals overruled the suspension this month, instructing the criminal court to review the decision and jail the singer.

    At least one of the suspects in custody for the attack on Mr. Tatlises is a former business associate and longtime foe. The suspect, Abdullah Ucmak, was wounded in a 1998 shooting attributed to Mr. Tatlises after a falling-out between the men. Since then, Mr. Ucmak has served seven years in jail for revenge attempts on the singer’s life. He was released only months before the March shooting.

    Meanwhile, evidence collected in the other branch of the investigation has shown that a 25-year-old hit man allegedly hired by Mr. Ucmak for the shooting was trained by the Kurdish independence group P.K.K. in a camp in northern Iraq, according to several Turkish newspapers.

    Mr. Tatlises, who is Kurdish himself, sought nomination early this year to run for Parliament for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., in the June 12 elections. He renewed his bid for nomination from his sickbed, when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited him in hospital after the attack.

    But when the A.K.P. did not choose him as a candidate, Mr. Tatlises had his lawyer sign him up to run as an independent from his hometown of Urfa in southeastern Anatolia, triggering suggestions from political opponents that he was seeking a seat to obtain parliamentary immunity from prosecution.

    That is not unusual in Turkey, where nine newly elected deputies in jail on various charges were awaiting court decisions on their release under immunity rules this week.

    Mr. Tatlises did not comment on the allegations, but withdrew his candidacy in April, 10 days after entering the race, citing health reasons for his decision.

  • Kurds could guide Arab Spring

    Kurds could guide Arab Spring

    Meghan L. O’Sullivan writes: The US and its allies should favour their empowerment in the region because it would be good for their own interests

    • By Meghan L. O’Sullivan
    • Published: 00:01 June 21, 2011

    As change sweeps the Middle East, euphoria has slowly given way to anxiety that the tumult will benefit extremist groups with anti-Western or anti-modernisation agendas. Optimists rightly point to several dynamics that may curb the influence of such groups, such as the secular nature of many of the forces that have dislodged old regimes and the relative lack of public support that extremists have thus far garnered.

    Yet few have focused on another development that could help promote moderation in the region: the tentative, but growing, role of the region’s Kurdish population. Policy makers in the US and Europe need to set aside their traditional way of viewing the world exclusively as a collection of nation-states; recognise the possibilities and risks behind Kurdish empowerment; and craft a strategy to encourage this pro-Western population to gain more influence in the region without provoking a backlash.

    The history of the Kurds in the Middle East is a seemingly endless tale of oppression, thwarted ambitions and tragedy. Totalling more than 30 million, the Kurds of the Middle East — who are overwhelmingly Muslim — have long fought for autonomy from hostile governments or even outright independence.

    The hardships of the Kurds of Iraq are perhaps the most infamous, involving genocidal chemical attacks by Saddam Hussain in the 1980s. Next door in Syria, about 2 million Kurds have struggled to preserve their ethnic identity against laws banning their language, and other government acts to force assimilation. Turkey’s approximately 15 million Kurds, a small minority of which have waged a terrorist campaign against the government, claim a history of rebellion, open war and forced relocation by the Turkish military. Iran’s more than 5 million Kurds enjoy more linguistic rights than in other countries, but also have clashed violently with the state.

    Promising moment

    The Kurds in Iraq, who gained effective autonomy after the Gulf War of 1991, have reaped tremendous benefits from Saddam Hussain’s fall in 2003 and the subsequent efforts to build a new political system. Kurdish parties now wield significant power in Baghdad, having been a key coalition partner of every government. A Kurd, Jalal Talabani, has been president of Iraq since 2005. The Kurds maintain a high degree of political and cultural autonomy under the Kurdistan Regional Government in the north of Iraq.

    In Turkey, Kurds may be on the cusp of the most promising moment in decades to address their grievances. Last week’s election brought a solid victory for the ruling pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party, or AKP. Even so, the AKP will need to find parliamentary partners to reach a two-thirds majority necessary to enact the sort of constitutional reforms it seeks. Turkey’s main Kurdish party, the BDP, and Kurdish independents are most likely to serve this role. Kurds of the Middle East may decide to take advantage of the changes in the region to push for a separate state, the Kurdistan that has long been the focal point of so much Kurdish song and poetry. A push in this direction wouldn’t be surprising, given the hardships endured by the Kurds and their desire to be free of the vagaries of Baghdad, Damascus and Ankara.

    Alternatively, political sophistication may come with this new power, as has been the case among Iraq’s Kurds. Many of them appreciate the gains that can be realised in the context of a democratic Iraq and have weighed them favourably against the potential costs of provoking regional powers that will oppose a separate Kurdish state.

    Working towards a ‘virtual’ Kurdistan, the Kurds of a transformed Middle East might realise many of their aspirations without incurring the ire of the region’s larger powers. The US and its allies should favour this outcome, not simply because it would be good for the Kurds, but because it would be good for their own interests. Kurds, perhaps because of their dark history at the hands of extremists, tend to be moderates. While many are devout Muslims, they are more likely to favour secular government.

    They are among the most pro-American populations in the Middle East, having either watched or benefited from the American-led no-fly zone over northern Iraq for more than a decade. And, if the Kurds of Iraq are any indication, they are also entrepreneurial and welcoming of US and western investment. All this argues for President Barack Obama’s administration to incorporate a Kurdish angle into its new Middle East strategy.

    Complex relationship

    First, the US should continue to encourage the resolution of outstanding issues between Baghdad and the Kurds of Iraq. In particular, a formalised law on sharing oil revenue will help cement the Kurds in the framework of Iraq by ensuring them of a portion of the country’s vast resources.

    Second, the US can be an advocate for a post- Al Assad political arrangement in Syria that gives some political power to each of the country’s many communities; this will be good for all Syrians, not only the Kurdish ones.

    Third, the US should quietly encourage the new government in Turkey to treat its Kurdish minority generously, making such treatment a focal point in the rich and complex bilateral relationship. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has in the past recognised the need to address the Kurdish ‘problem.’ The US should support rejuvenated efforts to find an acceptable solution on an amnesty for Kurdish militants, to establish the right of Kurds to be educated in their own language, and to provide greater autonomy for the Kurdish region of Turkey.

    — Washington Post

    Meghan L. O’Sullivan is a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

  • Turkish democracy can rise to the Kurdish challenge

    Turkish democracy can rise to the Kurdish challenge

    Turkish democracy can rise to the Kurdish challenge

    With a new civilian constitution, Turkey may be able to show the world that full democracy is possible in an Islamic country

    Yavuz Baydar
    guardian.co.uk

    A Kurd throws a molotov coktail during a clash with riot police in Istanbul on the anniversary of the capture of Abdullah Ocalan. Photograph: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images
    A Kurd throws a molotov coktail during a clash with riot police in Istanbul on the anniversary of the capture of Abdullah Ocalan. Photograph: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images

    Kurdish demonstrators throw molotov coktails

    A Kurd throws a molotov coktail during a clash with riot police in Istanbul on the anniversary of the capture of Abdullah Ocalan. Photograph: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images

    Last Sunday’s elections in Turkey, won with a sweeping victory by the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party, brought the country much closer to conclusively tackling two major challenges: finding a solution to the chronic, and traumatic, Kurdish conflict; and replacing the restrictive constitution with a new, civilian one.

    With an 88% turnout, the voters managed to shape a parliament where the female deputy rate increased to 15%, comparable to France and the US Congress. This means the conditions are now ripe for facing these challenges, and completing what can be called the “deepening of democratisation” – the final phase of a process strongly influenced by negotiation with the European Union.

    But there have been two winners of the elections, not one. The AK party consolidated its power base, but the Kurdish “independent” candidate list, in effect representing the BDP – the political wing of the PKK – almost doubled its seats (from 20 to 36).

    It is apparent that both challenges require fair play from both sides: AK enjoys massive public confidence as a key player in the transformation of Turkey, and the driver of the transition to democracy. Clearly, the very existence of the Kurdish conflict, involving in varying degrees some 14 million Kurds in the country, is a powerful reminder of the inevitability of a new constitution, since the current one is in full denial of their existence and demands. So after the elections Turkey will be watching an interesting tango for two, with an extremely difficult choreography.

    In order to understand the picture let us look closer at these two winners.

    The AK party – with a clear identity as “post-Islamist”, and a globalist-pragmatist coalition around it – is now the choice of every second voter. No other party in Turkish history has managed to stay in power three times in a row, let alone increasing its vote, as it did on Sunday by 25%. Remarkable success indeed.

    The Kurdish “independent” list managed to turn the elections into a choice between voting for the list of its radical demands (linked with Kurdish identity and collective rights) and voting for what it sees as “parties of the system”. Although it could not raise its vote, it stands solid as an interlocutor of the former. Results show that the Kurdish vote in the country was shared almost 50:50 between AK and BDP.

    Communication between the two parties are now vital if a peaceful solution is to be found – by no means an easy task. It will involve tough issues such as a ceasefire with PKK fighters (some 7,000 in the mountains of Turkey and Iraq), disarmament, a general amnesty and, certainly, placing Abdullah Ocalan – the jailed PKK leader – under house arrest.

    That will have to go hand in hand with the main challenge facing the victorious AK party: a new constitution. The parts of this constitution hardest for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the victorious prime minister, to “sell” to the Turkish majority will be those dealing with language, education, citizenship and decentralisation. Although the BDP sounds uncompromising in its demands on the language and citizenship, many Kurds say they would be happy with a draft that does not inject their identity into it, so long as it does not refer to any nationalism.

    The hardest task, however, will be to design a model for decentralisation of power, a necessity for today’s Turkey. But what model should be used? Germany, Canada, Spain? Nobody seems to know, and for the public this is a very sensitive area. The gap between Kurds and Turks threatens to widen on this hot issue.

    If there is common will in the new parliament for replacing the constitution, the country will finally be able to liberate itself from the chains of the military coup of 1980. This step is a precondition for Turkey to become part of the EU as a full member, as well as a true model for the entire Arab world, struggling for a free order with an eye fixed upon Turkey.

    In essence, it is also what this election was about: showing the world that a fully fledged democracy, free from internal conflicts, is possible in an Islamic country – given that the tranquil, pious masses are “left alone”, free from the mechanisms of tutelage or tyranny.

    via Turkish democracy can rise to the Kurdish challenge | Yavuz Baydar | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

  • Emboldened Kurds Press Demands in Turkey

    Emboldened Kurds Press Demands in Turkey

    The imprisoned leader of the Kurdish rebel group the PKK set a June 15 deadline for Turkey’s government to start negotiations to resolve Kurdish demands or face a return to conflict. Since the threat, made in April, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, the BDP, scored advances in last Sunday’s general election, increasing its representation from 20 to 36 in the 550-seat assembly.

    TurkeyElectionKurds480The success of the pro-Kurdish BDP in Sunday’s elections comes as concerns are being expressed that Turkey is the verge of a return to conflict and civil unrest because of the unmet aspirations of its Kurdish minority. One of the newly elected deputies, Altan Tan, has a stark warning to the new government:

    “We want a new constitution, we want an agreement with the government, which will give us our rights. If they don’t solve this problem, they could not do anything. We will make Kurdistan like Egypt, like Yemen, like Syria. We don’t want this,” Tan said.

    His warning follows the arrest over the last two years of nearly 2,000 party members, including 12 elected mayors, all accused of having links to the outlawed PKK, which has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984. The imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, has warned that the rebels will end their cease-fire on Wednesday unless the government starts negotiations to meet their demands.

    The escalating situation follows the collapse two years ago of government attempts to end the conflict, an effort known as the ‘Kurdish opening.”

    “Until now Turkish politicians have put condition to negotiate — stop the armed struggle. Kurds did. Nothing happened, with the exception of (the) short-lived Kurdish opening. As long as there is no political process, the armed struggle will probably continue,” said political scientist Cengiz Aktar, from Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University.

    In his victory speech following the re-election of Turkey’s ruling party, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan committed himself to a new constitution, which he said will be a politically inclusive process. But during the election campaign, in which he courted Turkish nationalist voters, he took a tough stance against Kurdish demands for education in Kurdish and greater autonomy. Mr. Erdogan even said he would have hanged PKK leader Ocalan if he had been in power when Ocalan was captured in 1999.

    But if Mr. Erdogan is prepared to negotiate, he may find more willing partners than in the past among the newly-elected pro-Kurdish deputies. according to Sinan Ulgen of the Turkish research firm Edam:

    “On the positive side, they have also included some representatives who have not been associated [with the] more radical line of the Kurdish movement. That might allow them to play a more constructive role on the Kurdish issue,” Ulgen said.

    But a political scientist at Istanbul University, Nuray Mert, questions whether any of Turkey’s main parties are ready to address the Kurdish movement’s warnings and calls to negotiate.

    “Unfortunately, neither the governing parties nor parties in opposition, they refuse to take it seriously, and think if [they] recognize [the] seriousness of the problem, it will be a surrender to Kurdish demands,” said Mert.

    During his campaign, the prime minister said there was no longer a Kurdish problem, but rather the problem lay with the BDP inciting unrest. The BDP countered that they represented Turkey’s last chance for a negotiated settlement, warning that the generation following them will be far more militant.

    That threat is real, according to the deputy head of the ruling AK party in Diyarbakir, Mohammed Akar.

    He says that if there is disappointment, the whole idea of integration will end. Separation and conflict will come to the fore. He says that if he can see this, the prime minister, the state should see it as well. Akar adds that “The danger that is lying ahead is a nightmare,” Akar said.

    Since the start of the PKK’s armed struggle, more than 40,000 people have been killed. Observers warn that Turkey’s new parliament may find the country at a crossroads – either peace or a return to conflict and civil strife.

    via Emboldened Kurds Press Demands in Turkey | Middle East | English VOA