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Turkey university begins country’s first Kurdish course

A Turkish university has begun teaching the country’s first ever degree course in the Kurdish language.

A rally of Turkey's main Kurdish political party, the BDP Kurdish groups have campaigned for years for more rights

About 20 students have signed up to study Kurdish at Artuklu University in south-eastern city of Mardin.

The government in Ankara started easing restrictions on the use of Kurdish in 2009 as part of its efforts to join the European Union.

Kurds make up around a fifth of Turkey’s population and have for years been pressing for greater rights.

The new undergraduate course will last four years and will cover both Kurdish language and literature.

The head of the new programme at Artuklu University, Professor Kadri Yildirim, told the Hurriyet newspaper: “This city is the centre of upper Mesopotamia and Kurdish culture is a major part of this.

“As other universities start opening Kurdish language classes and once Kurdish is used in the primary education system, this department will become more popular.”

Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party announced a series of initiatives to improve the rights of Kurds three years ago, but has since been criticised for dragging its feet.

Violence by Kurdish separatists has continued and Turkish nationalists have objected to attempts to reach out to the Kurds.

Tens of thousands of lives have been lost during three decades of fighting between Kurdish rebels and the security forces.

via BBC News – Turkey university begins country’s first Kurdish course.

October 18, 2011
TARLABASI, THE HIDDEN ISTANBUL

Text : Fadime Deli
Pictures : Guillaume Poli

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. Kurdistan litterally means “the country of the Kurds” and the effigy of Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK Leader, shows the desire of independence of the Kurds from Tarlabasi.

The Tarlabasi quarter is located in the heart of Beyoglu, the city center of Istanbul. A stone’s throw away, Istiklal Avenue whose expensive buildings, trendy shops and a million of visitors each week earned it the nickname of the “Champs Elysées” of Istanbul.

Muslim graveyards originally stood in the Tarlabasi quarter. The setting up of new embassies as well as the building of houses with gardens nearby required domestic staff and favoured its expansion. Up to the 1850s, the lodgings were destined to the Armenian personnel employed by the Levantines. This « dormitory » area transformed itself in a residential neighbourhood with its shops and stores.

From 1960, Tarlabasi became one of the various settling places for the poor migrants from inner Turkey, searching for cheap lodgings. The degrading neighbourhood became heavily stigmatized by the authorities.

Tarlabasi transformed itself with the massive influx of Kurdish migrants coming from the South East of Turkey at the beginning of the 1990s.

These Kurdish families who have been evicted from their villages for “safety reasons” and to stop conflicts between the Kurdish activists and the Turkish military, have come to settle in Tarlabasi out of necessity and in great emergency. Since then, they have been living in extremely precarious conditions : the adults may only have access to the lowest jobs. The children participate into the family’s revenue by selling stuffed mussles, handkerchieves, water, roses….These latter suffer from a double severing through forced migration and their being outside the school system.

These migrants from the inside who are still hoping to go back to their lands, end up by investing Tarlabasi, which has become today the poor population from the countryside’s area. Nevertheless, a rehabilitation project is threatening them of a planned eviction.

Dondu was born in 1941 in Sivas in the North East of Turkey. Because of the armed conflict between the Kurds and the Turks, she was forced to leave her hometown with her family and joined Istanbul in 1984. Out of her seven children, her daughter Dilek and her son Yusuf joined the guerilla in 1994. Dilek was killed a year later and Yusuf lost his life in 2000. Despite all this, Dondu wants to believe in a peaceful Kurdistan.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. Meeting of the legal kurdish party (BDP) . Some demonstrators are waving flags with the effigy of the illegal kurdish party (PKK) forbidden since 1993.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. Office of the legal kurdish party (BDP). The portrait of Abdullah Ocalan conveys a proximity with the Illegal Kurdish party.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. A majority of the Kurds have only access to the lowest jobs. Many men work in building sites and are notwithstanding themselves the actors of a rehabilitation that will lead to their own eviction from the area.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – july 2011. Hamdullah’s family comes from Mardin, a small town in South East Turkey. After his job as a truck driver became no longer financially viable, he decided to leave for Istanbul and settled there in 2008. Since then, he has been a taxi driver and dreams of going back to Mardin. But the lack of safety in Kurdistan doesn’t allow it.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. The Kurdish workers face discrimination as they are paid less than the Turks for the same jobs.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. The newspaper « Democratic Society » is issued by the legal Kurdish party (BDP). The back cover relates the story of Evrim Demir’s death, a young Kurdish woman who immolated herself because she could not bear the anti-Kurdish policy carried out in Eastern Turkey.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. Meeting of the legal Kurdish party (BDP). The inhabitants of the area are playing Kurdish songs. On the wall, the inscription “long life to the uncle” is dedicated to Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the illegal Kurdish party who has been in jail since 1999 on Imrali island.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. Meeting of the legal Kurdish party (BDP). The posters are about Evrim Demir’s suicide. They read « Through this deed, I want to be the voice of peace. »

In 1994, the illegal Kurdish party (PKK) broke off the truce and went back to armed struggle. Since then, 37 000 people have died and more than 2 million have been displaced following the destruction of many Kurdish villages by the Turkish armed forces.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. The current inhabitants are undergoing the “gentrification” of the quarter. It will become the new area in vogue for rich families and for the ever growing number of tourists.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. Popular phrases and political posters calling for the celebration of the Kurdish new year “Newroz” mingle on the walls of the neighbourhood.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. After recurring insecurity problems in the East of Turkey, Ômer decided to leave Mardin in 2002 for Istanbul, then he bought this little local where the Kurdish gather to play cards and watch the news.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. Ilhan (on the left) has been attacked by Turkish nationalists in front of the Tarlabasi legal party’s office. But this incident hasn’t impact his will to push forward the rights of kurdish people.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. Members and supporters of the legal Kurdish party (BDP). In the background signs call for the cessation of the Turkish military operations.

Tarlabasi, Istanbul – July 2011. Harun (on the right) and his family are from Mardin in the South East of Turkey. In 2007, the Turkish military gave him the choice : either stay and fight the Kurdish activists or leave. He could not resolve to fight his peers and left Mardin for Istanbul.

October 17, 2011
Kurdish flag dispute stirs Iraqi tensions

By Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD | Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:21pm IST

(Reuters) – Kurds protested in an Iraqi city on Sunday against an order to lower Kurdish flags from official buildings in a disagreement fanning tensions between Iraqi Arabs and the country’s Kurdish population.

Iraq’s disputed territories, particularly the area around the northern oil-wealthy city of Kirkuk, are considered potential flashpoints for future conflict when American troops leave as scheduled at the end of this year.

Hundreds of Kurdish demonstrators rallied in Khanaqin city waving Kurdish flags and shouting slogans against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his government’s decision to take down the Kurdish flag from government buildings.

“We are Kurds and the flag is our symbol. On what basis do they want to lower the Kurdistan flag,” said Rawand Raghib, 23, a Kurd participating in the protest.

Khanaqin, 140 km (100 miles) northeast of Baghdad, lies in the Iraqi province of Diyala, but it is also adjacent to the Kurdish Sulaimaniya city, which is part of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Maliki media advisor, Ali al-Moussawi, said raising the Kurdish flag in disputed cities was unconstitutional and would provoke Iraqi Arabs living in those areas.

“Raising the flag in these areas is a constitutional violation,” he said.

The last 41,000 American soldiers are due to withdraw from Iraq by year end when a security agreement expires. Many Kurdish officials want U.S. troops to stay after December as a guarantee of stability in the disputed areas.

Residents in Khanaqin said the city was tense with an increase in Iraqi army checkpoints. Cars carried Kurdish flags and some Kurds even changed old Kurdish flags for new ones.

No Kurdish flags were seen being taken down from the city’s government offices, residents said.

The speaker of Kurdish parliament, Kamal Kirkuki, said the flag issue was a “sacred issue”.

“The Kurdish political leadership is ready to use all means to preserve the Kurdish flag,” Kirkuki said in a press conference on Saturday in the Kurdistan capital Arbil.

Semi-autonomous since 1991, Kurdistan has enjoyed more security than the rest of Iraq, where the central government is still fighting insurgents and militia more than eight years after the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The Kurds and Iraqi Arabs not only have a long territorial dispute over areas of northern Iraq, but also disagree about oil contracts the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) has signed with international oil firms.

Baghdad and the KRG still disagree over revenue-sharing and a national oil law is fueling more tensions as the central government seeks more control over crude reserves in the OPEC member nation.

(Reporting by Aseel Kami in Baghdad and Shamal Aqrawi in Arbil; Writing by Aseel Kami; Editing by Patrick Markey)

via Kurdish flag dispute stirs Iraqi tensions | Reuters.

October 17, 2011
Ebullient Turkey ignores critics in Iran and Syria but worries about Kurds

Ebullient Turkey ignores critics in Iran and Syria but worries about Kurds

Thomas Seibert

Oct 12, 2011

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday after he addressed members of his ruling Justice and Development Party at the parliament in Ankara. ADEM ALTAN / AFP PHOTO

ISTANBUL // As it bursts with self-confidence about its growing role in the Middle East, Turkey is unlikely to change its policies in the region as a result of sharp criticism from Syria and Iran. But Ankara is concerned about efforts by its neighbours to stir up Kurdish unrest, officials and analysts say.

“Our country’s prestige is growing by the day,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said in a speech yesterday, adding he had witnessed that development himself during his recent trip to Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, where he enjoyed enthusiastic receptions and “indescribable affection”, as he put it.

Mr Erdogan shrugged off last weekend’s rebukes from Damascus and Tehran. The government of Bashar Al Assad, the Syrian president, warned its neighbours against recognising a Syrian opposition group that was established in Turkey, while Iran said the Turkish government should stop promoting its own version of a secular Muslim state and market economy as a model for Arab Spring countries.

In a veiled reference to those complaints, Mr Erdogan said during his televised speech to parliamentary deputies of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) that he was sorry to see that Turkey was the target of “unjust criticism”, but that his country would stick to its policies.

“Turkey will do what its own principles and national interests call for and will continue along this path without diverting from its agenda,” Mr Erdogan said. He underlined that undemocratic regimes in the region could not count on Turkish support. “In our book, there can be no legitimate government that is not based on the people and that uses violence.”

But despite Mr Erdogan’s robust defence of Turkey’s unique approach to Middle Eastern issues, Ankara is watching statements from Iran and Syria very closely because it is concerned that governments there could try to stoke the flames of the Kurdish conflict inside Turkey.

“There is a fear that Syria will support the PKK,” said Semih Idiz, a foreign policy columnist for the Milliyet newspaper. He was referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a rebel group that has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey since 1984. Syria gave shelter to the PKK leadership in the 1990s.

Officials in Ankara are also doubtful about Iran’s role in the Kurdish conflict. A Turkish newspaper reported yesterday that Iran had recently captured Murat Karayilan, a top PKK commander wanted by Ankara, and set him free after two days instead of extraditing him to Turkey. Idris Naim Sahin, Turkey’s interior minister, said the government would comment on the report “when the time comes”, the NTV news channel reported.

Frustrated by the continuing violence in Syria and by what it sees as the regime’s rejection of political reform, Mr Erdogan’s government is preparing to announce a package of bilateral sanctions against Damascus, a former partner. Last month, Mr Erdogan publicly accused Mr Assad of lying to him.

“We cannot remain bystanders for much longer,” Mr Erdogan told Turkish reporters during a visit to South Africa last week. The prime minister had been scheduled to visit camps for Syrian refugees in southern Turkey last weekend, but cancelled the trip after his mother died last Friday. No new date for the visit has been set. According to news reports, Mr Al Assad was among foreign leaders calling Mr Erdogan to express their condolences.

Turkey has begun to implement some measures against Syria, such as a ban on all arms shipments to Syria via Turkish airspace or territory and an increased support for Syrian opposition groups. Representatives of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) have asked for a meeting with Turkish foreign ministry officials, the Today’s Zaman newspaper reported yesterday. Such a meeting would help the SNC, which was formed in Istanbul in August, to gain international status, a development that Damascus wants to avoid.

Turkish foreign ministry sources said yesterday they could not confirm whether the meeting would go ahead. The SNC unites major opposition factions, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Local Coordination Committees and Kurdish and secular activist groups.

While Syria is concerned about Turkish support for the SNC, Iran is uneasy about Mr Erdogan’s promotion of the Turkish brand of secularism to the countries of the Arab Spring.

“Turkey is a democracy,” a senior foreign ministry official said when asked for his response to the Iranian criticism. Mustafa Akyol, a newspaper commentator and the author of a newly-released book, Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty, said in a Twitter message that Iran had slammed Turkey “for all the good reasons”.

Mr Idiz, the foreign policy columnist, said he did not expect Turkey to stop extolling its own model because of Iran’s complaints. Mr Idiz told The National yesterday that Turkey was not particularly concerned that memories of Ottoman rule in the Middle East could be used to undermine its present-day policies as following “imperial intentions” in the region.

“What they have been promoting for Egypt and Syria are very much European values,” such as secularism and individual freedoms, Mr Idiz said about Turkish government officials. Only Arab nationalists were likely to try to play the Ottoman card against modern Turkey, he said.

tseibert@thenational.ae

via Full: Ebullient Turkey ignores critics in Iran and Syria but worries about Kurds – The National.

October 17, 2011
Assad ‘eyes sectarian, ethnic fight’ in Turkey

over new constitution BDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş (L) speaks to Serkan Demirtaş (C) and Göksal Bozkurt of the Hürriyet Daily News. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

GÖKSEL BOZKURT / SERKAN DERMİRTAŞ

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

Selahattin Demirtaş, BDP co-chair, says he warned President Gül and Foreign Minister Davutoğlu against a spillover from Syria

Syria is looking to stir up ethnic and sectarian unrest in Turkey, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has warned, urging Ankara to reconcile with Turkey’s Kurdish population or face the risk of plunging deeper into conflict.

“Syria is about to explode. The unrest is continuing. The threats of [President Bashar] al-Assad’s regime to Turkey should not be underestimated. He has given a message: ‘We have religious and ethnic differences, so does Turkey. If we have domestic disturbances, then so will Turkey,’” Demirtaş said in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News on Oct. 13.

To prevent a spill-over effect in Turkey from turmoil in the Middle East, the government and the Kurds must immediately reconcile, said Demirtaş, whose party is mainly focused on the Kurdish issue.

The BDP leader said he had shared his concerns with both President Abdullah Gül and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. “I told them they have no time to lose, but they are making the problem worse with their complacency and lethargy. Ground operations, KCK operations, the isolation of [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan at] İmrali is an eclipse of reason. This is the time for dialogue and negotiations. I don’t think the upcoming days will be this comfortable.”

Police have launched a number of raids to detain people accused of membership in the Kurdistan Communities’ Union (KCK), which is accused of being the urban wing of the PKK. The latter is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

“If someone ignites a clash between Arabs and Kurds in Syria, the powers behind it will want to spread the unrest to Turkey. I don’t know if it will be an ethnic or sectarian conflict. I cannot say how it will happen, but they will try. We already have wounds, and they will try to rub salt in them,” the BDP leader said.

Ratcheting up tensions

Commenting on the recent assassination of Syrian Kurdish leader Meshaal Tamo, Demirtaş said the Kurds had not been involved in domestic insurrection, or revolted against al-Assad, and were balanced in their politics. He added that he was not directly in contact with Syrian Kurds and received information indirectly.

“They might be trying to incite the Kurdish people with such assassinations. This could turn into a Kurdish-Arab, Sunni-Shiite conflict. Maybe that’s what they’re planning,” Demirtaş said. “The whole thing is heading toward a dangerous point.”

The Turkish government has overstretched itself to the point of interfering with Syria, said Demirtaş, urging the ruling party to provide an explanation as to what the Turkish and Kurdish people should expect for the future of the region.

“In such a period, the Justice and Development Party [AKP] and the Republican People’s Party [CHP] need to think about the next 100 years of the country,” Demirtaş said, also noting the threat posed by Iran to Turkey’s domestic stability.

New constitution

The BDP places great importance on the new constitution and will actively participate in its preparation, said Demirtaş.

“The constitution cannot be made only by 12 deputies from four parties,” said Demirtaş, proposing the establishment of another commission that will bring together representatives of women’s, environmental and human rights organizations and minority communities. The new constitution must be approved by the public in a referendum no matter how many deputies approve it in Parliament, he added.

“The constitutional commission must also solve the issue of jailed deputies,” the BDP leader said. “They can’t say it is not their job. If you’re making a new constitution, you also need to clear the path of mines. Eight deputies are behind bars, and Parliament cannot vote on the Constitution without them.”

Demirtaş said Ankara was looking to South Africa and the dissolution of the Apartheid regime for inspiration to solve problems, adding that for this to work, the government had to end clashes with the PKK because “the new constitution cannot be prepared without peace. The commission can’t work while funerals take place every day.”

Both the PKK and the government have the will to restart negotiations, said Demirtaş. For this to happen, Öcalan’s “terms must be met. The government must give this man, who has the power to bring the PKK militants down from the mountains, his freedom. Only Öcalan has the power to do this.”

Demirtaş also called on the government to reveal the content of the protocols drafted between the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the PKK. “Those protocols contain the PKK’s disarmament. From what we understand, it is reasonable. Turkey could get rid of this problem for good. But the government’s approach has not been serious.”

via Assad ‘eyes sectarian, ethnic fight’ in Turkey – Hurriyet Daily News.

October 15, 2011
Don’t Kill In My Name!

By Ayla Albayrak

As Turkey falls into an escalating conflict with Kurdish militants, a small group of ordinary Kurds is trying to separate themselves from rebels who are resorting to terrorist attacks and kidnappings to press their case for Kurdish autonomy.

Under the slogan “Don’t kill in my name!,” a group of just a few teachers started an initiative on the Internet to build a following they hope to grow into a broad civilian movement for peace in Turkey. The response so far: Turkish media have enthusiastically picked up their cause as evidence that not all Kurds back the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Reuters/U.S. Air Force/Lt Col Leslie Pratt/Handout A MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft. The United States has agreed in principle to deploy U.S. Predator drones on Turkish soil to aid in the fight against Kurdish separatist rebels, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said.

Meanwhile, outraged PKK supporters tweeted and emailed the group to attack them for dividing Kurds and undermining the cause.

“This is actually what we wanted: to create a debate. PKK supporters criticize us the most. They say that we are harming the Kurdish movement, that we shouldn’t divide it,” says founder Atila Cemal, who is a translator and teacher of Kurdish language in Istanbul.

Protesting for peace may seem routine, and the PKK has divided Kurds ever since it launched an armed struggle in 1984, a conflict in which an estimated 30,000 people have died. In Turkey’s elections in June, roughly 50% of ethnic Kurds voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But speaking out against the PKK in a way that might help the government was long a taboo among Kurds. The PKK and its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, are well-respected among more nationalist Kurds — but also widely feared. In addition to targeting soldiers and police in the recent wave of violence, the PKK have also kidnapped ethnic-Kurdish construction workers, engineers and teachers who they view as collaborating with the state.

“There is a need for a big civilian peace movement. Why don’t Kurds stand up to the PKK and ask, what do they want to achieve with all those operations?” Mr. Cemal says.

All the group calls for at the moment is for the end of the violence. A solution to the Kurdish problem can be discussed afterwards, it says.

“It is impossible for anyone to think of a healthy solution to the Kurdish problem when there is so much bloodshed. The war must end first, and then we can talk,” he says. Mr. Cemal stresses that his group, too, want democratic rights for the Kurds and an end for oppression and assimilation.

The group faces a long road. In the three weeks since the group was formed, 60 people have joined, Mr. Cemal says. They are now networking on the Internet to promote gatherings in Istanbul and publish articles on the web. The network consists of Kurds as well as Turks and even a few ethnic Armenians, Mr. Cemal says.

Soon after Mr. Cemal formed his group, another group of young ethnic Kurds in Istanbul started their own online signature campaign with the same slogan. They say they have gathered 1,500 signatures, so far.

via Don’t Kill In My Name! – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.

October 8, 2011