An attack on Turkish troops by Kurdish PKK rebels on 14 July resulted in the deaths of 13 soldiers, creating a backlash among nationalists in Turkey. This followed the election on 12 June in which prime minister Erdogan’s AK party was returned to power for the third time. In another area of conflict, Kurdish candidate Hatip Dicle was elected but not allowed to take his seat when the Supreme Election Board ruled he be disqualified due to a previous 10-year conviction on terrorist charges relating to links with the PKK. Under the constitution anyone receiving a sentence for a terrorist offence of more than a year cannot be elected to parliament. The Kurdish BDP, which won 36 seats in the election, is boycotting parliament as a result.
The relationship between the Kurds and the state has vacillated between progress and breakdown since Erdogan was first elected in 2002. Early on the government responded to the need for reforms necessary to pave the way for EU membership with measures such as abolition of the death penalty and relaxation on the use of the Kurdish language in broadcasting and private education. While a first for any Turkish government, these reforms did not go far enough to prevent a slide into further conflict. They focused on the rights of individuals and ignored key Kurdish demands for autonomy and official recognition of the Kurds as a minority group with its own language.
That assimilation of minorities is key to a strong state and has been an article of faith in Turkey since the founding of the republic. The rights of Kurds and other minorities were to be those of Turkish citizens only. Languages other than Turkish were by law not permitted in public institutions, including schools. Kurdish identity was airbrushed out of existence. Change came about gradually as it became clear to the members of the old regime that victory was not possible in a war with the rebels that began in 1984. To date, the conflict has claimed 40,000 lives.
Openness to reform began to be seen as the price of stability, but old habits die hard. When Erdogan announced a ‘Kurdish initiative’ in 2009 hopes were raised that further reforms were being prepared. However, the Kurdish initiative petered out without concrete results. During the election campaign Erdogan chose not to cross Turkish nationalist red lines and seemed to reverse his position by stating ‘there is no Kurdish problem.’ In an election speech in Diyarbakir in the Kurd’s southeastern heartland Erdogan placed emphasis on Islam as a unifying value between Turks and Kurds and pledged economic development for the region.
The 14 July attack by the PKK triggered the resurgence of latent feelings of intolerance. At a concert in Istanbul a Kurdish singer, Aynur Dogan, was jeered at and made to leave the stage as she sang a song in Kurdish. Some audience members were upset that she did not sing in Turkish, despite the fact that she had been invited to sing in Kurdish! The fact that this incident occurred in the most liberal part of Turkey is an indication of the strength of the feelings which have been stirred.
Attitudes and the current constitution will have to change if further progress is to be made toward democracy and EU membership. Erdogan has stated that a new constitution heads his list of priorities for the new term. Lack of cultural rights, autonomy and the controversial terrorist charges have a legal basis in the current constitution, which was written in 1982 under military rule. This is a chicken and egg situation in which the old constitution is limiting cooperation and consensus on the writing of a new one.
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Bob Glaberson
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