Why Turkey's Kurds are ever more edgy
While Kurds are testing the limits of legal reforms that grant more freedoms, an uptick in attacks from separatists threaten to erode gains made by the ethnic minority.
from the June 29, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
Baydemir's most recent case is prosecution for printing New Year cards in Turkish, English, and Kurdish. Some non-Kurdish officials who received them sent them back. The case was not brought because Kurdish is banned, the prosecutor explained, but because the letters X, W, and Q exist in Kurdish but not Turkish, so their use violates a law protecting Turkish letters.
The mayor responded, in court, that the prosecutor also must violate the law every day, when he logs into the Justice Ministry website, tapping the URL address that begins www.
"In the last four years, many new laws passed parliament and as a rule they are not bad – the same as in European countries," says Tahir Elci, a human rights lawyer who spent time in detention in the 1990s. "But in practice, the problems continue because prosecutors and judges haven't changed their minds."
Broad Kurdish disillusion means more than 50 percent of Kurds believe the PKK "represents their rights," estimates Mr. Elci, though only 10 to 20 percent support killings.
"Kurdish people are not happy with the violence – they want peace and don't support these attacks," says Elci. "But also they are not happy with government policy, because the Kurdish problem is not solved.... Kurds in Turkey don't believe this state represents them, or belongs to them."
Indeed, unity was the key message of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at an election rally in Diyarbakir on Sunday. In this long-neglected region, Mr. Erdogan listed his Islamist Party's achievements, including claims of opening 1,500 new classrooms already, and 500 more by the end of the year.
"What did we do in Diyarbakir? You'll tell everyone what we did!" Erdogan told the chanting crowd. "We just want to win your hearts and emotions. We don't want any hate or conflict."
Still, Mr. Erdogan has sought to take a tough line against "terrorists" and says he would approve a military push into northern Iraq when "necessary." But he also says that 5,000 PKK activists inside Turkey – his numbers – should be dealt with before crossing into Iraq.
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