recover lost momentum, press forward with democratic reforms and constitutional revision, and recognise that steps that benefit the country’s Kurds must be decoupled from disarmament talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said the International Crisis Group in its latest report, Crying Wolf: Why Turkish Fears Need Not Block Kurdish Reform. The report which examines the current state of Turkey’s peace process with the Kurdish insurgency argues that the government can do more to capitalise on the willingness of Kurds to live inside a democratising Turkey, the readiness of mainstream Turks to move beyond decades of conflict and the relative weakness of Turkish nationalist opposition to Kurdish reforms. The International Crisis Groups report pointed out that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has taken an increasingly nationalist line, even if still mixed with an outreach to Kurdish opinion, and has shied away from the easiest reform to make, a lowering of the 10 per cent national election threshold for parties to enter parliament. The report said this would allow fairer political access for the main party of the Kurdish national movement, which typically wins 6-7 per cent of the national vote. In a positive move, he has announced plans to introduce education in their mother language for Turkey’s Kurds in private schools, though avoiding a commitment to full education or public services in Kurdish, a main demand of the community that makes up 12-15 per cent of the population, the report said and noted that the government has failed to redraft the constitution so as to remove any hint of ethnic discrimination. And lack of movement on the long-criticised anti-terrorism law still keeps thousands of non-violent Kurdish activists in preventive detention, some now for four years, it underlined. The report said Turkish leaders must recommit to democratic reform, including a new constitution and laws that eliminate any ethnic bias, pointing out that a new constitution could balance natural references to the Turkish nation with clear emphasis on equal citizenship for all in the Republic of Turkey and guarantee the full right to use mother languages in education and public life. Other reforms -it added- need to include a more decentralised government structure, changes to anti-terror laws, and a lower election threshold. Above all,-the report underlined- Turkey does not have to – and should not – link Kurdish reform steps to the negotiations with the PKK. Such democratisation would improve access to rights, education and political life for all in the country. And it would help build the trust vital to ending a conflict that over three decades has killed 30,000 and inflicted enormous long-term damage on the economy, society and political culture, it highlighted. The report’s major findings and recommendations are: - Peace talks between Ankara and the PKK have stalled amid a heightening of hostile rhetoric on both sides. The PKK needs to do more to convince Turks it wants a compromise peace; the government needs to spell out a comprehensive conflict-resolution strategy, including democratic reforms, not as a concession to insurgents but because reforms would both satisfy Kurds’ demands and benefit everyone in the country. - Turkish politicians use fear of a nationalist backlash to justify their hesitation to address some of Turkey’s Kurds’ main grievances. In fact, the government’s previous steps on linguistic and cultural rights for Kurds faced minimal public reaction. Despite the hardline discourse of the political opposition, most mainstream Turks can embrace democratic reforms. - The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has broken taboos in its outreach to Turkey’s Kurds, but it needs to recommit to a new constitution and laws that eliminate all ethnic bias, to full education in mother languages, to lowering the 10 per cent electoral threshold, to strengthening local government and to changing anti-terror laws to decriminalise non-violent dissent. - The Kurdish national movement, including the PKK and the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), needs to stop issuing threats that fuel Turkish fears of Kurdish secession or a resurgence of violence; to denounce parallel state formations inside Turkey, including local militias; and to maintain commitment to the existing ceasefire. “Most Kurds still want a settlement inside Turkey as equal citizens, and the government must take urgent steps to get the majority on its side”, says Didem Collinsworth, Crisis Group’s Turkey Analyst. “The greatest risk for the AKP is not a possible loss of marginal votes, but that the process fails and the fighting rolls on into a fourth decade”. “Turkish leaders should explain to the public the advantages of the road to an enduring peace and refrain from a mission impossible of outflanking Turkish ultra-nationalists with moves to the right and anti-Kurdish-movement rhetoric”, says Hugh Pope, Crisis Group’s Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia. “The need to cater to an implacable ‘grey wolf’ of Turkish nationalism has become a fearful reflex among politicians but doesn’t reflect mainstream reality in the population at
Posted on: Sat, 12 Oct 2013 15:56:58 +0000
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