The Kurdish problem was built into the Turkish
political system from the outset. The Kurdish population of Turkey was denied
its political rights as Kurds and as the country modernised, they began to
demand changes. The Turkish state, with its strongly centralising tradition,
refused and the result was violence, a low-level insurgency that has claimed
many lives.
What has changed in the last few years has been the
slow shift in the attitude of the Turkish government that is moving, however
reluctantly, towards accepting that the suppression of the Kurds doesn’t work.
Equally, the emergence of a very extensive autonomy in the Kurdish region of
Iraq has shown that the Kurds are perfectly capable of acting as a factor of
stability and do not threaten Turkish territorial integrity.
Against this background, it is vital that the Turkish
government recognise that without accepting the Kurds as equal citizens, the
Turkish state will be scene of ongoing conflict, one that will gravely weaken
the chances of sustaining a functioning democracy.
Let there be no illusions about this. The change we
are discussing requires a redesign of the Turkish state and citizenship
concept, a shift away from the mono-ethnic basis that has marked Turkey since
its emergence from the Ottoman Empire. It has to become markedly more tolerant
towards those of its citizens who are not ethnically Turks or Sunni Muslim.
But the Kurds too will have to accept that their
future lies in Turkey and that they should not dream of restoring the state
that was promised them after the First World War by the West (the Treaty of Sèvres).
Territorial integrity is a neuralgic point for any state.
That is what the transformation is about and we should
not pretend that it will be easy. Giving up bad habits is always hard.
Sch. Gy.
Sch. Gy.
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