Turkey and the Kurds
Peace be unto you
Aug 18th 2005 | ANKARA AND DIYARBAKIR
The Economist print edition
The Turkish prime minister paves the way for a deal with the Kurds
WHEN Turkey’s prime minister came to power some 30 months ago, few
expected his mildly Islamic government to resolve the country’s knotty
Kurdish question. But last week, in a landmark speech in Diyarbakir,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first Turkish leader ever to admit
that Turkey had mishandled its rebellious Kurds. Like all great
nations, declared Mr Erdogan, Turkey needed to face up to its past. He
added that more democracy, not more repression, was the answer to the
Kurds’ long-running grievances.
Mr Erdogan’s visit to the largest city in the mostly Kurdish
south-east followed ground-breaking talks with a group of Turkish
intellectuals, seen by some as mouthpieces for rebels of the outlawed
PKK terrorist group. In these talks, Mr Erdogan pledged that, despite
a renewed spasm of rebel violence, there would be no going back on his
reforms. The Kurdish problem, he said, could not be solved through
purely military means.
The opposition is crying treason. “This will inevitably lead to
bargaining with the PKK,” fumed Deniz Baykal, leader of the Republican
People’s Party. Nationalists within Mr Erdogan’s own Justice and
Development party have also made angry noises. The army has so far
kept silent, even though some retired generals have called for the
reintroduction of emergency rule in the Kurdish provinces.
The Kurds have been only a little less provocative. Embarrassingly few
showed up at Mr Erdogan’s rally. Diyarbakir’s mayor, Osman Baydemir,
later boasted that “we could have bused in a million people had we
wanted.” Orhan Dogan, another Kurdish leader, stoked nationalist fury
when he told a newspaper that Turkey would have to negotiate with the
PKK and that the group’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, would
walk free one day. Some Kurds saluted Mr Erdogan for his courage, but
even they insisted that he must match his words with deeds.
There are encouraging signs that he will. Within hours of returning
from Diyarbakir, Mr Erdogan urged media supervisors to allow regional
radio and television stations to broadcast in Kurdish. But more needs
to be done if Turkey’s Kurds are not to be infected by calls for
independence by Iraq’s powerful Kurds next door. Measures to stimulate
the economy of the impoverished Kurdish provinces must be a priority,
as Mr Erdogan has acknowledged. That will necessitate also the return
of hundreds of thousands of Kurds expelled from their villages by the
army during its scorched-earth campaign against the PKK.
Mr Erdogan’s call to put right past mistakes will ring hollow unless
the state compensates the Kurds for their losses. The interior
ministry revealed this week that only 5,239 of a total 104,734 victims
who had applied under a new law for such compensation had been
considered, and only 1,190 were to be paid anything. With the deadline
for applications past, the programme “is a complete fiasco”, declared
Mesut Deger, an opposition Kurdish deputy, who is pressing for an
extension.
Lastly, Mr Erdogan must find a way of giving an amnesty to 5,000
rebels, entrenched in the mountains of south-east Turkey and northern
Iraq, that is acceptable to Turks and Kurds alike. The PKK was
expected this week to announce a suspension of hostilities, to allow
such a deal to be done. Should Mr Erdogan come up with a workable
pardon, vowed Naci Aslan, another opposition Kurdish deputy, “I will
erect his statue, kiss his feet