TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP DEPENDS ON THE KURDS
by Harry Sterling, Citizen Special
Ottawa Citizen, Canada
April 10, 2006 Monday
Final Edition
‘The security forces will intervene against the pawns of terrorism,
no matter if they are children or women.”
With these chilling words Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
warned Kurdish families that women and children could be killed by
security forces if they continued to participate in anti-government
demonstrations in Turkey’s violence-wracked southeast region, homeland
to the nation’s large Kurdish minority.
Mr. Erdogan’s warning came following several days of clashes between
Kurds and riot police in various locations in the region. In the town
of Kiziltepe, thousands of Kurds took to the streets, hurling rocks
and Molotov cocktails at police. The local headquarters of Mr.
Erdogan’s Islamic-based Justice and Development Party, AK, were
set ablaze.
Three children died among eight killed during clashes with riot police
in the capital city of Diyarbakir. Three died elsewhere.
Mr. Erdogan claimed terrorists were deliberately using children to
gain sympathy. Kurdish representatives insisted the children were
innocent bystanders. The government praised security forces for their
“restraint” during the violence.
The anti-government riots erupted after recent funerals for 14 alleged
Kurdish insurgents from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, killed by
the Turkish military. A funeral rally in Diyarbakir, numbering 10,000,
erupted into a riot, with Kurds calling for “revenge.” Some mourners
waved flags of the banned PKK.
Local Kurdish leaders said the unrest was the worst in more than a
decade and denounced the government for its “policy of violence.”
They said the wide support for the demonstrations was symptomatic
of anger over the second-class treatment accorded Kurds, many
without jobs for years, others living in cramped temporary shelters,
thousands forced to flee their homes during fighting between the PKK
and military.
The European Union — which Turkey wants to join — has expressed
growing concern over the upsurge in violence. It has urged the
government to improve the cultural and linguistic rights of the
Kurdish community, a process that the Erdogan government had already
begun since coming to power three years ago.
However, some within the EU question the true commitment of Turkey
to continue reforms giving Kurds and other minorities greater human
rights. In their view, the dismantling of various restrictions on
minority rights has more to do with improving Turkey’s acceptability
to become a member of the EU than with any true desire to improve
the rights and conditions of Kurds — or other small minorities,
like the Armenians and Greeks.
Although the Erdogan government has now allowed the Kurdish language
to be used in the media, and in schools under certain circumstances,
critics say such apparent steps forward are essentially window dressing
to appease the EU. The violence of recent days will only reinforce
this viewpoint.
Unfortunately for Turkey, the issue of growing anti-foreigner,
anti-Muslim sentiment within European nations could further undercut
its EU prospects.
The populations of many countries, particularly France, Germany,
Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, increasingly see Muslim Turkey’s
membership as threatening their countries’ traditional cultures
and values.
Former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing bluntly opposes Turkey
joining, saying its membership could destroy the future integration
of EU countries. Germany’s new chancellor, Angela Merkel, appears
ambivalent about membership, seemingly favouring instead a partnership
of some kind. Britain however, remains in favour.
Although Mr. Erdogan’s relatively moderate and pragmatic policies
had lessened concerns over his party’s pro-Islamic roots — improving
considerably his government’s image, especially vis a vis Greece —
some recent developments cause concern among European and other states.
His government’s hosting of a senior Hamas leader, Khaled Mashal,
and an invitation to the radical Iraqi Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr,
hasn’t been appreciated by the U.S. or Israel, not to mention Turkey’s
secular-minded military, which is determined to prevent Islamization
of its country.
The widely publicized death threats made by Muslims over the Danish
cartoons and threatened execution of an Afghan Muslim convert to
Christianity, along with the violence in Turkey’s Kurdish region,
have provided further fuel for those questioning the compatibility
of a Muslim nation such as Turkey joining the EU.
However, some see the turmoil in Turkey’s Kurdish region as simply one
aspect of a much broader situation involving the evolution of Turkish
institutions toward authentic democracy and the Turkish government’s
commitment to guarantee fundamental human rights for all its citizens.
Paradoxically, this transformation is taking place when growing
numbers of Turks are questioning the value of joining the EU,
convinced European nations are trying to impose their own western
values on Turkey as the price of admission to the EU’s exclusive club.
The challenge for Mr. Erdogan is to convince his own countrymen and
those of EU states that it is possible to be both a good Muslim and
a defender of democratic principles at the same time.
But the Kurds must be full partners in that transformation if it’s
to truly succeed.
Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator. He
served in Turkey.