KurdishMedia, UK
Dec 15 2004
Turks grapple with minority taboo as EU imposes change
15/12/2004 AFP
ANKARA, Dec 15 (AFP) – Are Turkey’s Christians and Muslims equal? Are
non-Sunni Turks a minority? European Union demands on minority
freedoms have struck at the heart of a taboo on Turkey’s national
identity, forcing the country to grapple with fears and prejudices
rooted deep in its history.
Hrant Dink recalls his childhood days when his mother, wary of
hostility, warned him to neither call her “mama” in the street nor to
speak in their native Armenian.
“Turkey perceives minorities as a threat… a security problem,” the
Istanbul-based publisher said.
Lying beneath the mistrust is the traumatic experience of World War I
when Greeks and Armenians sided with the Allies invading the decaying
Ottoman Empire and sealed its dissolution.
For many Turks today, the mere discussion of minority freedoms is a
recipe for national fragmentation.
Unwritten rules bar the country’s 130,000 or so non-Muslims from
senior public posts and school books still portray them as
unreliable.
Ankara today officially recognizes only Armenians, Greeks and Jews as
minorities, a concept based on modern Turkey’s founding document, the
1923 Lausanne Treaty, which envisaged special protection for
non-Muslims.
Citing the treaty, Ankara for decades rejected even the existence of
its sizeable Kurdish community, and only recently granted it cultural
freedoms, under EU pressure.
What was long shoved under the carpet is now coming into heated
debate, fueled by EU criticism over the treatment of minorities and a
report by a local human rights body, which said Turkey lacks any
sense of multiculturalism and described as “paranoia” its mistrust of
minorities.
The government, the president and the influential army all responded
with hostility, and hardline nationalists held protests.
Another group coming out for its rights despite the tensions is the
Alevi or Alawite community, a distant relative of Shiite Islam, which
follows a moderate interpretation of the Muslim faith, friendly to
secularism and gender equality.
Although they form about a quarter of the 70-million population and
their religious practices differ significantly from those of the
Sunni majority, Alevis are denied the status of a separate sect and,
unlike the Sunnis, receive no financial support from the government.
The EU has urged Ankara to grant the Alevis minority status, sparking
a wave of criticism that Brussels is aiming to foment divisions even
between Turkey’s Muslim population.
“We do not ask for special minority rights. We just want to be
equal,” said Izzettin Dogan, chairman of the Cem Foundation, a
leading Alevi grouping. “The EU process will bring us benefits. The
EU has certain standards on freedom of faith and Turkey must abide by
them.”
Alevis are already campaigning to have their religious identity
inscribed on their ID cards and for their faith to be included in
school books, which currently teach only the Sunni religion.
Prejudices against the Alevis stem not only from bloody sectarian
clashes throughout history, but also from the Cold War, during which
NATO-member Turkey tended to see them as potential allies of
Communism because of their traditional left-leaning stance.
EU opponents say Turkey’s efforts to align with the democracy norms
of the European bloc is pushing the country to the brink of break-up.
“Fulfilling EU demands would spell an end to Turkey’s unitarian
structure,” said Mehmet Sandir, a far-right politician. “Eventually,
we would get at each other’s throats.”
Dink, however, believes that the tensions are the birth pangs of
eventual reconciliation.
“I find the debates very helpful. A taboo is being destroyed,” he
said. “The more we speak, the more we get used to it and attitudes
soften.”