Vol. 73/No. 40      October 19, 2009

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party has recently loosened some restrictions on Kurdish culture with the aim of establishing some stability in the Kurdish region and ending a 25-year conflict with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas fighting for autonomy. The steps are also aimed at strengthening Turkey’s bid to enter the European Union.

The Kurdish classes will be taught to graduate students at the Mardin Artuklu University as part of a “Living Languages in Turkey” institute, along with Farsi, Arabic, and Syriac. The university is located in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said a few words in Kurdish at the launching of the first state-run Kurdish TV channel in January, an unheard of act not too long ago. The Turkish broadcasting authority has also taken steps to allow Kurdish advertising on state TV and to ease restrictions on hours and content of Kurdish programming on private stations.

A series of government proposals to ease repressive measures against the Kurds are scheduled to be presented to parliament in October.

The plans include steps to increase economic development and local administrative authority in the less-developed Kurdish areas, the return of the original Kurdish names of districts and streets, and permitting Kurds to give their children Kurdish names. Kurdish translations in public offices and street signs and allowing the use of Kurdish in political settings are additional measures under discussion.  
 
Phasing out village guards
As part of its bid for European Union status, the government’s Supreme Board to Combat Terrorism announced September 23 it will begin phasing out the “village guard” system established for the Kurdish areas in 1985. About 80,000 village guards are armed and paid by the government to spy and snitch on fellow Kurds and combat PKK guerrillas. The decision comes following a well-publicized wedding massacre of 44 Kurds by village guards in March.

Part of the plan is also aimed at encouraging defection of PKK members. The country’s Penitence Law pardons guerrillas who turn themselves in and can convince authorities they had never taken part in any military actions. An estimated 40,000 people have been killed in the war between the government and the PKK since it began in 1984.

The Turkish army, which wields considerable power in the country, has come out in support of the government’s “democratic opening,” but has made clear the military will actively oppose any moves that push beyond what it has described as “red lines.”

“Turkey is a single undivided state … its language is Turkish,” Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug said August 25. The general said the army will continue its drive against the PKK and ruled out negotiating or “forging contacts” with the group.

The PKK recently extended its cease-fire and called on the government to involve its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in negotiations. Ocalan told his attorneys that he handed over his “road map” on the Kurdish question to the government in late August. The government has so far refused to release it.

“We are in favor of a unified and unitary Turkey, but we are saying that this forced alliance should be turned into a willing and voluntary one,” Murat Karayilan, president of the executive council of the Kurdistan Democratic Federation, an alliance of PKK and other outlawed Kurdish groups, said in early September.

The Democratic Society Party (DTP), a major Kurdish party in Turkey, has urged the government to negotiate with the PKK through intermediaries.  
 
Repression of language
The Kurdish language was completely banned in Turkey between September 1980 and April 1991. It remained illegal in official settings including in political speeches, rallies, schools, prisons, and broadcasts. In 2001 the total ban on broadcasts was lifted.

In 1991 Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman to become a member of parliament, created a major controversy when she uttered the last sentence of her inauguration speech in Kurdish. The act was considered treasonous at the time, but she was protected by parliamentary immunity. A few years later, parliament voted to outlaw her party. Zana along with three other deputies were arrested for alleged links to the PKK. She was released after 10 years as Ankara sought membership in the EU.

In June charges were dismissed against three Kurdish mayors for speaking Kurdish at an election rally. The DTP mayor of the Sur district in the Kurdish district of Diyarbakir was earlier removed from his post for distributing pamphlets in Kurdish and other languages. He was reelected mayor in March. Also in Sur a 10-year-old girl is under investigation for teaching Kurdish out of her home.

In late August two Kurdish newspapers had their publication suspended for one month each for publishing articles deemed to be supportive of the PKK.  
 
 
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