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COMMENTARY: TURKEY'S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS AND EMERGING MINORITY RIGHTS
By Edmond Y. Azadian
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2011/06/23/commentary-turkey%E2%80%99s-parliamentary-elections-and-emerging-minority-rights/
Posted on June 23, 2011 by Editor
Turkey has become a world power and consequently, its policies and
actions have a broader global impact than those of its immediate
neighbors. That is why the international news media, pundits and
statesmen were concentrating recently on the parliamentary elections
on June 12, in which Erdogan's party won a third term.
Those elections brought some anticipated and unanticipated results.
The anticipated result was the landslide victory of Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party, which was based on certain fundamental
factors. Those factors were economic growth (almost 9 percent),
assertive diplomacy and finally a promise to revamp the constitution,
which was adopted in 1982 by Gen. Kenan Evran's military dictatorship
following the coup of 1980. Erdogan promised to bring "basic rights
and freedoms" through the new constitution and eliminate the tutelage
of the military enshrined in the constitution by Evran's putschist
government.
Turkey's population is estimated to be 74 million, of which 20
percent, according to very conservative estimates, are Kurds. There
are 50 million voters of which 84.5 percent have been at the polls -
an impressive participation by any measure. AKP won 50 percent of the
votes, garnering 326 seats in the 550-seat parliament. This outcome
will not help the party to unilaterally change the constitution,
but it paves the way for some horsetrading with opposition parties
in order to push the change through.
The constitutional change issue has also split longtime allies, Prime
Minister Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, the latter apparently
opposing the change.
The AKP has taken Turkey in new directions in terms of domestic and
foreign policy; domestically, the party has opened the way for Islamic
culture, a trend opposed by Ataturk's Republican Party (currently in
opposition), upending the founding fathers' secularism.
Internationally, Erdogan has demonstrated an independent streak,
veering his course and putting distance between Turkey and the West,
and instead cozying up to Iran, challenging Israel and making Russia
the country's major trading partner.
In a recent article, political scientist George Friedman foresaw
some ominous trends in the region, writing: "Now the United States
is withdrawing from the region, leaving behind instability and an
increasingly powerful and self-confident Turkey. In the end, the
economic and military strength of Turkey had to transform it into a
major regional force."
This scenario does not augur well for the countries in the region,
and especially for Armenia, when Turkey can dictate the political
agenda for the entire region.
Through shortsighted political expediency, the West helped bankrupt
Turkey to attain economic boom and above all build the strongest
army in Europe. Now, the West has to deal with the outcome of its
shortsighted Cold War policy.
An unintended or unanticipated result of these elections is the
emergence of the minorities, and especially the vocal Kurdish minority,
which may eventually break up Turkey's territorial integrity. However,
not yet.
When the US invaded Iraq, Turkey vehemently opposed the disintegration
of that country and in fact, conditioned its cooperation with
Washington on a promise not to allow the formation of an independent
Kurdistan, which could inspire and incite its indigenous Kurdish
population towards autonomy or independence.
Although the US held on to its promise, Israel infiltrated Iraq and
built up a Kurdish army and organized its administrative set-up.
Today, Iraq enjoys only a nominal unity, while an independent Kurdistan
has been formed, for all practical purposes.
In fact, the Turkish-Israeli row owed more to the Kurdish issue than
to the plight of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.
Erdogan is a political pragmatist; while he could not contain the
formation of Iraqi Kurdistan, he was able to prevent the spillover
of that independence movement into Turkish territory by engaging
the Kurds politically. Although this policy is a race against time,
it may bear fruit for a while. Eventually the Kurds may rise up for
independence, as long as another junta does not emerge to crush their
movement as in the past.
During the election campaign, when asked by a TV reporter what Erdogan
has done on the Kurdish problem, he answered:
"First we changed the denialist policy in the country [i.e, suggesting
that Kurds don't exist]. We faced the Kurdish issue as a problem and
we reversed the policy of assimilation. And today, we are dealing
with their social and economic problems."
The Kurds have been brutally persecuted in Turkey. After becoming
willing partners with Turks in perpetrating the Armenian Genocide, they
received a raw deal from successive Turkish governments, beginning with
the founding father, Kemal Ataturk, who continued the Turkification
policies of the previous Ittihad ve Terrake Party.
Ataturk suppressed the Dersim uprising of the Kurds through aerial
bombardment.
The Kurds have never enjoyed independence in their history; they have
never had a sovereign government. Instead, they have been used as
political pawns by different governments. The Shah of Iran used them
against Iraq and the latter used them - in turn - against Iran. The
Soviet Union used the Kurds in all the countries over which their
people have been spread; they even set up a government in Iran and they
armed and financed them in Turkey. One of the Kurdish rebel leaders,
Mustafa Ali Kilani, even cozied up to Hitler to liberate the Kurds
from the British rule.
The only place the Kurds have felt at home has been Armenia, where
they have been able to use their language and practice their culture
and literature openly, without fear of reprisal.
The Kurds have always believed that they don't have any friends except
the mountains and they fortified their forces in the mountain areas
to no avail, because of the advancement of modern weaponry.
Evren's government and succeeding "democratic" administrations
dislodged the Kurds from their mountainous habitats into modern
Gulan communities in the plains, where they would be more easily
muffled if they were to stage a rebellion. In the June 12 election,
the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party won 36 seats. The Kurds are in
euphoria and they no longer conceal their ultimate goal, independence.
Following the victory, 50,000 Kurds rallied in front of the city hall
of Hakkiarai, a Kurdish city, where one of party leaders, Salaheddine
Demitas, addressed the crowd, saying: "We are ready to negotiate
about the constitution. The Kurdish people have endorsed our right
to negotiate. Now we have to open the road to peace together. But
in order to stop the raging war in the country, it is important to
continue the negotiations with the honorable Ocalan and establish
contacts with the PKK as an opposing force in the war. The government
should not avoid doing that in order to bring peace should accept
PKK as a negotiating party."
Their demands seem very hard ones for the Turkish government to accept,
since it has declared PKK a terrorist organization and Ocalan as a
common criminal incarcerated in a prison at Imrali Island, with a
life sentence.
While Ocalan has extended his declared ceasefire from his prison cell,
another leader at the Hakkiari rally, Feliz Kocali, announced that
the Kurds will continue the struggle until they have independence,
while the crowd chanted "Kurdistan is our homeland and Diarbekir
its capital."
It is a moot question if Erdogan ever imagined that his policy of
opening up the Kurdish question would lead to such an outburst of
extreme nationalism. The Kurds have even begun to bring up the issue of
the Armenian Genocide in the Turkish Parliament. We don't believe they
have a genuine interest in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
but they will use it as a political chip against their adversaries,
until they achieve their own agenda.
Similarly, recognition of the Armenian Genocide has surfaced in the
Israeli Parliament to threaten Erdogan to tone down his anti-Israeli
rhetoric.
But that is the nature of political deals, unless another party
sees value in a life-and-death issue to another nation, it will not
cooperate on that issue.
But a more serious venue has reminded Turkey of its international
obligations, including Armenia.
Indeed, the International Crisis Group has already submitted 10 demands
to Erdogan's new government, even before it is formed; they deal mostly
with the European Union, progress on Cyprus issue, Aegean islands with
Greece, Turkish Israeli relations and the seventh demand relates to
Armenia; that the new government has to take seriously relations with
Armenia, opening its borders and establishing diplomatic relations
with the latter.
We notice that Armenia and the Armenian issues have emerged from
three different fronts, mostly with self-serving policies, but anyway
reminding Turkey of its outstanding obligations to the Armenians.
Whether those are genuine interests or not, we have to capitalize
on them.
We don't know how far the new Turkish government will accommodate the
Kurdish demands and minority rights, but the EU is on Turkey's back
to loosen its grip on its minorities, whose fallout will certainly
benefit Armenia, and the Armenian community in Turkey.
From: Baghdasarian
By Edmond Y. Azadian
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2011/06/23/commentary-turkey%E2%80%99s-parliamentary-elections-and-emerging-minority-rights/
Posted on June 23, 2011 by Editor
Turkey has become a world power and consequently, its policies and
actions have a broader global impact than those of its immediate
neighbors. That is why the international news media, pundits and
statesmen were concentrating recently on the parliamentary elections
on June 12, in which Erdogan's party won a third term.
Those elections brought some anticipated and unanticipated results.
The anticipated result was the landslide victory of Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party, which was based on certain fundamental
factors. Those factors were economic growth (almost 9 percent),
assertive diplomacy and finally a promise to revamp the constitution,
which was adopted in 1982 by Gen. Kenan Evran's military dictatorship
following the coup of 1980. Erdogan promised to bring "basic rights
and freedoms" through the new constitution and eliminate the tutelage
of the military enshrined in the constitution by Evran's putschist
government.
Turkey's population is estimated to be 74 million, of which 20
percent, according to very conservative estimates, are Kurds. There
are 50 million voters of which 84.5 percent have been at the polls -
an impressive participation by any measure. AKP won 50 percent of the
votes, garnering 326 seats in the 550-seat parliament. This outcome
will not help the party to unilaterally change the constitution,
but it paves the way for some horsetrading with opposition parties
in order to push the change through.
The constitutional change issue has also split longtime allies, Prime
Minister Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, the latter apparently
opposing the change.
The AKP has taken Turkey in new directions in terms of domestic and
foreign policy; domestically, the party has opened the way for Islamic
culture, a trend opposed by Ataturk's Republican Party (currently in
opposition), upending the founding fathers' secularism.
Internationally, Erdogan has demonstrated an independent streak,
veering his course and putting distance between Turkey and the West,
and instead cozying up to Iran, challenging Israel and making Russia
the country's major trading partner.
In a recent article, political scientist George Friedman foresaw
some ominous trends in the region, writing: "Now the United States
is withdrawing from the region, leaving behind instability and an
increasingly powerful and self-confident Turkey. In the end, the
economic and military strength of Turkey had to transform it into a
major regional force."
This scenario does not augur well for the countries in the region,
and especially for Armenia, when Turkey can dictate the political
agenda for the entire region.
Through shortsighted political expediency, the West helped bankrupt
Turkey to attain economic boom and above all build the strongest
army in Europe. Now, the West has to deal with the outcome of its
shortsighted Cold War policy.
An unintended or unanticipated result of these elections is the
emergence of the minorities, and especially the vocal Kurdish minority,
which may eventually break up Turkey's territorial integrity. However,
not yet.
When the US invaded Iraq, Turkey vehemently opposed the disintegration
of that country and in fact, conditioned its cooperation with
Washington on a promise not to allow the formation of an independent
Kurdistan, which could inspire and incite its indigenous Kurdish
population towards autonomy or independence.
Although the US held on to its promise, Israel infiltrated Iraq and
built up a Kurdish army and organized its administrative set-up.
Today, Iraq enjoys only a nominal unity, while an independent Kurdistan
has been formed, for all practical purposes.
In fact, the Turkish-Israeli row owed more to the Kurdish issue than
to the plight of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.
Erdogan is a political pragmatist; while he could not contain the
formation of Iraqi Kurdistan, he was able to prevent the spillover
of that independence movement into Turkish territory by engaging
the Kurds politically. Although this policy is a race against time,
it may bear fruit for a while. Eventually the Kurds may rise up for
independence, as long as another junta does not emerge to crush their
movement as in the past.
During the election campaign, when asked by a TV reporter what Erdogan
has done on the Kurdish problem, he answered:
"First we changed the denialist policy in the country [i.e, suggesting
that Kurds don't exist]. We faced the Kurdish issue as a problem and
we reversed the policy of assimilation. And today, we are dealing
with their social and economic problems."
The Kurds have been brutally persecuted in Turkey. After becoming
willing partners with Turks in perpetrating the Armenian Genocide, they
received a raw deal from successive Turkish governments, beginning with
the founding father, Kemal Ataturk, who continued the Turkification
policies of the previous Ittihad ve Terrake Party.
Ataturk suppressed the Dersim uprising of the Kurds through aerial
bombardment.
The Kurds have never enjoyed independence in their history; they have
never had a sovereign government. Instead, they have been used as
political pawns by different governments. The Shah of Iran used them
against Iraq and the latter used them - in turn - against Iran. The
Soviet Union used the Kurds in all the countries over which their
people have been spread; they even set up a government in Iran and they
armed and financed them in Turkey. One of the Kurdish rebel leaders,
Mustafa Ali Kilani, even cozied up to Hitler to liberate the Kurds
from the British rule.
The only place the Kurds have felt at home has been Armenia, where
they have been able to use their language and practice their culture
and literature openly, without fear of reprisal.
The Kurds have always believed that they don't have any friends except
the mountains and they fortified their forces in the mountain areas
to no avail, because of the advancement of modern weaponry.
Evren's government and succeeding "democratic" administrations
dislodged the Kurds from their mountainous habitats into modern
Gulan communities in the plains, where they would be more easily
muffled if they were to stage a rebellion. In the June 12 election,
the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party won 36 seats. The Kurds are in
euphoria and they no longer conceal their ultimate goal, independence.
Following the victory, 50,000 Kurds rallied in front of the city hall
of Hakkiarai, a Kurdish city, where one of party leaders, Salaheddine
Demitas, addressed the crowd, saying: "We are ready to negotiate
about the constitution. The Kurdish people have endorsed our right
to negotiate. Now we have to open the road to peace together. But
in order to stop the raging war in the country, it is important to
continue the negotiations with the honorable Ocalan and establish
contacts with the PKK as an opposing force in the war. The government
should not avoid doing that in order to bring peace should accept
PKK as a negotiating party."
Their demands seem very hard ones for the Turkish government to accept,
since it has declared PKK a terrorist organization and Ocalan as a
common criminal incarcerated in a prison at Imrali Island, with a
life sentence.
While Ocalan has extended his declared ceasefire from his prison cell,
another leader at the Hakkiari rally, Feliz Kocali, announced that
the Kurds will continue the struggle until they have independence,
while the crowd chanted "Kurdistan is our homeland and Diarbekir
its capital."
It is a moot question if Erdogan ever imagined that his policy of
opening up the Kurdish question would lead to such an outburst of
extreme nationalism. The Kurds have even begun to bring up the issue of
the Armenian Genocide in the Turkish Parliament. We don't believe they
have a genuine interest in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
but they will use it as a political chip against their adversaries,
until they achieve their own agenda.
Similarly, recognition of the Armenian Genocide has surfaced in the
Israeli Parliament to threaten Erdogan to tone down his anti-Israeli
rhetoric.
But that is the nature of political deals, unless another party
sees value in a life-and-death issue to another nation, it will not
cooperate on that issue.
But a more serious venue has reminded Turkey of its international
obligations, including Armenia.
Indeed, the International Crisis Group has already submitted 10 demands
to Erdogan's new government, even before it is formed; they deal mostly
with the European Union, progress on Cyprus issue, Aegean islands with
Greece, Turkish Israeli relations and the seventh demand relates to
Armenia; that the new government has to take seriously relations with
Armenia, opening its borders and establishing diplomatic relations
with the latter.
We notice that Armenia and the Armenian issues have emerged from
three different fronts, mostly with self-serving policies, but anyway
reminding Turkey of its outstanding obligations to the Armenians.
Whether those are genuine interests or not, we have to capitalize
on them.
We don't know how far the new Turkish government will accommodate the
Kurdish demands and minority rights, but the EU is on Turkey's back
to loosen its grip on its minorities, whose fallout will certainly
benefit Armenia, and the Armenian community in Turkey.
From: Baghdasarian