Atatürk’s ‘One language, one people’ is often misused to argue against Kurdish claims for language and cultural autonomy. Despite nationalist pressure and many attempts by the Turkish government to shut the party down recent local elections in Turkey turned out a tremendous success for the Kurdish DTP. This demonstrates a substantial local support for Turkey’s only legal Kurdish party with representation in parliament. Despite an uneasy equilibrium with the Turkish government, international support has also been growing.
According to Fayik Yagizay, representative for the DTP to the European Union, Turkey should stop harassing the Kurds as it will only destabilise the country even more. He proposes an alternative political system to the current centralised one: an autonomous Kurdish region under the Ankara central authority. This autonomy would mainly encompass cultural and language freedom. He claims that ceding power to the regional districts will be beneficial for Turkey as a whole. Europe could play a role in negotiations but should first and foremost be clear on Turkey’s accession to the EU. (Erik Aerts April 17th2009)
DTP’s electoral victory makes your party the fourth largest in Turkey. Do you feel this victory could improve the situation for Kurds in Turkey?
In Diyarbakır alone we obtained 66% of the votes while in almost every Kurdish province our party has booked major successes. This victory disproves Mr Erdoğan’s claim that DTP does not represent the Kurdish people. We had hoped Mr Erdoğan would acknowledge our success and start a dialogue to finally solve the Kurdish question in a peaceful and democratic way, but unfortunately they started a large-scale operationagainst our party instead. About 200 members -executives and activists, including three DTP vice-presidents- have already been detained and remain in custody up to now.
Turkey claims those people were apprehended because they are part of the Ergenekon conspiracy to topple the Turkish government…
The only reason for these raids is Turkey’s inability to deal with the election results. Ergenekonis responsible for hundreds of assassinations and crimes. The irony of it all is that, while the Turkish government arrests and harasses our people, it is us who suffer most from Ergenekon. Mostly our active members, who contributed to our success in these latest elections, have been targeted. Just two hours ago another raid against DTP started in Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, and some other cities, and it is still going on as we speak. It’s all too obvious that the Ergenokon connection is merely another attempt to discredit our party.
The US is trying to mend its frayed relations with Turkey under president Obama. During his visit to Turkey last month he also met with high ranking Kurdish officials and even shook hands with Ahmet Türk. How do you think this will affect Turkey’s attitude towards the Kurds?
We had hoped our government would take this international recognition as a cue to initiate a dialogue, so you can imagine how shocked we were when we learnt that instead our members were being arrested. Raids will bring us further from a solution and destabilise the country even more.
Before the elections PKK agreed to a cease-fireand promised to refrain from any actions for the duration of the elections. Afterwards they even extended this cease-fire up to the first of June. Turkey’s reaction to this peace offering? The day after the agreement they started the raids. A direct challenge, a defiance even of PKK’s extended hand. I do not know how PKK will respond to these provocations, but we fear the situation may escalate.
The Kurdish manifesto proposes a regional and local structure as opposed to a purely ethnic and territorial conception. Are you proposing a sort of federalism?
No, not at all! We just feel that Turkey is too centralized and think it would be better if some of that central power was given to the regions. That does not mean federalism! The Turkish state is a unitarian one so they believe in one people, one language, on state. Unfortunately there is not just one people in Turkey. Turkey’s political system should be more decentralised and it should respect diversity. The system should acknowledge the fact that there are different Turks and they should be given the opportunity to develop their proper language and culture. Ceding power to the regional districts will be beneficial for Turkey as a whole.
Which criteria do you propose for a new regional structure?
Turkey should be divided in about 20 provinces with democratic autonomy. Kurdish people should have the right to use their own language in schools and state institutions and should get the opportunity to cultivate their proper culture and language. They should have the right to use their economical resources themselves and to control their own political structure by electing their own mayors, governors and governments. It is impossible to govern the whole of Turkey from Ankara because it implies too much bureaucracy and red tape. If you cut that red tape and concede power to the regions they will use their resources much more efficient as they can benefit from that efficiency.
Is there a lot of support for these plans outside of the Kurdish areas?
No, the Turkish people do not back these ideas. Mainly because they are blinded by imposed nationalism. It is very difficult for us to explain something to people who will not even listen.
Might that be because most people fear the slightest bit of autonomy would be used to try and gain independence?
I’m afraid so, even though it’s the other way round: we think that if you bring democracy to a people they will be more connected to their state as they are proud of it. If you deprive them of their rights they will keep struggling. Giving rights to Kurdish people would solve the problem. With these recent actions the Turkish government is only making enemies out of its citizens.
How does PKK feel about this?
Their demands are not that far from our own. They started off fighting for an independent socialist Kurdistan by uniting the four Kurdish areas from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, but changed their strategy to cope with the new reality of a globalised world. Trying to create a new nation-state today would only yield problems: a Kurdish nation-state would mean fighting Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and their allies. Europeans for example fought for centuries for independent nation states. Now they have lifted all borders and are trying to create a European union. Democracy and freedom are more important to PKK than having an independent state so it’s useless to fight for one. They only want democracy and freedom for the Kurdish people in Iran, Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Freedom to exercise their fundamental rights like culture and language, to have the right to choose their government, etc. We feel this is a reasonable wish.
Is there a good relationship between Kurds in Turkey and those in the other countries?
Even though we have relatives in the other areas we cannot visit them or see them because of strict borders. Everyone is afraid that should the Kurdish people come together they would try to create an independent state. If the Kurdish people really wanted to they could have easily done just that, they are certainly strong enough to at least try. But instead they only want equal rights. It is like I said: if the Kurdish people in Turkey feel the Turkish state is their own, why would they bother fighting and trying to create an independent one?
Revoking the treaty of Lausanne, which divided the Kurdish regions between Iran, Syria, Turkey and Iraq, might solve a lot of problems…
Lausanne is one of the main sources for many of the problems in this region. The Europeans only created it to divide us. First they let us fight amongst ourselves, afterwards they came back in to govern us. They only wanted to divide and conquer, with the current situation to show for it. We don’t believe that Lausanne is untouchable! That does not mean you have to change the political borders though, we only want to change the systems: make them more democratic sized, more tolerant.
During your lecture at Lessius university college you stated that Turkey’s accession to the EU might provide Turkey with an incentive to actually begin working on the problem. How do you think the situation will evolve?
I feel that if the international community were to leave us and Turkey free to reach a solution we might be able to solve our problems ourselves. If Turkey becomes a member on the other hand that may be easier, yes, which is why we support Turkey’s accession. The only problem is that the European states seem to be insincere about getting Turkey in. Turkey’s politics are equally ambiguous. They’re playing with each other! Europe certainly want good economic relations with Turkey, but no more. This equivocation on Europe’s part makes Turkey reluctant to proceed with internal reforms.
European critics say Turkey is not Europe-orientated and cite geographical and religious reasons.
They did not cite those reasons when they accepted Turkey into the council of Europe, or into the OSC, or when they made Turkey member of the customs union. But when Turkey wants to be part of the European Union they suddenly do…
It’s all just a political game, with the Kurdish people suffering. The EU put PKK on their list of terrorist organisations and pledged support to Turkey in its fight against PKK. That tells us they don’t want Turkey to solve the problem in a peaceful way. If Europe really wants Turkey to change it should first of all change its own approach. PKK is -whether they like it or not- a Turkish reality and the only way to solve this issue is through dialogue. If you forbid a people to have its own language and culture you automatically create movements such as PKK, and even much more radical ones.
Sometimes we feel the large European players are again trying to divide and conquer us: a modern-day Lausanne.
